Beasts

"Beasts" (1976) Nigel Kneale is perhaps best known for his Quatermass series of writings and also some Hammer films. Here he has gathered a delightfully varied group of stories, that to this viewers eye seem like an extended Amicus production, some of them would not be out of place in such a film. What is good about this one off series is that they are written with an obvious passion for mystery and the macabre, Kneale delights in telling us his stories with one eye firmly placed on examining the science of these mysteries, as a result, the final films are that much more sinister and perhaps scarier. All these films are very talky and rather slow, but ultimately they all have features that will reward the patient viewer.

Special Offer(1976) Richard Bramall 5/10 The every day workings of a supermarket are thrown into disarray when stock mysteriously begins to explode and get thrown from the shelves. This coincides with the arrival of a new member of staff, a dowdy, spotty teenager Noreen Beale, who is immediately disowned by members of staff and customers alike who don't care much for her. Is she responsible or is the store being haunted by an its own invisible mascot? Special Offer has some good ideas that are reminiscent of Horror classics Carrie and Poltergeist, we are never really sure who or what is responsible, a slow but steady start to this series.

During Barty's Party(1976) Don Leaver 8/10 A businessman Roger Truscott, returns home to his secluded home to find his wife Angie in a state of terror, she doesn't know why, but puts sit down to a dream she had, of a couple of amorous lovers being killed and their yellow car being abandoned? Very soon they hear scratching noises under the floor boards, they put it down to rats, but the noises seem to be following them around the house, Angie turns up the radio to drown out the sounds, the broadcast is interrupted by news reports of thousands of gigantic rats that have caused chaos and have been sighted in the area. The Truscotts soon realise they are trapped in their home by thousands of intelligent rats. This is a rather unsettling story, the foe remains unseen which builds up the tension tremendously, its slow to build up but the finale is quite terrifying.

Buddy Boy(1976) Don Taylor 6/10 A playboy (Martin Shaw) decides to buy an old Dolphinarium and turn it into a Night club/sex shop, the owner seems desperate to get rid of it in a quick deal, believing the premises are haunted by the spirit of a dolphin, the famous "Buddy Boy" who was killed in mysterious circumstances years previously. Lucy is a former employee who now squats there, she believes the owner Crisp killed him. Novel idea, that drags a little, but the performances are decent and keep you interested. The ending is a little abrupt and open to interpretation.

Baby(1976) John Nelson 8/10 A vet and his pregnant wife, peter and Jo Gilkes, move to the country to start a new life in a busy country practice. While renovating their farmhouse they find a large urn hidden in an alcove in a wall,seemingly there for a long time, inside they find the dried out remains of a "creature", is it a lamb? A pig? A monkey perhaps, they can't quite tell, Peter decides to have it taken to a lab for testing, the workmen in their home tell them to get rid of it, stating it could be an evil charm to bring harm to its recipient. But before Peter can do this, Jo begins to hear strange noise around the house, she investigates further and soon believes her child may be at risk. Spooky tale, we are never sure what is going to happen until the end, the creature is unsettling too.

What Big Eyes(1976) Donald McWhinnie 8/10 Bob Curry is a very dilligent RSPCA officer who inquires into the illegal importation of rare animals, in this instance its Romanian Wolves. His snooping leads to him to a seemingly innocent looking family pet shop. Here he is given shirt shrift by owner Leo Raymount (Patrick Magee) who tells him its none of his business what he does with them, Curry persists and Raymount regales him with tales of his secret scientific experiments into Lycanthrophy. Curry is dismissive at first, but soon begins to question whether or not there is any credence to his claims. This is an excellent scientific exploration of werewolves, again its very talky, but the dialogue is enthralling and the performances are excellent.

The Dummy(1976) Don Leaver 7/10 A down on his luck actor Clyde Boyd, on the verge of a nervous breakdown after the collapse of his marriage, becomes more disturbed on the set of his latest Horror film, when he realises that the man who stole his wife is also starring in it. After some speedy counselling from the producer who will stop at nothing to keep the production going, Boyd begins to believe he is becoming the monster he is portraying. The costumes in the film within a film are third rate as you might expect, but it's a fine exposition on the horror film business.

