The Flesh and Blood Show Movie Review 339

The Flesh and Blood Show is a British 1972 horror/thriller movie directed by Pete Walker who was well known for his sleazy horrors. It stars Ray Brooks, Jenny Hanley, Robin Askwith and Patrick Barr.

A group of actors are hired by a theatre company and they have to go to a strange threatre in a little seaside town. The director/producer of the group is called Mike (Brooks) and his is there when the actors and actresses start arriving. He has been in contact with their employer and he tells them that they are to work in the theatre on the play. There aren't any places to stay in the town, so they all decide to stay in the theatre for the moment. It is an eerie, spooky place and they are all a little on edge. The actresses are Carol(Luan Peters),Jane(Judy Matheson), Angela(Penny Meredith) and Julia Dawson(Hanley). The actors are Simon(Askwith), Tony(Tristan Rogers) and John. They sleep the night in the theatre and the next day, they look around the town. They meet a guy called Major Bell(Barr) and he seems interested in their play. They tell him he can have a look when they have rehearsed.

Angela goes missing and Mike looks for her. He finds an old guillotine and he thinks that he sees Angela's body and her head cut off. He calls the police, but when they arrive, they find a dummy and Mike looks silly. Everyone is a bit spooked when Angela is found on the pier, half dead. She is taken to hospital, but she dies. It is treated as an accident, but Mike is not so sure. There is someone watching them and he has Angela's head. The group meet a young woman called Sarah and she tells them that she was hired by the same company as they have been. The group try and rehearse, but things are getting stranger by the minute. John goes missing and they think that he killed Carol until his body turns up. The cops are on the case and Sarah gets killed too. There is a killer in the theatre. They all decide to go back to London when they discover that the theatre company doesn't exist and they hear a story about a man who worked in that theatre and disappeared with his wife and an actor in the company. That was years ago, but they think that maybe HE is the one killing people and he must have hired them so he could kill them like he killed his wife years ago.

The climax comes when it turns out that it IS the old actor who was called Sir Arnold Gates and he caught his wife and an actor having an affair. He sealed them up inside a wall in the theatre and he has been killing people since. He had a daughter and she saw what he did. He left her outside a police station and vanished for years, recreating himself as Major Bell! He is caught and taken away by police and his daughter turns out to be one of the group- Julia! This movie was entertaining with some sleaze and some horror. I liked it and it was well worth a watch. I will give it a 6/10.