The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

Director:

Pete Walker

Writer:

Alfred Shaughnessy (writer)

Release Date:

August 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

An Appalling Amalgam of Carnage and Carnality ...

Plot:

Actors rehearsing a show at a mysterious seaside theater are being killed off by an unknown maniac. |

Plot Keywords:

Actor | Theater | Maniac | Beautiful Woman | Female Full Frontal Nudity

Cast

Jenny Hanley	...	Julia Dawson
Ray Brooks	...	Mike
Luan Peters	...	Carol Edwards
Judy Matheson	...	Jane
Candace Glendenning	...	Sarah
Robin Askwith	...	Simon
Tristan Rogers	...	Tony Weller
Penny Meredith	...	Angela
David Howey	...	John
Patrick Barr	...	Maj. Bell / Sir Arnold Gates
Elizabeth Bradley	...	Mrs. Saunders
Raymond Young	...	Insp. Walsh
Brian Tuley	...	Willesden
Rodney Diak	...	Warner
Sally Lahee	...	Iris Vokins

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cromer, Norfolk, England, UK

Trivia:

The film originally contained a 3-D flashback sequence.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As Luan Peters investigates the prop room below the stage she makes a big deal of brushing away cobwebs, but there aren't any.

Movie Connections:

Edited into 42nd Street Forever, Volume 1 (2005) (V)

Superior proto-slasher film

A group of actors and a director are gathered together by a mysterious producer to rehearse a play in a creepy abandoned theater at the end of a pier off the English coast. In "Ten Little Indians" fashion they begin to disappear one by one. This sounds like a typical slasher movie, but in fact it preceded the slasher craze by many years. It was one of those movies like "Schoolgirl Killer", "Fright", and "Bay of Blood" that contained many of the elements of the slasher films and may have even influenced some of them a little, but was made well before "Black Christmas", "Halloween",and "Friday the 13th" initiated the deluge of slasher flicks.

This movie avoids many of what would later become tedious clichés of the slasher films. There's no heavy-breathing POV camera shots. The characters are stupid, but they are not so stupid that they don't notice their friends disappearing. The killer's motivation is actually somewhat believable and doesn't seem like something the filmmakers just pulled out of their collective keisters to justify the carnage. Actually, there isn't much carnage either. Most of the murders actually occur off-screen (blasphemy, I know). But what the movie lacks in blood, it makes up for in T and A. This movie marked a transition in British director Peter Walker's career from softcore sexploitation fare like "School for Sex" and "Four Dimensions of Greta" to his more mature and superior 70's horror films like "Frightmare" and "House of the Whipcord". Not surprisingly, Walker offers a hot shower of generous female nudity to prepare viewers for the sudden cold shower of the terror scenes.In the hilarious opening scene, for instance, an incredibly voluptuous actress is awakened by a knock on her door at three in the morning, so she gets out of her female "roommate's" bed and answers the door completely naked.

I'd recommend this movie to anyone, but people who like Pete Walker, and slasher movies that are actually well-crafted and scary will especially enjoy this one.