ASSAULT (aka IN THE DEVIL’S GARDEN)

Given the emphasis director Sidney Havers places on the electricity pylon in the opening credits roll for this 1971 British thriller, a modern audience won’t find it hard to work out just where (and possibly also how) Assault – retitled In the Devil’s Garden in the US, given the location of the crimes: the local forest known as Devil’s End – is going to conclude. In fact, and despite the playfulness John Kruse’s screenplay has first in apportioning suspicion and then in manoeuvring his suspects around the film’s playing field, there isn’t a lot of doubt by the third act as to who did it. There is, however, considerable fun to be had in watching the culprit’s attempts to evade justice, and ultimately his destination once he realises the game is up.

Assault begins with the rape of a young Lesley Anne Down, and subsequent rape and killing of one of her schoolmates, and while that might seem grounds for something scurrilous and potentially offensive – and no doubt the reason for the film’s contemporary X certificate – it’s actually anything but. There’s no nudity, barely any on-screen violence, and if both of the picture’s attacks are treated voyeuristically by the camera, it’s a fully justified means to convey the girls’ fear and unsettle the viewer by making them complicit in the crimes.

What Assault is really about is the investigation. On the one hand, we have Frank Finlay’s detective Velyan, consulting with James Laurenson’s doctor Greg Lomax about the perpetrator’s possible psychological profile, with both men developing an interest in Suzy Kendall’s art teacher Miss West after she bears witness to the second attack. Her description of the rapist, glanced in the rear-view mirror of her stranded car, plays a large part in the subsequent investigation after she conspires with Freddie Jones’ hack journalist to try and draw the criminal out into the open.

It’s all rather cheap and cheerful of course, suffering the usual deficiencies of films of its ilk but made up for by some thoughtful direction from Havers (whose use of lighting is particularly interesting), and with an array of well-known faces from the British character acting fraternity brought in to keep it ticking along. Here we have Anthony Ainley as a possibly sinister hospital administrator, and Tony Beckley as the headmistress’ potentially guilty house husband. Freddie Jones seems to be acting in a different film than everyone else, but at least he brings a little colour – and David Essex even turns up in his first official acting role.

There’s not much in the way of extras on this Network release, but the restoration on the 2K scan is sublime, meaning this diverting if unambitious film has probably never looked – or sounded (Eric Rogers’ score is especially distinctive) – better than it does now.

Extras: Trailer

ASSAULT (aka IN THE DEVIL’S GARDEN) / DIRECTOR: SIDNEY HAYERS / SCREENPLAY: JOHN KRUSE / STARRING: SUZY KENDALL, FRANK FINLAY, FREDDIE JONES, LESLEY-ANNE DOWN, JAMES LAURENSON / CERT: 15 / RELEASE DATE: 27TH AUGUST 2018

POLICE STORY 1 & 2

This new Eureka Blu-ray set puts Jackie Chan’s first two Police Story films together in one new release that comes with a 4K restoration of the films and a bundle of extras.

The original Police Story was released in 1985 and is probably still the best display of Chan’s genre-blending mix of often bone-breaking action and slapstick humour. Chan stars as police officer Ka-Kui who apprehends drug baron Chu Tao in the film’s opening action sequence. When he is released on bail, Ka-Kui is given the task of protecting Chu Tao’s secretary Selina until she can testify in court to bring down the criminal empire. That’s more or less it for the plot, as what follows is Ka-Kui trying to balance his private life and girlfriend May against a series of attempts on Selina’s life and a frame-job on Ka-Kui himself.

Chan uses this straightforward template to give us a number of incredibly well-executed action sequences and fights and a no-less intricate set of comedy vignettes, usually involving the professionally accomplished but personally hapless detective making life complicated for himself. It’s a great film, and Chan deftly balances the two disparate genres remarkably well.

