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Pitch black horror comedy set in a crumbling, chaotic, near future hospital staffed by grotesque cartoon-like characters. When Dr Penny Seconds lover is murdered, and her father falls into a coma, Detective Stiltskin starts to investigate. The tone of this film is almost unique.There are similarities with Greenaway, and Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital, but this is much stranger and more stylized. The sets sometimes resemble theatre sets. Peta Lily as the "normal" character at the heart of the piece is excellent, as is Phillip Pellew as the repulsive Stiltskin. The rest of the cast vary. Its quite watchable, with some gore (live dogs sewn inside murder victims, plus Stiltskin ripping out his radio control implants), plus a couple of sex scenes. But at the end of the day it all makes little sense. You just have to take this film on its own terms.

The everyday tale of the McDonald family, (Father Gyles, his wife, two sons and a daughter... all called Ronald), who live their disgusting lives on their farm on an island off the coast of Cornwall. When sent to get their goat "seen to", the drunken Gyles (the superb Michael Balfour) does the job himself. The resulting birth of a half human half goat creature leads to all hell breaking loose. The tone of this film is not unlike the evil dead, dark but funny. The performances hit just the right note, and the special effects are surprisingly good. The humour is gross, but the film hits most of its targets. Sadly it was one of the last films Michael Balfour and Michael Ripper ever made. Still, not a bad way to bow out. Recommended.

Given that this is based on a Clive Barker story, and contains some major acting talent it should be good. It's NOT good, and the blame for that rests squarely with director George Pavlou.It could have been an interesting melding of the crime/horror genre, but takes every wrong turn possible.

Larry Lamb is a good actor, but he is so hopelessly miscast here as the hard man reluctantly dragged back into the criminal underworld, that there is a gaping hole at the heart of the film where a central character should be. In fact most of the normally reliable actors here, turn in awful performances.

The sets are awful (the neon tube underground lab looks like a Gary Numan stage set). The costumes are awful (the gangsters dress like Duran Duran). The music is awful, and the dialogue is awful. The script is so bad its difficult to imagine Barker had anything to do with it. At one point "our hero" is injected with the deadly transmutating drug, absolutely nothing happens to him, its simply not referred to again !. In playing down the horror element, and playing up the crime element, the producers missed an opportunity to produce a piece of contemporary horror, and instead produced a cheap looking Mockney version of Miami Vice. Most of the people involved leave this off their c.v.'s. I'd certainly leave it off your shopping list.