By Ben Bussey
It seems the grand old British tradition of cheap and nasty anthology horror is alive and well in the 21st century. We have of course seen our share of anthology horrors in recent years, the most prominent being the V/H/S and The ABCs of Death movies, but we haven’t seen much that really hearkened back to the spirit of old; the 60s and 70s titles, in particular those made by Amicus, which came to epitomise the subgenre. It seems only logical that a contemporary film which recaptures that spirit should be the work of someone who was active in the British horror scene at that time (even if he didn’t work with Amicus himself); so it is that Worst Fears is the brainchild of David McGillivray, actor, journalist, and most famously screenwriter on a number of notorious cult favourites with directors Norman J Warren and Pete Walker, including House of Whipcord, Frightmare, Terror, Schizo and Satan’s Slave. (Years back I gave an unfairly bad review to the latter film, which I hereby officially recant. My assessment at the time was essentially, “it’s nothing but naked people in goat masks, it’s stupid.” Now, my assessment is, “it’s nothing but naked people in goat masks, it’s brilliant.”)
All this having been said, Worst Fears was not conceived as an anthology movie, nor is it a 2016 production in its entirety. Initially it was a series of short films made between 2005 and 2011, produced and for the most part written by McGillivray, who subsequently decided it would be a good idea to link them all up into a portmanteau. Now, thanks to some newly shot link scenes directed by Jake West, and featuring McGillivray himself as a top-hatted host introducing each tale, Worst Fears is indeed a fully-fledged anthology movie.
Of course, we can scarcely fail to note that definitions of low budget filmmaking have changed somewhat since the format’s 70s heyday. Amicus didn’t exactly make the most lavish productions, but they were for the most part very handsome looking films, shot on good old-fashioned celluloid as that was the only option at the time. Today, however, even filmmakers who aren’t necessarily too short on cash tend to eschew film in favour of digital, to varying results. Naturally, Worst Fears has also taken this route, and it’s here that the shorts really show their age: I realise that seems a dramatic statement considering the earliest of them was only made 11 years ago, but we’ve all seen how far low-end digital photography has come in that time, and from the look of things they were most definitely not using high-end equipment to shoot Worst Fears. The whole endeavour has an amateur, home movie-ish look and feel which rather scuppers its chances of ever being held up in quite the same regard as the Amicus movies it aspires to, which is a pity, as in every other respect it clearly stands apart from your average DV-shot microbudget horror movie.
For one thing, it’s very easy to think of microbudget horror as a young person’s game, given how much of it revolves around twentysomethings getting stoned and having sex in cabins and cottages before the inevitable shakeycam monster attack. By stark contrast, Worst Fears has a far greater air of maturity about it, as the bulk of the cast (McGillivray included of course) look to be aged somewhere between their forties and their nineties. The most notable of these elder performers appears in the first story (and one of the best), Tincture of Vervain, which features iconic Carry On Screaming star Fenella Fielding as a high witch who pays a visit to a geriatric coven in a quiet Suffolk village. The film’s other biggest name, the late character actor Victor Spinetti, pops up in the second story Wednesday, which centres on a young Eastern European cleaner (Rebecca Santos, who played a similar role in Seed of Chucky) who gets the assignment from hell when sent to clean the home of the deranged Mrs Furnival (Anna Wing, who has sadly also died since the film was made).
Older characters are not the only under-represented group whose perspective is presented in Worst Fears; as well as the aforementioned immigrant cleaner, we also have stories centred on gay characters in a grounded, non-sensational manner. As such, we might well consider it a progressive piece of work. At the same time, though, Worst Fears really doesn’t feel like a product of today on any level. It’s curious how McGillivray was at least partially responsible for a number of films which really pushed the envelope in the 1970s, yet these tales all feel exceptionally tame by modern standards. There are a few gruesome moments, although (unsurprisingly given the low budgets) these are realised by fairly crude special effects; and while there’s certainly potential at times for a bit of raunchiness – again, not something McGillivray’s shied away from in the past – the sexual elements remain pretty mild.
All things considered, it’s likely Worst Fears won’t be of much interest to anyone who isn’t already an admirer of McGillivray’s work, but for those who do fall into that category it’s definitely worth a look. The extras will be particular fun for McGillivray fans, as in a couple of interviews he speaks with refreshing frankness about the making of the films. There’s also a 30 minute featurette entitled Horror Icon. This psuedo-documentary may be an in-joke too far for some of us, as while it’s partially a chronicle of McGillivray’s career and the screening of the Worst Fears shorts at Frightfest, it consists primarily of staged interviews with McGillivray’s collaborators talking in exaggerated terms about how terrible he is to work with. Still, it’s worth it for Victor Spinetti’s scene alone, if – like me – you think there’s nothing funnier than old people swearing.
Worst Fears will be released to DVD on 5th September, from Nucleus Films – pre-order here.