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The Flesh & Blood Show
[Shriek Show]
1972; color
Directed by Pete Walker
Starring: Jenny Hanley, Ray Brooks, Luan Peters, Judy Matheson, Candace Glendenning & Robin Askwith
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The Flesh & Blood Show was my first experience with Brit director Pete Walker, who forged his own horror path in the '70s that rivaled, but (as he says in the brief but informative bonus interview) never imitated the likes of Hammer, Amicus and Trigon. (Pretty much the 'Big 3' as far as UK horror at the time.) While I'm not totally blown away, I'll definitely be back for more. This film is a twist on the classic "Ten Little Indians" plot, only with appropriate amounts of boobs and blood to bring it up to Eurotrash standards. Basically the story unfolds as follows: a disparate group of mostly unsuccessful actors (except for one girl who's already been in movies) are brought together by an unseen agent to work up a new play and prep it before a formal debut and potential tour. The theater they rehearse in is on a desolate pier in some remote seaside town and, seeing how it's not summertime, the entire area seems all the more abandoned. Did I mention the theater had been mysteriously shuttered since 1944? Well, it was. No sooner do the actors begin to arrive the hook-ups and murders begin. As the body count mounts, and replacement actors are brought in to be subsequently knocked off, not only does everyone in the theater begin to realize something's seriously wrong, even the local police begin to take notice. After hearing about the history of why the theater suddenly shut down in the '40s, the film actress does some digging at the local library and begins to piece everything together, leading to a set-up for the killer to reveal himself. Which he of course does and before being summarily caught. Mention should be made here that at least two of the actors are vets of '70s horror and exploitation - Luan Peters will probably be familiar to horror fans from either Twins Of Evil or Lust For A Vampire, and Robin Askwith was Ray Fay in the astoundingly awful Queen Kong - and one other, Tristan Rogers, is actually pretty well known here in the States for his role as Robert Scorpio on General Hospital. While that's the short of it, the film is well worth watching (although it could definitely use some editing for pacing's sake) and will appeal to a wide range of horror and thriller fans.
—the Kommandant
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