The recent discovery in Argentina of the more complete version of Metropolis highlights how easily a film can become "lost". For almost all the 81 years since Fritz Lang's masterpiece was released, the longer version has been talked about and searched for before being discovered, almost by happenstance, in a forgotten corner of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires. If a film as well known and feted as Metropolis can seemingly disappear from the face of the earth, then what chance do movies that came nowhere near changing the face of film have of surviving?
The 1983 horror-comedy Bloodbath at the House of Death, starring Kenny Everett, might not be anyone's idea of a classic - and I'm certainly not attempting to compare it with Metropolis - but it does have as much right to be seen. Bloodbath is a silly, often corny and quite impressively gory spoof of the horror genre, mixing toilet humour with potshots at Alien, The Entity, Poltergeist, The Legend of Hell House and assorted Hammer films. The ongoing Scary Movie franchise treads almost identical ground - which is not to say Bloodbath is pioneering, but rather indicative of what was to follow. It's also the last British film appearance of horror legend Vincent Price, while Everett, whose massively successful TV and radio crossover career is still unmatched, still has his fans, as the repeats of his shows on digital TV channels show. So why has it taken until this month Bloodbath to get a DVD release?
Continue reading...