Following BFI Flipside’s best-selling Blu-ray Short Sharp Shocks last year, another volume of forgotten supporting featurettes is heading our way just in time for Halloween.

Short Sharp Shocks 2 features ten more eerie, strange, uncanny, nightmarish shorts and public information films. It’s released on October 25th, and the legendary Graham Humphries has painted the cover art once again; you can pre-order your copy from the BFI shop now.

Here’s a complete rundown on what you can expect on the disc:

QUIZ-CRIME NO 1 Ronald Haines (1943)

Can you beat master sleuth Detective Inspector Frost at his own game? Take his vintage whodunit test, in the case of the golfing-holiday murder and the affair of the slain showgirl.

QUIZ-CRIME NO 2 Ronald Haines (1944)

‘Everyone likes a detective story,’ chuckles the Detective Inspector. But can you crack the cases of kidnap in the Soho backstreets and a bloodily botched boarding house murder?

The Three Children

THE THREE CHILDREN (1946)

The public information film takes an eerie turn in this disquieting child-peril frightener crafted to unsettle neglectful post-war parents.

ESCAPE FROM BROADMOOR John Gilling (1948)

An insane killer is on the run (Dad’s Army’s John Le Mesurier in an edgy early role) in this weird, torn-from-the-headlines thriller by John Gilling (The Plague of the Zombies).

MINGOLOO Theodore Zichy (1958)

A clockwork dog with a sinister secret haunts the dreams of all who see it. What is the nightmarish answer to its riddle?

JACK THE RIPPER WITH SCREAMING LORD SUTCH (1963)

Joe Meek-produced rock ‘n’ roll and tasteless Hammer-inspired theatrics collide in a bloodcurdling proto-music video.

The Face of Darkness

THE FACE OF DARKNESS Ian F H Lloyd (1976)

A politician (Lennard Pearce, Only Fools and Horses) out to reinstate the death penalty stirs a malignant medieval spirit.

THE DUMB WAITER Robert Bierman (1979)

A woman (Geraldine James, Beast) receives a mysterious phone call, beginning a night of knife-edge terror in this debut shocker from the director of cult favourite Vampire’s Kiss.

Hangman

HANGMAN David Evans (1985)

Industrial accidents are presented with graphic glee by a mysterious masked executioner, who seems to enjoy his work in this video nasty-era public information film like no other.

THE MARK OF LILITH Bruna Fionda, Polly Gladwin, Zachary Nataf (1986)

Black lesbian filmmaker Zena becomes involved with Lillia, a white undead wraith in a radical dismantling of the cinematic vampire mythos.

Special features

Darkness Falls (2021, 43 mins): an interview with The Face of Darkness writer and director Ian FH Lloyd

Heads Will Roll (2021, 40 mins): an interview with The Dumb Waiter writer and director Robert Bierman

Making Their Mark (2021, 33 mins): an interview with The Mark of Lilith directors Bruna Fionda, Polly Biswas Gladwin and Zachary Nataf

Puttin on the Ritzy (2021, 13 mins): Ritzy alumnus Clare Binns celebrates the radical history of the legendary London cinema where The Mark of Lilith was shot

Image galleries for The Face of Darkness, The Dumb Waiter, and The Mark of Lilith.

Newly commissioned sleeve artwork by renowned illustrator Graham Humphreys

***First pressing only*** illustrated booklet with contributions from filmmakers Ian FH Lloyd and Robert Bierman and other writing from Vic Pratt, William Fowler, Josephine Botting, Jon Dear, Jonathan Rigby, and Caroline Champion; notes and credits on each film and notes on the special features.

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