Necropolis: Legion

Chris Alexander takes the concept of the original 'Necropolis' and transports it to his own cinematic world. Anyone familiar with his 'Blood' films will know his style and his settings - he crafts trance-like, lingering studies of women in isolation, on the edges of cities or in remote rural scenes. Here, the hauntingly beautiful farm house in which the central character encounters the ancient evil is perhaps Alexander's most striking setting yet; the film is like an Andrew Wyeth painting animated by Jess Franco or Jean Rollin!

Much of the success of the film comes from the way in which Augie Duke's Lisa seems to merge organically with the farm house interiors. There is a hypnotic and indeed subtly erotic interplay of body and space, achieved through Alexander's almost fetishistic focus on her hair, the colour and tone of which is reflected and extended in walls and fabrics. This compelling aesthetic scheme highlights the main dramatic theme - the house, as an extension of Eva, is a sensually vampiric environment, drawing on Lisa's essence, consuming and possessing her.

Until now Alexander's films have been largely free of dialogue and it is a joy to hear richly melodramatic speech being such a key element in this film. The wonderfully emphatic notes hit by the actors are echoed in the music, much of which is, as usual, by Alexander himself, but with the glorious complement here of a lush main theme by the great Richard Band.

A significant concluding thought at the time of writing is that the film works as a powerful fever dream of isolation...and infection - an infection that spreads across distance and time. Eerily topical...