Three years later, Police Story 2 arrived as the darker, more complicated sequel. Here Ka-Kui struggles to keep those he loves safe when the villains from the first film try to get revenge, while at the same time he leads a special unit working to apprehend a gang of blackmailing bombers. It’s still run through with that trademark Chan humour but it’s a heavier film and as such isn’t quite the good time the original was. However, it’s still entertaining enough and continues to show why Chan is a singular talent.

This set includes three different versions of each film (Hong Kong, Japanese and American cuts) that vary considerably in length. The first film comes with an archival interview with Chan as well as a number of deleted and extended scenes and outtakes. The second film has an optional commentary on the HK version, and as well as some outtakes there’s a 40-minute episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show from 1989 that focuses on Chan. There’s nothing recent included, which might be a disappointment to those hoping for more.

However, the major hook for this set is those new 4K restorations and they are of a generally very good standard. For the most part, Chan focuses on stunt work and comedy so directorial flourishes are few and far between, but the uncut films are vibrantly presented here in a way that compliments what Chan worked to achieve. It’s an easy recommendation for fans.

POLICE STORY 1 & 2 / DIRECTOR: JACKIE CHAN / SCREENPLAY: JACKIE CHAN, EDWARD TANG / STARRING: JACKIE CHAN, MAGGIE CHEUNG, CHARLIE CHO, CHOR YUEN / CERT: 15 / RELEASE DATE: 20TH AUGUST 2018

JOE 90 – THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

It’s unlikely that even the staunchest fan of the much-missed Gerry Anderson would be minded to argue that 1968’s Joe 90 represented anything like the very best of the Supermarionation supremo’s formidable body of work from the 1960s and 1970s. History now records how Anderson’s powerhouse Century 21 Productions had peaked with the legendary Thunderbirds in 1965/6 and scored a lesser success with the much more nihilistic Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons in 1967. Audiences could have gorged on new series of Thunderbirds for years, but this was a time when producers and studios rarely considered squeezing a franchise until it squeaked, and Anderson’s ITC paymaster Lew Grade was anxious for Century 21 to move on to the next series, the next potential big thing, as soon as production had wrapped on one series, no matter how successful it might have been.

To be fair, Anderson was never one to rest on his laurels, and in Joe 90 he and his then-wife Sylvia were clearly keen to move away from the explosive action-packed formula of most of their previous puppet productions. Joe 90, by contrast to those which had preceded it, was a much more sedate and understated affair, and whilst it doesn’t always work – it’s hard to reconcile the visually-drab style and general lack of spectacle of Joe 90 with Century 21’s more popular shows – it’s really quite remarkable, viewed some fifty years later, that Anderson was prepared to throw his baby out with the bathwater and tell a different type of story in a significantly different way.

The show’s format would send today’s po-faced furrow-browed guardians of everyone’s morality into uncontrolled paroxysms of outrage. Top scientist “Mac” Maclaine allows his adopted nine year-old son to work for secret security organisation WIN (World Intelligence Network) as its “most special agent”, utilising Maclaine’s incredible brainwave technology which allows the knowledge and expertise of another individual to be downloaded into Joe’s brain. Joe, cherubic and monotonously squeaky-voiced, is pitched into any number of potentially-lethal situations – battling spies and kidnappers, flung into space on a rescue mission and, more often than not, gunning down baddies without a moment’s thought. Did no-one think of the children?!

Joe 90 is, in truth, a bit dull but that’s mainly because Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and co quite clearly weren’t. The lack of memorable Anderson hardware is fatal; all we get is the cage-like Big Rat in which Joe is cerebrally transformed (and yes, we get to see the show’s title sequence/transformation effect in virtually every episode, usually accompanied by another magnificent Barry Gray signature tune), and Mac’s big green space-car, but that’s really about it – slim pickings for kids who’d spent hours in the playground with their toy Thunderbirds and Spectrum vehicles.

There’s precious little in the stories to set the pulse racing either. It’s clear that the Andersons were trying to move into more character-based drama (a difficult proposition with expressionless marionettes, no matter how better-proportioned they’d become), but episodes like “Three’s A Crowd” in which Sam’s new girlfriend isn’t quite who she appears to be, and the quaint Christmas episode “The Unorthodox Shepherd” show a remarkable maturity within the potentially-limited genre in which they’re being told.

