Rough Magik

This film was intended to be the pilot for a BBC series. The included plot synopses are intriguing and suggest a show that would have slowly built in suspense, character and tension. Had it followed the lead of the excellent Ultraviolet, it would've been one for the ages.

Paul Darrow (Blake's 7) seems an inspired choice to lead the fight against an apocalypse that cannot be averted, only postponed. The opening and closing scenes hit all the right notes and left me hungry for the real meat of the series - a covert government power confronting a deadlier and more implacable power.

The day-for-night shooting of the Falkland scenes made me wish they'd been less ambitious and stuck to the corrupt manor houses that British TV has been using since the days of Department S and The Avengers. And the title's twee spelling of "Magik" seems a terrible mistake for a series so clearly based based upon the works of HP Lovecraft and MI5...

It's just for the Lovecraft readers that want to see every homage to the stories. It doesn't really add anything though the Experiment 17 & 18 are well done. If only someone could pay the spooky stories with some quality film.