Ian Dear - Village Of Blood

[dem bones]

Jun 27, 2008 22:50:35 GMT killercrab said:

Glad to see a big up for Venomous Serpent ! - naturally Ian Dear gets the Longleat lipsmack - though it's not really that bad.

slightly revamped, still rubbish 'review', but you can't have a Nel section without .....

Ian Dear - Village Of Blood (Nel, 1975)

Blurb:

The Scene - England, an isolated country village.
The Action - A body is mysteriously ripped from its coffin.
CUT.
For this is only the first scene of a new horror movie being shot on location - or is it? Because a recent victim of a car accident has indeed vanished. Suddenly the terrors of the film script are enacted in frightful reality. Just what IS the connection between Anvil Productions and the disappearance of more people from the village?
Ann Green, a young and attractive journalist, makes it her business to find out and becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of horror. Deliberately pursuing her solitary investigation, she feels herself exposed to evil, but she cannot back out now.
Only she can stop this uncanny progression of events, or fall victim to them.

Yet another pesky film crew, yet more rotten vampires. This time, Ken Mathers' crew are shooting the famous Bellingham legend on the estate where it reputedly all took place. It soon looks as if "reputedly" doesn't come into it. Lord Bellingham has been funding Anvil Productions' horror films for years, and it's all been with the single purpose of this vanity project which he sees as potentially the scariest horror film of all time. When life begins to mirror art and several persons vanish in ominously bloody circumstances, Mathers has to agree. Fortunately, plucky journalist Ann Green is on hand to perform love interest and damsel in distress duties. And the villagers are revolting.

This is a fairly brisk read at 128 pages and at least the undead has the good grace to be all out nasty, bucking the "sympathetic vampire" vogue which was coming to the fore. It's no The Dead Travel Fast, though.

The cigs of choice seem to be gaulois.

For more top 'Film Crew In Peril!' fun see Peter Saxon's The Torturer, 'Richard Tate's The Dead Travel Fast, Angus Hall's Devilday (must re-read that!) and Tim Stout's delightful short, The Dracula File. Any more?