Ultimately Joe 90 doesn’t quite work despite its best intentions, mainly because in trying to move away from the ground-breaking spectacle of his earlier work, Anderson forgot that this was what had made his shows so successful and memorable in the first place. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s highly unlikely you’ll work your way through the whole series but Anderson completists won’t want to miss a chance to pick up this crisp, budget-priced DVD box set from ITC which, if nothing else, is a bit of a steal at around fifteen quid.

Special features: Character profiles, galleries, merchandise, alternative credits.

JOE 90 – THE COMPLETE SERIES / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: LEN JONES, RUPERT DAVIES, KEITH ALEXANDER, DAVID HARRIS, SYLVIA ANDERSON / CERT: U / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

THE MISTER ED COLLECTION

Based on a character created by Walter R Brooks in a series of short stories, Mister Ed was a black and white sitcom which ran on American television for a hefty 143 episodes across six seasons between 1961 and 1966. The titular Ed, in case you’re wondering, was a talking horse (of course). This six-disc box set, presently only available in Australia, collects forty random episodes from the series’ first five seasons and, although it’s the product of an entirely different time and cultural sensibility, it’s actually heartily funny, much of its humour stemming from the camera trickery which brings Ed to vocal life and the deadpan delivery of Allan Lane.

Considering it was first aired in 1961 the show is remarkably accomplished technically; sequences where Ed appears to talk are impressive enough but even better are the scenes where the horse handles props and interacts with the other cast members and appears capable of rational, intelligent thought – you don’t get that today with Love Island contestants – and its simple, rather charming storylines are refreshingly naïve and a reminder of less showy and aggressive television times.

The premise of the show is as unfussy as it’s ridiculous. Flaky architect Wilbur Post (Alan Young, best known to genre fans as Wilby in George Pal’s classic Time Machine) and his wife Carol (Hines) move into a beautiful new home complete with a barn and a pre-installed horse called Ed played by a striking and majestic creature named Bamboo Harvester. But Ed is no ordinary horse; he’s able to communicate with Wilbur and only Wilbur – and over the course of the series the two strike up a comedic and rather touching relationship which inevitably gets Wilbur into any number of equine-related escapades.

The episodes collected on this handy box set are culled from various points throughout the show’s run – no story arcs here – and generally involve some bizarre and unlikely situation arising out of Ed’s wise-cracking, indiscrete personality. The episode titles alone tell you what’s in store should you settle down for twenty-odd minutes in the company of Wilbur and Ed; Ed the Songwriter, Ed the Horsetronaut, Ed’s Bed, Ed the Beachcomber. Across forty chaste and family-friendly selected episodes, Ed gets Wilbur into some tricky predicament, Wilbur’s wife and neighbours (Keating and Skinner for the first three series) shaking their heads and sighing at the knots Wilbur seems to tie himself into without ever finding out about Ed’s extraordinary (and unexplained) vocal abilities. Guest stars abound too as the show quickly attracted the attention of some of the best-loved faces of Hollywood’s Golden Age, with the likes of George Burns, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Mae West cropping up across the run. Even a young Clint Eastwood flexes his comedy chops in an episode filmed while he was still starring in Rawhide, in which he moves next door and attracts the ire of Ed who objects to the star bringing his own horse into the neighbouring property.

Uncomplicated, undemanding stuff and none the worse for it, Mister Ed is a wonderful nostalgia fix for those creaky enough to remember it (naming no names) and it’s witty and clever enough to appeal even to a jaded modern audience who prefer their comedy littered with sleaze and profanity. Guaranteed hours of harmless horseplay; watch a couple of these and you’ll be chomping at the bit for more.