I vaguely remember the "Baby" episode of Beasts, which someone describes really above. But it is the opening "Special Offer" episode that stuck in my mind more, mostly because the setting was so mundane.

Like most throwaway 70s telly, I only saw it once, but I vividly remember Pauline Quirke playing a checkout girl in a supermarket who became obsessed with the store's cartoon mascot (a rabbit, I think) called Brightway Billy. She started hallucinating about seeing the rabbit in the shop. I was 12 when it was shown and it totally creeped me out, and created an atmosphere of insanity and hysteria in a very bland setting. At school the next day, every was imitating Pauline Quirke's moon face calling out for "Billy!".

I saw During Barty's Party when it was first shown on British TV in 1976; I was twelve and it was a special treat from my grandparents, whose house I was staying at. I had nightmares for weeks! This is a wonderfully crafted story: two actors and the suggestion of a terrible, unseen threat worked together in scaring the undergarments off this viewer! Some of the images, notably the last one, have stayed with me for 30 years. Do NOT watch this alone.

Without giving too much away: as the story unfolds, everything works by suggestion. Washed-out, bleak 70's British TV production values help in establishing the normality that horror needs as a baseline for all the nastiness to happen against. And the ending is truly haunting.

All of these were entertaining to some degree; 'Baby' was genuinely scary, with a creepy build-up and a final scene that made me make an incoherent noise of terror. I remember kids at school who were somehow allowed to watch that one coming in traumatized the next day, huddling together wide-eyed in a sort of support group. I quite understand now: it almost did for me as a grown man.

I only recall seeing 2 episodes of this six-part series - "Buddyboy" & "Baby". The first of these, a tale of an old aquarium haunted by the spirit of a dolphin(!) was entertaining enough - but the latter was the one that stayed with me. "Baby" features a young couple who move into a centuries-old farmhouse and in the process of renovation uncover some kind of mummified farmyard freak walled up in an old chimney breast (IIRC). From this point on, the atmosphere of tension and unease mounts as more and more peculiar things begin to occur in their new home. The climax comes when the expectant mother wakes up one night having heard something downstairs... When I saw this particular story I was 9 years old. I experienced weeks of sleepless nights as a result, and more than one nightmare. Of course, I did have a rocking chair in my bedroom at the time (those of you who remember this story will realise the significance of this). Ever since the DVD format took off I've been hoping for a release of this series. The BFI originally planned to include a couple of episodes of "Beasts" as extras for their release of Nigel Kneale's "The Year Of The Sex Olympics". This plan fell through due to prohibitive costs. Given that so little of Kneale's work now remains unavailable on DVD, perhaps it's time that some enterprising company looked into unleashing "Beasts".

Update as of 20/06/08:

The good news is that, 2 years or so ago, someone decided that there was some mileage to be made out of one of Nigel Kneale's best unreleased works, so "Beasts" finally saw life again on a 2-disc DVD set, with a nice crisp transfer that is at least as good as the original transmission quality. There are some extras, too, including a stills gallery, a few PDFs, a well researched booklet on Kneale's televisual work and, for me, what amounts to the best extra in this mini box set - "Murrain", a one-off TV play that originally screened in 1975 and can in some ways be viewed as a sort of forerunner of the "Beasts" series itself.

Did I enjoy watching "Beasts" again? Yes, I most certainly did. It's held up very well over the years, and doesn't show its age too badly. I now know that I did see more episodes of the series back in 1976 than just "Buddyboy" and "Baby" - I now recall having seen "Special Offer" (with a hilarious performance from Pauline Quirke, of all people) and "The Dummy" (some nice turns from Clive Swift, Bernard Horsfall and Michael Sheard - good Brit character actors all). My second viewing of "Baby" could not possibly hope to stand up to the terror of my original experience - but it's still an effective little chiller which will give most viewers (particularly the more imaginative) an enjoyable frisson of disquiet. The episode "During Barty's Party", which I did not see on its original transmission, is also highly recommended.

"Beasts" is a rediscovered gem of 70s archive television and represents Nigel Kneale doing what he did best. Watch and enjoy.