(1983)
Dir - Michael Armstrong/Stanley A. Long
Overall: MEH
The British and American co-production Screamtime comes from director Stanley A. Long and Michael Armstrong, serving as the latter's final time from behind the lens. A clunky anthology movie, we have a wrap-around segment with two dipshits who steal some VHS tapes, each one containing a different story. The first concerns a puppeteer who goes loco after his bitchy wife and stepson keep acting like unreasonable assholes, the second one cobbles together premonition and slasher motifs, and the last has another two disphits that decide to rob some old ladies only to come face to face with sinister garden gnomes. While none of the vignettes are terrible, all of them are also not any good. Budgetary constraints provide the usual issues since Armstrong and Long are only able to cobble together the most minimal amount of spooky atmosphere. Two of the stories are more ridiculous than creepy anyway, but the lack of star power and the D-rent presentation makes this instantly forgettable. At least the dad joke worthy title is clever.
(1984)
Dir - Mick Jackson
Overall: GOOD
This famed nuclear fallout drama from the BBC, Nine Network, and Australia Western-World Television Inc remains arguably the most harrowing that has ever been made. Inspired by the 1966 pseudo-documentary The War Game, (which was initially banned in its native U.K.), amongst other apocalyptic fare, Threads arrived near the peak of Soviet tensions throughout Europe, the Middle East, and America. Sheffield provides the natural working class industrial site for nuclear bombing, which when hit, instantaneously eliminated of all semblance of functioning society. It takes until the fifty-five minute mark for such ruination to land, but that still leaves a full hour of unrelenting turmoil, confusion, and hopelessness to absorb. Director Mick Jackson and screenwriter Barry Hines establish a minute amount of characters early on, (in order to give us some individuals to follow as the world they know and the plans that they laid cease to exist), but the film would be just as powerful if it merely showed us the unorganized downfall of humankind, which it still does in spades. The drama is inter cut with typed screen text, Paul Vaughan's narration, and still shots of obliterated urban devastation, emancipated bodies, dead animals, and rotten crops. It is a weighty watch that admirably pulls no punches, deglamorizing a post World War II threat that has remained steady every since.
(1985)
Dir - Alan Clarke
Overall: MEH
An undead billiards musical, (Wait, what?), Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire comes from veteran television writer directors Trever Preston and Alan Clarke, respectfully. The fact that it also manages to throw Thatcher-era class struggles into the mix on top of its snooker sports movie foundation is even more impressive and ridiculous. While composer George Fenton has plenty of notable works on his resume, the songs here are mostly terrible as well as large in frequency. What few blood-sucker motifs are present are inconsequential to a tale of the dignified elite vs the underdog, (both of whom play right into the media's hands of over-zealous competitiveness), and it slams home its point long before the last act arrives, which is exclusively dedicated to the big bout between Phil Daniels and Bruce Payne. Clarke's presentation is surreal and claustrophobic as there are a minimal amount of sets and no location shooting, but the art decoration lacks flair, as do the musical numbers which are minimal on choreography. Even if it fails to live up to the more showy standards of your Tommys and Rocky Horror Picture Shows, the film is still strange enough to warrant a gander.
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