PARTS UNKNOWN

CERT: UNRATED | PLATFORM: DVD, VIMEO | RELEASE DATE: JULY 7TH

Pro wrestler Hermann von Strausser (pound shop Ron Perlman lookalike William DeCoff, himself a real-life pro wrestler back in the 80s) is fresh out of jail after serving time for intentionally killing one of his opponents during a match. He rejoins his family but, when an unfortunate incident results in his probation officer no longer being able to enjoy the benefits of oxygen, Hermann’s life – and the lives of everyone around him – turn down a road that nobody expected. Unless they were expecting to make a murder pact with a swamp demon (voiced by wrestling Hall of Famer, Jake “The Snake” Roberts) and the probation officer coming back to life…

Many of the usual pitfalls encountered by low-budget productions are present, including questionable acting, editing issues (particularly with the audio, where some lines of dialogue are nigh-on indecipherable) and a bit too much fluff, but the film unquestionably tries its absolute best with what it’s got. Some of the dialogue and performances are a bit too cheesy for their own good and there’s an unhealthy amount of sexual violence (which is especially uncomfortable to watch with the current #SpeakingOut movement going on), but there’s tons of humour, both intentional and definitely not intentional. As the story gets more and more insane, it’s difficult not to get invested in what’s happening, to the point where you can’t help but feel at least a tiny tingle of admiration for everyone involved.

Parts Unknown is a fine effort for such a low-budget production. The campy goofiness and unexpectedly mental story (in case you missed it: crazy wrestling family killing people at the behest of a swamp demon while being tracked by an immortal probation officer) manage to override the more cringe-inducing moments, building enough good will to carry you through to the end. Someone throw some money their way and turn Parts Unknown into a 45-minute Kung Fury-style short immediately please!

LITTLE JOE

joe

CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: JESSICA HAUSNER / SCREENPLAY: JESSICA HAUSNER, GERALDINE BAJARD /STARRING: EMILY BEECHAM, BEN WHISHAW, KERRY FOX, KIT CONNOR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

We are currently living in a frustrated, pent-up world full of anger and fury, finger-pointing, and fist-shaking. Social media is awash with furores and backlashes, and everyone currently appears to be obsessed with either causing offence or being offended. Little Joe, Jessica Hausner’s eerie and disquieting debut English-language feature film offers us the possibility of a life detached from such tiresome inconveniences and leaves the audience to decide if we’d be better off with our baser instinctive passions removed or perhaps turned into something less than human.

In a cold and clinical laboratory facility somewhere non-specific, a group of scientists, including Emily Beecham’s divorced mum Alice Woodard, are working to genetically engineer a new type of plant that will survive extended periods of neglect and undernourishment. But they inadvertently create a flower that actually requires more care but which induces heightened calm and happiness in its owner. Alice’s colleague Bella (Fox) suspects that something is amiss and she believes that the pollen from these new, sterilised plants, is having a strange effect on those who inhale it. Naturally no-one believes her. Alice names the new plants ‘Little Joe’ after her young son and takes one home. But suddenly her son starts to behave oddly, his whole demeanour changed overnight…

Fans of Jack Finney’s book The Body Snatchers and its subsequent film adaptations and indeed any fantasy story in which human free will and identity is compromised will absolutely adore Little Joe. Jessica Hausner has created a chilling and disturbing film set in a world we recognise but seems slightly off-kilter thanks to the clipped, snipped dialogue from its slightly (and undoubtedly purposely) stilted and disconnected characters and Martin Gschlacht’s inventive cinematography, in which the camera often moves slowly in on characters, eventually cutting them out of the frame altogether and focusing on something inconsequential and apparently irrelevant in the middle of the image. The film builds up a quiet sense of dread as the effects of the pollen become more and more apparent and its strange dislocation is intensified by the film’s thoughtful production design and colour palette, and an edgy soundtrack, which often consists of random bangs and crashes and, now and again, a cacophony of crashing drums and barking dogs.

Little Joe is a brilliant, unshowy movie that delivers a subtle, skilled marriage of themes from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and Day of the Triffids and it quietly, subtly, evokes the former’s sense of paranoia and fear of the loss of self as nature asserts itself and gently puts the arrogance of man firmly back in its place. A cautionary tale for these strange times, perhaps, and a haunting, beautiful and stunning piece of arthouse science fiction in its own right.

