Article- The Motherlode: Prisoner Cell Block H on ITV

Exactly 30 years ago today, something extraordinary happened. Let me elaborate. I grew up in York in the UK. My local TV station was Yorkshire Television who were the first UK regional station to transmit twenty-four hours a day. Because of this during the night and early hours of the morning, they would show some …

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Review- Snapshot (1979)

I first learnt of this film as it was called The Day After Halloween and marketed as a sequel to John Carpenter's classic. It isn't. But it's still a really interesting movie. Angela (played by Prisoner Cell Block H's brilliant Sigrid Thornton) is persuaded to ditch her low paid hairdressing job and enter the world of …

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Review- Not Quite Hollywood (2008)

This is such a great documentary about Ozploitation films (exploitation films made in Australia). All the great films and sub-genres are here- the bawdy Ocker comedies, the slasher movies, the films for petrolheads. The main players are all interviewed and show that making these insane films was just as insane in real life.   I’m so …

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Day 21- 31 Days of Halloween- Patrick (1978)

A gorgeous slice of Ozploitation that is extremely well made, acted and written. A young man named Patrick is in a coma after killing his parents three years earlier. A new nurse named Kathie has been assigned to tend to him and they strike up a relationship through a typewriter that Patrick can telekinetically control …

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Wake in Fright- Day 6- 31 Days of Halloween

A young schoolteacher trues to escape small town Australia and reach Sydney...but gets waylayed in the darkest possible way. This is an amazing examination of small town madness, the unspoken madness of such a life and the brutality and destruction undertaken by men. Its also an amazing portrayal of cabin fever being caused by nothing …

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