THE MISTER ED COLLECTION / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING ALAN YOUNG, CONNIE HINES, BAMBOO HARVESTER, LARRTY KEATING, EDNA SKINNER / CERT: PG / OUT NOW (AUSTRALIA)

AMAZONIA: THE CATHERINE MILES STORY (aka CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST II) (1985)

If you were expecting cannibals, forget it. Amazonia was part of the mid-1980s cycle of Italian cannibal films – many of which were classed as video nasties in the UK, although apparently not this one – and it’s gratifyingly gruesome, but there’s no actual cannibalism involved. The most shocking thing about it, though, is that it’s actually a love story, and also oddly quite sweet. When people’s heads aren’t getting hacked off.

Elvire Audray (who died at forty) is the eponymous Catherine Miles, teenage daughter to a pair of wealthy plantation owners on the banks of the Amazon. Our story begins as she, her parents and aunt and uncle, take a boat trip down the river to celebrate her graduation from boarding school in London. The boat is attacked, and Catherine’s parents are both killed (prior to having their heads hacked off), before she’s kidnapped by an indigenous tribe and taken deep into the jungle. She initially resists their primitive ways before gradually, across the course of a year in “captivity”, adopting their customs. All the while, Catherine nurtures her eventual revenge once she’s certain of who the killers were.

The narrative plays in flashback as part of a bridging trial sequence, the film having informed us via opening caption that it’s a true story. Of course, it isn’t. But the structure (while influenced perhaps by the narrative devices used in Cannibal Holocaust five years earlier) allows the audience more of an insight into the filmmakers’ intentions than the acting probably will. It’s all a bit wooden, and that’s being generous.

Having said that, the jungle sequences which take up most of the running time are generally rather handsomely shot (albeit including a fair amount of stock footage), and while this isn’t a film that would be likely to include a “no animals were harmed” end credit, there is at least an attempt to understand and promote the simpler lifestyle that Catherine finds herself living with the tribe. Indeed, when she returns to civilisation for the eventual and inevitable showdown with the killers, it’s almost disappointing to see her make the choice.

There’s a gorgeous but not always appropriate sub-Morricone/Donaggio score by Franco Campanino, accompanying the story of the native tribe member (Will Gonzales, in what is unsurprisingly his only film credit) who falls for Catherine, and who Catherine eventually falls for in return. Plus plenty of nakedness, less gratuitously shot than you might expect, and lots of rather abrupt head-hacking.

There’s some artifacting during the darker sequences, but the Blu-ray generally looks pretty good, if not spectacular. But the set includes a fascinating fifty-minute documentary on the Italian cannibal genre, that easily makes it worth the purchase for the aficionado.

Extras: Trailer, The Last Supper: The Final Days of the Italian Cannibal Film documentary, interview with cameraman Federico Del Zoppo

REVIEW: AMAZONIA: THE CATHERINE MILES STORY (aka CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST II; THE CATHERINE MILES STORY) / DIRECTOR: MARIO GARIAZZO (as ROY GARRETT) / SCREENPLAY: FRANCO PROSPERI / STARRING: ELVIRE AUDRAY, WILL GONZALES, DICK CAMPBELL, ANDREW LOUIS (aka ANDREA) COPPOLA / CERT: 18 /RELEASE DATE: 20TH AUGUST 2018

SHOW YOURSELF

After his friend Paul commits suicide, actor Travis (Ben Hethcoat) agrees to scatter his ashes in the woods where they spent their childhood together. But can Travis let go, or is something else not willing to let him go?

From the outset, Show Yourself is a very different kind of horror movie. It never relies on jump scares and it’s not telling those overused tales of haunted woods or axe-wielding murderers. At its core, it’s a story about one of the scariest things of all – losing a loved one. Throughout the film, Ben Hethcoat’s performance as Travis takes us on an emotional rollercoaster as his character attempts to get over the devastating death of his friend.

At the beginning of the film, Travis is a bit of an unlikeable character because of his arrogance, but by the end, the audience is firmly on his side as he completes an unusual but pleasing arc for a character in a horror film. The horror in Show Yourself is less about things that go bump in the night and more about your mind playing tricks on you and not allowing you to let go of the past and move on. As the story progresses, Travis starts to hear strange noises and sees apparitions of what he believes to be Paul, and can’t decipher if he’s going mad or something sinister is after him.