THE VANISHING (1988)

vanishing

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: GEORGE SLUIZER / SCREENPLAY: TIM KRABBÉ / STARRING: BERNARD-PIERRE DONNADIEU, GENE BERVOETS, JOHANNA TER STEEGE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

This Dutch thriller was an arthouse sensation back in the late 1980s. The reviews were ecstatic, word of mouth made it a hit, Kubrick said it was the scariest film he’d ever seen and it’s director made a Hollywood remake a few years later, starring Jeff Bridges. Now released on Blu-ray, The Vanishing‘s reputation has a lot to live up to. Has it stood the test of time?

A young Dutch couple, Saskia and Rex, driving through France on holiday bickering, laughing and narrowly avoid a near disaster when they run out of petrol in a long dark tunnel, an experience that reminds them both of how much they mean to each other. With their love rekindled, they stop at a busy service station and Saskia (award-winning Johanna Ten Steege) goes to browse inside the shops. And vanishes. She just doesn’t come back.

And it’s at this point, following a fantastic set up, that The Vanishing soars. Deconstructing the standard thriller narrative, the next section of the film takes us inside the life and motivations of Saskia’s abductor, the terrifyingly normal family man, chemistry teacher, and self-diagnosed sociopath, Raymond (a chillingly brilliant performance from Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu). We see him plan for the crime, prepare himself with meticulous detail, rehearse, fail and, eventually, succeed. Three years later, Rex, (Gene Bevoets), still obsessed with finding out what happened to his wife, is contacted by someone offering to reveal all but at a terrifying cost.

The fact that The Vanishing is not a whodunit but a howdunit makes for a wonderfully satisfying, insightful thriller. And as it hurtles towards its gripping, compelling conclusion, it becomes a hugely disturbing and believable one, too.

As a study of obsession, it’s brilliant; balancing both Rex’s obsession to find out what happened to Saskia with Raymond’s obsession with planning and carrying out an act of pure evil, simply because he can. Raymond is as chilling a villain as was ever put to film. His emotionless, methodical piecing together of the jigsaw of this horrific act is an exercise in problem solving and director George Sluizer and screenwriter Tim Krabbé do an incredible job of making us, the audience, enjoy that process whilst knowing it’s for horrific intent. And so good is the film at understanding obsession that, when faced with a seemingly impossible choice, the audience totally understands the one that Rex makes.

The film is also superb at showing how much chance plays a role in all of our lives. We see the women who are nearly Raymond’s victim, the lives that are nearly ruined. Saskia and Rex aren’t special, they weren’t chosen. They were just there, and that means it could be any one of us, something that stays with you after the upsetting climax.

There are no extras on this release and the transfer isn’t great, but who cares when The Vanishing lives up to its reputation so brilliantly?

THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974)

BEAST MUST DIE

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: PAUL ANNETT / SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL WINDER / STARRING: CALVIN LOCKHART, PETER CUSHING, MARLENE CLARK, CHARLES GRAY / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 29TH

This late-phase Amicus production saw producer Milton Subotsky and his moneyman partner Max J. Rosenberg step away from their anthology-based creepfests into Agatha Christie-style ‘whodunit’ territory. With a classic remote manor house setting and a fine cast of thespians, it was ‘guess the werewolf’ combined with refreshing bursts of action.

Millionaire big game hunter Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) has hit the wall – you name it, he’s shot it. Only the mythical werewolf has evaded him, so he’s turned his country pile into a high-tech fortress in order to trap and kill one, complete with a ‘Prisoner’-style surveillance room manned by Anton Diffring.  Having identified a clutch of likely suspects who’ve been leaving corpses in their wake of late (bit of a clue, that), he invites them all over for a full moon weekend of verbal jousting over the roasted veal and claret, overseen by werewolf expert Peter Cushing, of course.

It works a treat. Cushing is on politely sinister form, pontificating on all things lupine from silver candlesticks to wolfsbane. Leading man Lockhart relishes his cigar-chomping huntsman-hero, striding around his country estate in badass body leathers, firing off his machine gun like a Blaxploitation Terminator in Surrey, accompanied by the parping brass and wah-wah guitars of Douglas Gamley’s gloriously ‘70s score. Charles Gray and Michael Gambon try and out-cad each other as a sozzled diplomat and washed-up pianist; Tom Chadbon rocks the Rick Wakeman look as a glam rock jailbird artist with an Alex DeLarge attitude. Away from the testosterone, Ciaran Madden and Marlene Clark observe these assorted egotists with increasing alarm.

