The Flesh and Blood Show - Kino Cult #43

First, there were horror films, designed to frighten the masses who willingly shell out their hard-earned cash to be terrified in a darkened theater for ninety minutes. Then there were sexploitation films, designed to titillate and excite the base purient interests of the masses who willingly shell out their earned cash to be hard in a darkened theater ninety minutes…probably less. Then along came Britain’s own prince of bloody cinematic perversion, Pete Walker, to marry the two genres in an unholy alliance of bloody carnal delights. Now, Walker certainly wasn’t the first, or the last, to dip a few fingers and toes into both genres, but his films certainly left their mark on cinema screens - at least once the censors were done scissoring them to death.

It’s on that note that we come to Walker’s bloody production of The Flesh and Blood Show. Have you seen a Giallo film? Have you seen a movie where attractive young actors and actresses deliver gratuitous nudity, whether or not it moves the plot forward? Have you seen a horror film where young people enter a location they know little about and are mercilessly picked off one at a time? Then you’ve more or less caught the goods of The Flesh and Blood Show. 

However, I’ll give Walker and crew credit for a creative spin on old tropes. Starring Ray Brooks, Jenny Hanley, David Howey, and Luan Peters, it’s not long before our attractive cast is playing to the genre basics - taking off their clothes and dying in increasingly gnarly and entertaining ways. That may be dressing down the film a bit more than necessary, but it’s actually a pretty fun little thriller, and it doesn’t shy away from the bare bodies and bloody bits. 

Playing to the mystery angle, a typical murder mystery thriller would survive or die on the blade of the reveal. In this case, the reveal is a gimmick unto itself. It’s a flashback sequence that explains the entirety of why the theater closed after a production of Othello. It’s a stuffed piece of detoured exposition, but it’s a good bit of ghastly business shot in black and white and in 3D (the sequence has now finally been properly aligned by 3-D Film Archive and is viewable in stereoscopic and anaglyphic 3D, more on that in a moment)! A gimmick within a gimmick, if you will. It’s certainly clunky from a storytelling perspective, but it works for what this film was bringing to the screen. 

I guess all of that is a long way of saying that if you have a certain taste for horror films with copious amounts of nudity that make up for any kind of story shortfalls, you’re in good hands with The Flesh and Blood Show. The film certainly lives up to its name! Given that past releases were hardly visual winners, especially the 3D sequence, it’s not a film I’ve come back to very often. If you can’t fully enjoy the entire show, gimmicks and all, it can be a bit of a drag. Sure, that 3D sequence can be viewed flat, but that just makes it look ever more strange and out of place within the context of the film. While I was certainly familiar with this film, I have to say this new Kino Cult release made it feel like a true first-time viewing, where I could fully appreciate it. It’s a daffy picture for sure, one that’ll appeal to a small subset of the horror fandom, but it’s certainly a worthwhile run. Especially if you’re looking to get into Pete Walker features, this is a good first entry for his catalog. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray 
After a single-disc outing and a collection set, Pete Walker’s The Flesh and Blood Show lifts the curtain for another Blu-ray release, this time courtesy of Kino Cult. The 43rd entry in their growing line of genre oddities, the film is pressed on a Region A BD50 disc, housed in a standard clear case with reversible insert art, and has a slipcover. The disc loads to a menu option letting you choose between stereographic 3D for equipped televisions and projectors, or an anaglyph 3D option for that final climax sequence. One pair of anaglyph glasses is included. 

The Flesh and Blood Show is something of a mixed bag of mixed media as a film. Primarily shot on 35mm in 2D, the film has the look and feel of a low-budget feature, making use of a limited number of locations in less-than-ideal conditions. For as long as I’ve known it, the film has always looked pretty rough and a little amateurish with its photography. A friend once put it, “the only time this film stops to properly light a scene and use a tripod is when someone is about to get naked.” I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but it speaks to the film’s focus. Details are generally fairly strong. Facial features (and other parts), the early 1970s clothes, and the creepy spaces within the theater get a nice bit of attention. There’s a fair bit of speckling throughout, but nothing overly serious - the opening credits see the worst of it with the optical printing. I never did buy Kino’s Redemption Films disc because it wasn’t much to look at. 