Where the film succeeds in its core narrative and realistic and grounded main performance, it unfortunately stumbles with its slow pace and, at times, clunky and unnatural dialogue. Throughout the film, we learn more about Travis through not only his phone and Skype calls with his close friends but also archived footage of home movies that the friends used to make when they were younger. This footage is also used to relatively effective success when our protagonist is suffering with the despair and discomfort in his head. One scene that stands tall above the rest takes place in a tent where Travis comes face-to-face (so to speak) with his inner demons. He starts to understand why these events happened, and uses this knowledge to help him move on with his own life.

Although some might think that Show Yourselfs ending is quite abrupt and anticlimactic, it actually makes a lot of sense on a symbolic level. Think of it as a physical way of showing the completion of Travis’ character arc and the end of his journey.

Show Yourself will most certainly not be to everyone’s liking, but what makes it stand out from the rest of today’s films in this packed genre is its driven narrative and disciplined portrayal of a man coming to terms with a feeling he has never felt before. Unfortunately, most of its emotional impact is softened due to its lack of exploration into what really goes on inside a grieving person’s mind and, at times, jarring pacing and excessive use of musical scene transitions and interludes.

SHOW YOURSELF / DIRECTOR: BILLY RAY BREWTON / SCREENPLAY: BILLY RAY BREWTON / STARRING: BEN HETHCOAT, CORSICA WILSON, BARAK HARDLEY, STEPHEN CONE / CERT: UNRATED / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

STILL/BORN

After the tragic loss of one of her twins at birth, new mother Mary (Christie Burke) suspects a supernatural presence is after her newborn son, Adam. But is it just her grief playing on her mind or is something more sinister at large?

In a world plagued with forgettable cash-grabbing jump scare fests, it’s a welcome surprise when a well-crafted and inspired horror film comes along, and that’s exactly the case with Brandon Christensen’s directorial debut, Still/Born.

Led by a sensational performance from Burke in the role of Mary, the film centres more on exploring the grief of a mothers’ loss as its core narrative rather than solely focusing on the possible demonic hallucinations that are occurring. Burke’s realistic portrayal of pure emotion and bereavement manages to captivate audiences and keeps them guessing whether she is falling apart or not right until the final frame. Supported by solid ensemble performances from Jesse Moss (Final Destination 3) as Mary’s husband Jack and a welcome appearance from legendary actor Michael Ironside as her psychiatrist, Christie truly manages to shine as a woman on the brink of collapse.

Whereas the film at times tends to drift towards modern horror tropes, including some predictable jump scares, Christensen still manages to create a thick layer of tension and dread through great camera placements and a unique use of security cameras and baby monitors (crying babies are always creepy). Not only that, but in deciding to bring a very realistic situation to the forefront to analyse, he has created a well-realised and gripping tale from start to finish, with some great production values too. Audiences will definitely connect with Mary on a sentimental level as she loses her grip on reality and her husband refuses to listen to her pleas, making him just as much a villain of the story as the lurking supernatural entity. However, that’s not to say that there is a villain at play at all.

The ending is expertly organised in such a way that it really is ambiguous and left to the audience’s imagination. Have we seen everything through her eyes? Or has what we’ve seen been manipulated in any way? A rare treat to have a horror film keep its legs all the way through the third act to its conclusion.

As far as independent horror films go, Still/Born is one of the better psychological tales that you will find on the market today, although this might not altogether be the case if it wasn’t for our leading lady. Thankfully, her spellbinding work holds together this chilling story of devastating loss that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

STILL/BORN / DIRECTOR: BRANDON CHRISTENSEN / SCREENPLAY: / STARRING: CHRISTIE BURKE, JESSE MOSS, MICHAEL IRONSIDE, REBECCA OLSON / CERT: 15 / RELEASE DATE: 20TH AUGUST 2018

THE CHANGEOVER

It’s surprising that it’s taken Margaret Mahy’s 1984 Carnegie Award-winning novel so long to make it to the screen, particularly given the ascendance of Twilight ten years or so ago. The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance is very much Young Adult literature, sharing elements with Stephanie Meyer’s later book, and the screenplay by co-director Stuart McKenzie only serves to emphasise those elements, perhaps somewhat at the cost of coherency or credibility.

