All Slights Deserved

Well, it finally happened: I got to see a Johannes Roberts film at my local cinema. If somebody had told me this when I sat shaking my head in dismay at the singular incompetence of Sanitarium I wouldn't have credited it. Hopefully it's not the end of the journey but he appears to have arrived somewhere. Storage 24 is a nuts and bolts sci-fi exploitation movie. The premise is a simple one: a US cargo plane has crashed somewhere in London, possibly shot down, for reasons unknown. Part of the wreckage has landed in the grounds of the titular secure storage warehouse, including a mysterious container which has broken open, releasing a nasty monster which seeks refuge in the building. It also causes a power failure, meaning that those who happen to venture inside - including Noel Clarke, the girlfriend he's just acrimoniously split from and attendant friends - find themselves trapped in there with the beast. We've seen it all many times before of course, from T...

Hidden amongst the quatrains of Nostradamus's celebrated Prophecies , published in 1555, is a curious passage which has long baffled scholars: In London, many years from now I shall awaken, disembodied, in a physician's chamber At the behest of a rich and powerful man. But he and I, we shall not be friends. LOL . Baffling indeed, but it seems unlike many of the 'great' seer's predictions it may have some shred of credence. A little over 400 years later came the extraordinary dramatisation of an incident that rocked the foundations of science to its very core... This is the remarkable account of Karl Brussard (George Coulouris ), a massively successful entrepreneur who discovers he's dying from a brain tumour. It's a tragic waste because Brussard , by his own modest admission, is such a fine physical specimen (!). Fortunately Brussard's doctor has heard of a surgeon in London who's been conducting some exciting research in brain transplantation. Bu...

This is a shrew, a small rodent of the order Soricomorpha. Despite being fairly prolific both in Europe and North America (albeit separate sub species) they're quite reclusive and I can't recall ever seeing a live one. My first awareness of these strange little creatures came through a card game called Woodland Happy Famiies, a pack of which could be found sequestered amongst the vast array of junk at my grandmother's house as a kid. I liked the pictures (by the prolific illustrator Racey Helps ) so much that years later I bought a new set for myself. Here are the Shrew Family... Okay, so they're anthropomorphic versions but still recognisably shrews; they have that distinctive snout and beady black eyes. There's really not a lot of mistaking a shrew. These, on the other hand, sure as hell ain't shrews... But they do give a fair idea of what to expect from bargain basement nadir The Killer Shrews . A film that's pretty much ensured a...