The parlour-game structure of the film is reinforced by its most notorious feature, the ‘werewolf break’. This William Castle-style gimmick halts proceedings just before the big reveal to recap the main suspects so we can choose one, accompanied by a Countdown-style clock. According to first-time director Paul Annett, it was dreamed up by the producers after filming ended and came as a complete surprise to him when confronted by it at the film’s premiere, but it’s a cheesy bit of fun that doesn’t undermine the already campy tone.

A mainstay of BBC-2 late night horror double-bills in the ‘80s, The Beast Must Die is a glorious Amicus comfort blanket fully deserving the 4K restoration and plentiful extras here, including a brutally candid archive interview with Brando-soundalike Max Rosenberg that lifts the tarpaulin on his producing career and partnership with Subotsky. Best of the bunch for our disreputable money is a 25-minute 8mm cut down of the film, originally released to the home cinema market. Lopping off the first hour entirely and letting the third act sink or swim, it works surprisingly well.

Did we mention the werewolf? It’s just a shaggy pet hound, so you’ll need to squint a bit.

CRISS CROSS (1949)

criss cross

CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: ROBERT SIODMAK / SCREENPLAY: DANIEL FUCHS / STARRING: BURT LANCASTER, YVONNE DE CARLO, DAN DURYEA / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 22ND

After the success of the seminal The Killers, Burt Lancaster and director Robert Siodmak collaborated yet again to create another film noir classic. Criss Cross is brimming with all the requisite noir tropes, illicit passion, greed, murder, and a femme fatale, naturally.

Lancaster stars as Steve Thompson, a man with a fatal attraction to his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo). Things are further complicated by the fact that Anna marries notorious criminal Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). When Dundee discovers that Anna and Steve still have feelings for each other Steve does the only thing he can do. He convinces Dundee that he only met with Anna to get Dundee’s help in robbing an armoured car that he will be driving. The criminal falls for the ruse, which sets everyone on a path to violence and death.

Siodmak’s taut and stylised direction, combined with the razor sharp dialogue of Daniel Fuchs’ script, slowly and expertly builds the tension right through to the nihilistic dénouement. The seething sensuality between the gorgeous DeCarlo and Lancaster sizzles of the screen. A memorable scene has Lancaster’s Steve asking DeCarlo’s Anna on a date, in the form of an argument.

Eureka’s The Masters of Cinema 4K restoration of Criss Cross is simply magnificent. The picture is clear and sharp, and really pops off the screen. This is how a restoration should look, and is proof positive that restorations can look absolutely stunning without resorting to the detested DNR. The sound, too, is powerfully distinct. There is a separate audio effects and soundtrack viewing option, which really highlights Miklos Rozsa’s punchy score.

Other special features include audio commentary by film author Lee Gamblin, and actor Rutanya Alda. Here they take a deep dive into the biographies of Lancaster and De Carlo. Canadian-born De Carlo was to be Universal Pictures’ Lauren Bacall. Despite being multi-talented, De Carlo’s career wasn’t to reach those heights. It wasn’t until she agreed to play Lily Munster in The Munsters that she truly found fame, and then she only agreed as she was almost penniless.

Adrian Martin provides a more scholarly insight into Criss Cross, and highlights the differences between Don Tracy’s novel and the film. There is also the radio adaptation with Lancaster reprising his role from the film. The sound quality is truly exceptional; it could have been recorded today. It makes for an interesting listen as there are differences from the film, the ending in particular is subtly different.

Criss Cross doesn’t quite pack the same punch that The Killers does, but it comes darn close, and if you have an affectation for the films of this era then this is an indispensable gem.

HUNTER’S MOON

hunters moon

CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: MICHAEL CAISSIE / STARRING: KATRINA BOWDEN, JAY MOHR, WILL CARLSON, SPENCER DANIELS / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 24TH

 

Thanks to the ready availability of cheap and affordable drones, it seems that every low-budget horror film now begins with a tracking shot of the terrain where the film will take place. While this could be seen as homages to the opening to classic genre pictures such as The Shining or Candyman, the result is more akin to padding the movie with two to three minutes of footage, allowing the film to more readily reach feature length due to a script whose plot would otherwise barely stretch to fill the necessary running time.

That summary, in a nutshell, is writer/director Michael Caissie’s new film, Hunter’s Moon. While the story is an ambitious one – beginning as a monster movie, switching to a haunted house picture, then to a home invasion film, and concluding by returning to the monster movie theme – the actual movie itself plays out as though everyone onscreen, save one actor, is barely tolerating working on it.

To briefly summarise, Hunter’s Moon tells the story of the Delaney family, who move into a home out in the country for reasons which are hinted at early on, but never explicitly addressed until the film’s conclusion. The home was the location of a serial killer (played in a thankless cameo by Sean Patrick Flannery), who was killed under mysterious circumstances himself, thus allowing the family to snag it for cheap. When the parents leave shortly after moving in to go on a business trip, some local criminals who’ve decided to rob it make friends with the three daughters left behind, only to be stalked by something mysterious which comes out of the surrounding orchard.

It sounds amazing, but the performances are astonishingly unbelievable from the get-go. As Delaney patriarch Thomas, actor Jay Mohr is so subdued as to be nearly unconscious, with a delivery that seems as though he’s channeling a very stoned Christopher Walken. Two of the three teenage daughters – Wendy (Emmalee Parker) and Lisa (India Ennenga) – are so thinly written as to be nonexistent, and Juliet is played by Katrina Bowden. She displays some minor energy, but given that the actress is 30 years old, her portrayal of a teenager seems as though it might be some sort of joke, although the movie never appears to be self-aware enough to make that kind of gag work.

It’s not until the sheriff, played by Thomas Jane, arrives that Hunter’s Moon manages any sort of actual energy or verve. Aside from the scenes with Jane, the film merely goes through the motions, steadily plodding from plot point to plot point, as if the cast and crew were just as weary of the film’s paper-thin story as those who watch it. Happily, Jane seems to relish the chance to use an accent, gleefully delivering everything with scenery-chewing joy.

When the film finally wraps up, there’s a discussion among the remaining characters wherein they engage in a Hercule Poirot-style summary of the film that just took place, explaining everything that preceded it. It’s not as though Agatha Christie is demonstrating how cleverly certain plot points were clues to where Hunter’s Moon ends, but rather the opposite, in that the film so thoroughly fails to clue the viewer in on what’s actually happening that it has to be retconned in order to make any sense whatsoever.

Neither bad enough to warrant popcorn-throwing mockery, nor clever enough to overcome its many flaws, Hunter’s Moon is merely soporific, and the time spent watching it would be better put toward just taking a nap.

DREAM DEMON

DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: HARLEY COKELISS / STARRING: JEMMA REDGRAVE, KATHLEEN WILHOITE, TIMOTHY SPALL / RELEASE DATE: 22ND JUNE

Arrow Films continue to rediscover should-be cult classics with their remastered release of Harley Cokeliss’ gorgeously gothic and latently queer horror, Dream Demon. Originally conceived as a British riff on A Nightmare on Elm Street, the film follows Diana (an incredible debut performance from Jemma Redgrave, AKA Doctor Who‘s Kate Stewart), a young bride-to-be whose horrifying nightmares appear to be merging with reality.

The film itself thankfully shares little with A Nightmare on Elm Street. It’s entirely its own beast. The fusion of almost avant garde dream sequences with the Hammer-infused writing of Christopher Wicking (Cry of the Banshee, To the Devil a Daughter) gives Dream Demon a disarmingly familiar feel. It looks like the kind of film Hammer would have put out in the 70s, but with the bite of 80s ingenuity.

Cokeliss’ film feels more in line with Barker’s original Hellraiser, in that it’s a classic but graphic British gothic experience. Dream Demon’s horror comes from exposure, sexuality and the collapse of boundaries between affluent suburbs, London townhouses and upper-class social mechanics; a young woman subconsciously terrified of her rich war hero partner, and their upcoming dive into an upper-class celebrity life. It’s a film which surprisingly makes no mystery of its particular – and perhaps controversial – inspirations.

Jemma Redgrave’s young bride is blatantly based on Princess Diana. From predatory press (played to perfection by Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail) to Falklands hero fiancé (Mark Greenstreet), Cokeliss and crew paint a portrait of a fairytale life haunted by gaslighting, isolation and invasion of privacy.

Queue the arrival of Jenny (Kathleen Wilhoite) a young punk from LA who lands on Diana’s doorstep just as things get overwhelming. The two strike up a quick and intense friendship as they try to help each other navigate what’s going on. Jenny is desperate to discover her childhood connection to Diana’s ominous townhouse, while Diana tries to survive feelings of intimidation and horror towards her soon-to-be-husband. It’s hard not to see a queer reading of Dream Demon – the film is symbolically and overtly coded for just that. In one of the superb new interview extras, Redgrave herself admits she views it as a queer romance. That makes the film even more important as a late-80s gay horror, especially when there are so few sincere and non-exploiting lesbian characters in cinema.

A horror examination of Princess Diana or English pulp cashing in on zeitgeist? Either way, it’s hard to see why Dream Demon isn’t a more prevalent title in horror circles. The dream logic, reality bending, queer reading and sense of gothic it brings to affluent English suburbs make a unique curio. Arrow’s restoration is gorgeous and, with a host of revealing new interviews, well worth seeking out.

COBRA KAI – SEASONS 1 & 2

COBRA KAI – SEASON 1 & 2 / CERT: 15 / STARRING: WILLIAM ZABKA, RALPH MACCHIO, XOLO MARIDUENA, COURTNEY HENGGELER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

34 years on from the events of The Karate Kid, Cobra Kai is an inspired continuation of the main characters’ stories that manages to be both entertaining and engrossing while maintaining the underdog magic that made the original film so special.

When the series hit YouTube Red in 2018, it was quickly lauded as the service’s first big-hitter. The show creatively reverses the roles of first movie’s formula, instead focusing on the plight of original antagonist Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) as he struggles to re-establish his childhood karate dojo, Cobra Kai, against the wishes of original protagonist, Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio). Both actors revisit their characters faithfully and give great performances, but Zabka’s run-down twist on Johnny Lawrence and his subsequent redemption is really the heart of the show. Johnny’s interactions with his Gen-Z students as they clash with his pseudo-badass attitude and old-school outlook are comic gold.

Unfortunately, when the camera drifts away to focus more on these kids and their own lives and problems, the show begins to fall into extremely predictable high-school stereotypes, complete with comically-exaggerated bullies and laughable will-they won’t-they romance subplots. Thankfully, this lends the show to great cringe-comedy, even if occasionally unintentional. One of these new kids, Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), is our new charismatic underdog who bounces off Zabka’s Johnny brilliantly in their scenes together, mirroring Larusso and Miyagi’s mentor-mentee dynamic from the original.

Fight sequences, initially not as frequent as you might expect, boast some impressive and creative choreography and callbacks to the films, with Larusso’s adoption of Mr Miyagi’s training technique being a highlight. The training sequences will particularly amuse returning fans in terms of either how similar or wildly different they are relative to Miyagi’s teachings. Larusso opts to stick close to the techniques taught to him by his deceased sensei, while Johnny opts to teach karate more as a method of exorcising the dweeb-ish qualities from his School of Rock-esque class.

This DVD set is a great way to catch up with both seasons of the acclaimed fan-favourite series before the approaching third run. The additional content is nothing spectacular or unique, but provides the standard gag-reel, bonus scenes, and character bios.

Even if you’re unfamiliar with its classic 80s predecessors, Cobra Kai is great television with strong humour and writing consistently on show. While we’d hesitate to call it nuanced, the writing returns us to the two core characters in new and unexpected ways that pay off considerably.

BLOODSHOT

Bloodshot

CERT: 12 / SCREENPLAY: JEFF WADLOW, ERIC HEISSERER / DIRECTOR: DAVID S. F. WILSON / CAST: VIN DIESEL, EIZA GONZÁLEZ, SAM HEUGHAN, TOBY KEBBELL, GUY PEARCE / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 8TH

Bloodshot, the latest big-screen vehicle for action-actor Vin Diesel, is the movie adaptation of the world of the titular Valiant Comics’ character. Intended to be the opening instalment of a new film series, Bloodshot was rushed-released to the home streaming market less than a fortnight after it debuted in theatres back in March, and just days ahead of the current global lockdown. It’s now speeding its way to DVD and Blu-ray.

Diesel plays US Marine Ray Garrison, a badass special operative who pulls off a successful rescue mission in Mombasa. But dark forces want to know the source of the intel that led Garrison and his men to the hostage takers’ lair. When they capture him and demand he confess, they first kill his wife and then him. Garrison later wakes up in a secret laboratory, run by Dr Emil Harting (Pearce), and learns he has been brought back to life, his body enhanced by the presence of countless nanobots in his bloodstream. These miniature robotic creatures can repair organ and tissue damage and extend his capabilities. But while Harting has a series of missions lined up for Garrison and his compatriots, this new super-human only has revenge in mind.

The premise of Bloodshot is an amalgam of many other high-concept sci-fi flicks, including Universal Soldier, Robocop and Total Recall, and there’s practically nothing original about this latest foray into the territory of the reanimated and augmented killing machine. Even the film’s exploration of supposedly cutting-edge technology feels unadventurous and familiar.

