A remote Scottish island is having an unseasonal heat wave, and the islanders are increasingly drawn into a struggle against mysterious and deadly forces.
I quite enjoyed this movie; I came into it with low expectations and they were mostly met, but it was still a watchable film.
However there are problems; firstly anyone who has been to a remote Scottish island will quickly tell you that, unsurprisingly, there are usually Scottish people there. Also, lush rolling fields, deciduous woodland, and tall trees on the skyline are all features that are largely absent; wild and windswept is more the look.... The setting for the film looks a lot more like the home counties, for the simple reason that it is; the hotel is 'The Swan Inn', in Milton Keynes village, which is still there, and still looking about the same despite having burned down at least once since the film was made.
All the people in the film are glistening with glycerine throughout to signify the heat, and the men all have (rather variable from shot to shot) ridiculously enormous wet marks on their shirts. The ladies seem rather more to 'glow' instead, and Peter Cushing's character (a doctor!) bafflingly doesn't seem to have twigged that keeping his jacket on when it is 108 degrees mightn't be the best idea.
Despite all the mega pit-stains etc it doesn't look that hot; the film was shot in February and it must have been very uncomfortable to be swanning around outdoors in a damp shirt for days on end. Amusingly (and significantly as it turns out) near the beginning of the film, whilst it is meant to be hot, you can very clearly see that it is raining heavily nearby.
The film is hardly a glowing tribute to the cooling systems of British motor-cars (an MG midget boils up after a long drive and a Triumph Renown boils up after less than three miles.....) nor the pressure retaining qualities of a well known brand of bottled lager. Nor is it the finest hour for any of the actors involved, either. Several of them scream horribly in the film and I couldn't help but (rather unkindly) wonder if this is how they sometimes woke up after this film, having had more bad dreams about it.
But Cushing and Lee, not trying overly much, not given a good script to work with, are still eminently watchable by comparison with most other films. And the film isn't badly made for the most part; the rest of the cast are OK really, even if Patrick Allen only has two (barely distinguishable) settings to his voice, both 'very gravelly'.
If you dial in your expectations to '1960s Dr Who movie', plus more suspense and a certain amount of, uh, 'adult interest' (by the standards of the time) then you will have it about right.
Not a brilliant film by any means but certainly worth a watch.
I quite enjoyed this movie; I came into it with low expectations and they were mostly met, but it was still a watchable film.
However there are problems; firstly anyone who has been to a remote Scottish island will quickly tell you that, unsurprisingly, there are usually Scottish people there. Also, lush rolling fields, deciduous woodland, and tall trees on the skyline are all features that are largely absent; wild and windswept is more the look.... The setting for the film looks a lot more like the home counties, for the simple reason that it is; the hotel is 'The Swan Inn', in Milton Keynes village, which is still there, and still looking about the same despite having burned down at least once since the film was made.
All the people in the film are glistening with glycerine throughout to signify the heat, and the men all have (rather variable from shot to shot) ridiculously enormous wet marks on their shirts. The ladies seem rather more to 'glow' instead, and Peter Cushing's character (a doctor!) bafflingly doesn't seem to have twigged that keeping his jacket on when it is 108 degrees mightn't be the best idea.
Despite all the mega pit-stains etc it doesn't look that hot; the film was shot in February and it must have been very uncomfortable to be swanning around outdoors in a damp shirt for days on end. Amusingly (and significantly as it turns out) near the beginning of the film, whilst it is meant to be hot, you can very clearly see that it is raining heavily nearby.
The film is hardly a glowing tribute to the cooling systems of British motor-cars (an MG midget boils up after a long drive and a Triumph Renown boils up after less than three miles.....) nor the pressure retaining qualities of a well known brand of bottled lager. Nor is it the finest hour for any of the actors involved, either. Several of them scream horribly in the film and I couldn't help but (rather unkindly) wonder if this is how they sometimes woke up after this film, having had more bad dreams about it.
But Cushing and Lee, not trying overly much, not given a good script to work with, are still eminently watchable by comparison with most other films. And the film isn't badly made for the most part; the rest of the cast are OK really, even if Patrick Allen only has two (barely distinguishable) settings to his voice, both 'very gravelly'.
If you dial in your expectations to '1960s Dr Who movie', plus more suspense and a certain amount of, uh, 'adult interest' (by the standards of the time) then you will have it about right.
Not a brilliant film by any means but certainly worth a watch.