PLANETA BUR

PLANETA BUR (“Storm Planet”) Production: Soviet Union, 1961 Director: Pavel Klushantsev Category: Science Fiction With Planeta Bur, depicting a space trip to the planet Venus, Pavel Klushantsev pioneered and invented legendary special effects techniques for filming the planets, stars and weightnessless. In doing so he virtually redefined the science fiction genre, Continue Reading

SPACE IS THE PLACE

SPACE IS THE PLACE Production: USA, 1974 Director: John Coney Category: Avant-Jazz/Black Power An incredible vehicle for the psychedelic talents of Sun Ra, the radical space-age free-jazz philosopher. Performance footage of his amazing Intergalactic Solar Arkestra is inserted into a plot that mixes a 1950s SF aesthetic with revolutionary politics and elements of Continue Reading

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE Production: UK, 1958 Director: Arthur Crabtree Category: Science Fiction From “The Thought Monster”, a 1930s pulp magazine story by Amelia Reynolds Long, this is a twisted tale of creatures made from human thought, who assume the form of a disembodied cerebellum after sucking out the brains of screaming victims. Continue Reading

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN Production: UK, 1969-70 Director: Gordon Hessler Category: Horror/Science Fiction/Crime The best of an interesting series of horror films directed by Hessler in the late ’60s/early ’70s, Scream And Scream Again was scripted by Christopher Wicking, author of Hammer’s stand-out Demons Of The Mind amongst others, from the Peter Saxon Continue Reading

TURKEY SHOOT

TURKEY SHOOT Production: Australia, 1982 Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith Category: Science Fiction/Gore A slightly futuristic, gory twist on The Most Dangerous Game, in which political prisoners of a totalitarian regime are held and physically abused at a brutal detention camp. The “turkey shoot” is a regular event held at the camp; selected Continue Reading