Erana James is New Zealander Laura Chant, a sixteen year old whose father committed suicide and whose mother works so many hours, the daughter is essentially in loco parentis to her much younger brother, Jacko (Purchase). But Laura is also a “sensitive”, receiving extrasensory signs warning her of danger to her sibling, and after a chance meeting with an old man called Braque, who runs an antique shop from a huge street-side crate in Christchurch, Jacko is taken ill with a condition medical science can’t identify. Desperate for help, Laura turns to the new boy at school, the taciturn, tenebrific Sorensen Carlisle (Galitzine). He turns out to be the younger of three generations of witches, and recognises the cause of Jacko’s illness by the mark stamped onto the back of his hand by Braque – who is thus identified as an ancient parasite feeding off the lifeforce of his victims as a way of sustaining eternal life.

The whole story revolves around Laura’s “Changeover”, the ritual by which she joins the coven of witches and achieves the power by which she can save Jacko’s life – and this sequence takes up much of the last third of the film. It’s all a metaphor for reaching maturity and leaving adolescent concerns behind, of course, and if you’re not the target audience, you probably aren’t going to buy into a single part of it. There are any number of sub-plots involving a black cat, butterflies (signifying the metamorphosis, geddit?) and a theme of powerlessness except through invitation, most of which are obvious but at least relatively satisfying, and you can tell that a lot of the ideas and dialogue probably came across much more reasonably on the page. On screen though, it sometimes looks like a lot of people being achingly serious about some quite ridiculous things.

That said, despite a low budget, McKenzie and co-director Miranda Harcourt have managed to produce a film that looks terrific, if rather subdued and grey, and the performances across the board are excellent (especially from young Erana Lewis, basically starting out with this). Even Nicholas Galitzine manages to give the rather two-dimensional Sorensen a bit of life by the end.

If you didn’t like Twilight, you won’t like this (although it’s much pacier), but our nineteen year old test audience was sufficiently engrossed.

Special Features: none

THE CHANGEOVER / DIRECTOR: MIRANDA HARCOURT, STUART MCKENZIE / SCREENPLAY: STUART MCKENZIE / STARRING: TIMOTHY SPALL, MELANIE LYNSKEY, LUCY LAWLESS, NICHOLAS GALITZINE, ERANA JAMES, BENJI PURCHASE / CERT: 12 / RELEASE DATE: 27TH AUGUST 2018

2036: ORIGIN UNKNOWN

ORIGIN UNKNOWN

Fifty years after the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey comes 2036: Origin Unknown. Past the obvious nod in the film’s title, there is nothing – officially – to connect the two.

The former is rightly regarded as a classic, an exercise in the art of making film by Stanley Kubrick, from an original story by Arthur C. Clarke, the meat of which concerns a monolith of mysterious provenance, with elongated scenes of a scientist in conversation with a computer, HAL, and has been pored over for half a century for the deeper meaning behind its sometimes abstract scenes.

2036, on the other hand, directed by sophomore filmmaker Hasraf Dulull from his own story idea, is an interesting – if overreaching – tale, the meat of which concerns a monolith from an uncertain source, with elongated scenes of a scientist in conversation with a computer, ARTi. Whether future generations will seek the deeper meaning behind this latter-day outing remains to be seen.

Katee Sackhoff’s mission controller, Mac, is the affable protagonist, and her performance is assured, confident, and consistent, even during the final scenes which must have been a struggle to perform. Six years after the last manned mission to Mars crashed on arrival, resulting in the death of her father, Mac is brought back to guide an investigative mission down to the surface, although it seems for all the world that they didn’t need her to be there, save to be present when the cryptic object makes its presence felt.