No-one chooses a Vin Diesel flick expecting a performance of great depth or emotional vulnerability from their leading man. Diesel acquits himself just fine in the reasonably well-choreographed, if routine, action sequences. Elsewhere, he’s on less firm ground. The film’s key imbalance is that Garrison’s antagonist (and scheming boss) Harting is played by Guy Pearce, an actor of enormous talent and range. However you stack it up, one of them is miscast. Pearce won’t do panto villain and Diesel can’t do dexterity or depth. While Diesel falls short of Pearce’s level of performance, it’s just as difficult to accept Harting as a convincing nemesis for the muscle-bound assassin. Their final reckoning lacks any real tension, so the closing showdown shifts the focus elsewhere.

Other members of Garrison’s crew join in the skirmishes and dodge the explosions, but this is far from being an ensemble piece. Only Eiza González, as the brave but conflicted ‘KT’, is given any significant screen time or character development. González looks suitably pained by the collective deceit she’s implicated in, but is given little to do. Star of Outlander Sam Heughan gets to play against type as hardman Jimmy Dalton, while Siddharth Dhananjay is brought on board to provide comic relief as programmer Eric. The plot pivots on the actions of the super-techie (and belated ethical hacker) Wilfred Wiggins, a role that gives Lamorne Morris the latitude of playing a character not found in the original comics.

Early casting rumours reported that Jared Leto was in line for the lead role, which could have resulted in a movie (and a face-off) far more powerful and intriguing. As things turned out, Bloodshot comes across as an underpowered, derivative (and a fairly loose) translation of some quite niche comic book fare. Even the script’s knowing ‘meta references’ to the genre and the appropriation of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer are not enough to stop this flick bleeding out long before the upbeat coda tries to breathe undeserved life into a new franchise.

Special features include a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it blooper reel, deleted and extended scenes and two short ‘making of’ promos.

IT COULDN’T HAPPEN HERE

IT COULDN’T HAPPEN HERE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JACK BOND / SCREENPLAY: JACK BOND, JAMES DILLON / STARRING: NEIL TENNANT, CHRIS LOWE, JOSS ACKLAND / RELEASE DATE: 15TH JUNE

Back in 1988, realising that a planned tour would be too expensive to mount, Pet Shop Boys decided that a film version of their album Actually might appease fans. What was planned as a collection of filmed versions of the album’s songs developed into a feature film. Albeit a bad one…

Keen to avoid “pop star on film” clichés, Neil Tenant and Chris Lowe joined forces with writer / director Jack Bond, who was more or less given free reign to interpret songs from both PSB albums of the time, Please and Actually. What resulted is a collection of surreal scenes and situations held loosely together by the band’s undeniably fantastic songs.

While there’s no discernible narrative to speak of, the film sees Neil and Chris escaping from a seaside town and embarking on a road trip, meeting a variety of “colourful” characters played by the likes of Barbara Windsor, Joss Ackland and Gareth Hunt. Along the way, we get dancing nuns, Hells Angels, punks, seaside bed and breakfasts, a ventriloquist’s dummy spitting actual philosophy and a WW1 pilot. Oh, and child versions of Neil and Chris with a blind creepy priest so that “It’s A Sin” can get played.

The film plays with notions of social commentary, the elusiveness of time, Englishness and escape. At one point a man leaves a house and he’s on fire. We don’t know why. You get the sense its surreal quality is inspired by the likes of Derek Jarman and perhaps Ken Russell. It isn’t in their league.

As a band, Pet Shop Boys are up there with the very best and hearing tracks from their early output is a joy. How can “West End Girls” still sound so good, so right, 35 years later? And as the video for “Always On My Mind” shows (it’s a section from the film), the OTT, gurning performances and daft situations presented in the film can work in the context of a short pop music video, but they just don’t work as a connected whole. In fact, you could probably play the scenes in the film in any order and it’d still make the same amount of sense.

The extras on this BFI disc aren’t too exciting either. Jack Bond’s interview is sweet but not very revealing, although the commentary provides more insight into the actual filming. There are various scripts in different versions, music videos and a gallery of photos too.

What is fascinating is how much It Couldn’t Happen Here is a capsule of the time it was made – the style of late 80s music, fashion, choreography and film is perfectly captured and makes for a truly fascinating document of its times.

But, to quote PSB’s own song, “It’s A Sin”…

‘Cause I didn’t care and I still don’t understand.