From memory of renting it, the image was horribly dark and drab, and the 3D sequence, as an extra feature, was headache-inducing. It does look like some effort was put in to ensure colors were a bit more vibrant this go around, with black spaces and shadows looking a little more balanced, avoiding any serious crush issues. Whites are also stronger without serious blooming. Skin tone quality (you get to judge that a lot) is healthy. 

Now, this release delivers the black-and-white sequence properly showcased in stereographic 3D or anaglyph (you can still watch it flat if you’re weird) into the main feature. To my understanding, that climactic reveal sequence was shot on dual-strip 3D with faulty gear (or the gear was fine but improperly used, I’ve read differing accounts of that), resulting in a misaligned image that was a big headache to watch or, at best, just not very effective. I remember the sequence on the old Redemption disc triggering a migraine when I watched it years ago (which is why I never bought it). This round, the wizards at 3-D Film Archive got to go in and realign the sequence, and it’s very effective. It’s still a bizarre gimmick of a scene, but now if you watch it on your enabled TV or projector or if you roll in anaglyph, it at least looks good, the gray scale is strong and healthy for the sequence, and there’s some excellent depth to enjoy. If you like knives popping out at you, there are a couple of fun shots! And nudity too! There is 3-D nudity. Horror, boobs, 3-D, all the bases are covered.

On the audio side, we have a solid enough DTS-HD MA 2.0 track. I believe the last disc was done in LPCM 2.0, and I remember it sounded pretty good, not amazing, but given what the film delivered, it served its purpose. I don’t have any information at hand about a new audio restoration, but overall, I think this audio mix delivers. Dialog, such as it is, is generally clean and easy to hear without issue. Music cues always felt a little abrupt and canned, but the stingers for the main kills and creepy pieces hit their marks. Hiss or damage isn’t an issue. Levels might need a little attention here and there, but once I notched the volume up a couple of spots, I didn’t feel like I needed to keep a thumb on the remote.

Not content with a better visual presentation, Kino Cult orders up a nice selection of new and archival extras for fans to dig into. Starting things off, we have a new informative commentary track with historians Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio. The very interesting Pete Walker interview from the 2014 disc returns - it’s a very good watch to understand what his films went through to reach a release. Then we get some new cast and crew interviews done around 2023, I believe, for the 88 Films release from about two years ago (don’t have that disc, so I can’t swear by it). But they’re new to us, and worth a look if they’re all a little brief. They’re at least illuminating for the conditions the cast were working under. All in all, a healthy little set of extras for a genre feature of ill repute.

• Audio Commentary featuring Kat Ellinger and Martyn Conterio 
• Flesh, Blood, and Censorship - Pete Walker Interview (HD 12:37)
• Jenny Hanley Interview (HD 8:40)
• Stewart Bevan Interview (HD 4:00)
• Terry Madden Interview (HD 9:59)
• Theatrical Trailer
• Radio Spot

The Flesh and Blood Show is certainly a feature film. No denying that. There are opening credits. There are closing credits. And then there is about 90 minutes of bloody nudie mayhem strung in between. The story certainly isn’t the strongest, but for a film of this type, it entertains well and gives you a reason to keep your seat…that is, if you’re there for something other than the gore and naked bits. The film hasn’t always had the best release history, but this new Kino Cult edition is the best I’ve seen. The image is stronger with more vibrant colors, and most importantly, 3-D Film Archive got to work their magic on the climactic sequence, so it's not only watchable but actually exciting to see with stereographic or anaglyphic glasses on! With solid audio and a nice batch of extra features in the mix, if you’re in for what Pete Walker brings to the screen and a 3-D aficionado, this is a handsome upgrade. Recommended