Once you get around that, though, the performances draw you in – both those of Sackhoff and Steven Cree, who voices ARTi – as the relationship between the two entwines and grows before an abrupt tonal shift throws you right back out again as the film nears its confusing, over-ambitious conclusion. Along the way, a future where corporations control space exploration, some perilous international relations, and theoretical quantum existence are very lightly touched upon, and there’s more than an aftertaste of the hard science-fiction the director must have read before embarking upon making this film.

Aside from a slightly jarring clash between the almost-too-clinical space-bound model work and the interior shots of Sackhoff at work, there is little to dislike here, and a fair amount to enjoy. After its establishing scenes and before its slightly zen end, a tight and engaging thriller emerges, but it fizzles out under the weight of its own aspiration, leaving you slightly frustrated that you’ve spent ninety minutes with likeable characters that, in the end, were not the authors of their own destiny.

2036: ORIGIN UNKNOWN / CERT 12 / DIRECTOR: HASRAF DULULL / SCREENPLAY: GARY HALL / STARRING KATEE SACKHOFF, STEVEN CREE, JULIE COX, RAY FEARON / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 27TH

THE X-FILES: SEASON 11

The X-Files

The return of the X-Files to television in 2016 following a 14-year absence was a mixed bag. There was one classic (Mulder and Scully meet the Were-Monster), a few mixed monster of the week episodes, and a couple of creator Chris Carter’s overly-convoluted mythology episodes that everyone got bored with in about 1997. And while Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny fell seamlessly back in to the shoes of Scully and Mulder, the show felt like a pale imitation of the one that caught the zeitgeist back in the early ‘90s.

Fortunately, the follow-up season is a vast improvement. Expanded from six to ten episodes, the show and characters have space to breathe. Both leads get a chance to shine, with Anderson in particular a delight, and the supporting cast all get their moment in the spotlight. Hell, there’s even space for a Skinner-centric episode (making it approximately two in 25 years).

The secret to the X-Files’ success has always been its ability to refuse to be pigeon holed. During its original run it alternated between sci-fi, horror, technophobia, comedy, romance and outright weirdness. The new run is the classic series in a microcosm, revisiting and updating many of the show’s favourite themes and, surprisingly, generally to a standard matching the original.

Highlights include Ghouli; a monster of the week episode with an unexpected connection to Mulder and Scully, This; featuring the return of Lone Gunman Richard Langley, and Rm9sbG93ZXJz; an experimental, almost silent episode featuring the pair being pursued by a pissed-off A.I.

Best of all though is Darin Morgan’s The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat. His episodes, which include past classics such as Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose and Jose Chung’s “From Outer Space” have often taken the show in unforeseen, absurdist directions, simultaneously poking fun at the format while providing many of the series’ finest hours. Forehead Sweat, which examines the Mandela Effect, is no exception.

As with season ten, the show is bookended by two of Chris Carter’s mythology episodes. Early in the X-Files’ run, the show’s alien mythology storyline was its MVP, providing many of its most vital hours. Somewhere along the way though, they went off track, becoming overly-confusing and often just plain dull. Unfortunately this is very much the case here. Following an unsatisfactory resolution to season ten’s cliff-hanger, the focus switches to the search for the couple’s lost son William and his possible key role in the future. There’s an unpleasant, misjudged twist involving the Cigarette Smoking Man, Monica Reyes is still inexplicably acting totally out of character, and frankly, does anyone care about these episodes any more?

Unfortunately the final episode – which may well serve as a series finale after Anderson announced she wouldn’t be returning – is probably the revived series’ weakest instalment, neither satisfactorily tying up storylines nor providing any kind of emotional resolution for any of the key characters. That aside, it’s a vast improvement on the mixed season ten. If this should be the X-Files’ last hurrah, for the most part, it’s going out in style.

THE X-FILES: SEASON 11 / WRITER: VARIOUS / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: DAVID DUCHOVNY, GILLIAN ANDERSON, MITCH PILEGGI / CERT: 15 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW