is there a name or a phrase for or anything much written about that distinctly British CREEPY VIBE prevalent in TV shows and movies of the '60s/'70s? (e.g. The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, Baker-era

*jimmy saville reference*

A friend of mine posted this sequence from The Boy from Space a couple of days ago on Facebook with the comment "This gave me nightmares as a kid!" Clicking on the link brought back a weird rush of nostalgia mixed with half-remembered terror:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzJ4yWDNSo0&feature=youtu.be

Dammit, buggered the embed there, sorry. It's worth watching!

Good call on the Boy from Space link and Pob.
Here's one I forgot. OK so it's way O/T cos it's Spanish, but it is 70s and one of the creepiest things I remember seeing on TV in the 70s.
Took me an age to track down cos I only remembered imagery and nothing else. Didn't even realise it was Spanish, then a guy I worked with mentioned his Spanish girlfriend had seen this creepy short ... and I was reunited.
It's called La Cabina:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFeERCVkAPg

Once again, how did a kid younger than 10 get to watch something like this!?!?!? The TV was my babysitter back then.
Oh and while I'm here - - again way O/T - but can anyone remember a film. My memory of it is sketchy but here's what I *think* it was:

- black and white
- I'd guess 40s or 50s and British
- This is really sketchy but... I think a man looks at a painting of a big manor house, and is transported into the painting/house. He proceeds to encounters the strange residents, including an old guy who captures people and makes them trophies in the same way you'd caprture butterflies - something to do with sticking a pin through their abdomen, paralysing them and mounting them in a case. And he wants to do it to this new guy, but can't remember if he got away or not. Maybe I had to go shopping with my mum to Bishops and missed the end(!)

Sincerely sorry but OCD and this thread don't combine well.
Some more I thought of more in line with ogirinal theme of this thread:

OK so I was going to add these but I just searched and see they were already mentioned:

Quatermass 1979 Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_JOM-m5iUY
Witchfinder General - film with Vincent Price (I own this on DVD but can't bring myself to watch it again it's *that* ewwwwwww - beautiful cinematography though it has to be said.)
Children of the Stones

I think this also qualifies though:
The One Game

And these definitely fall under general British weirdness factor:
Excalibur
Mr Pye
Dominic Hyde
The Phantom Raspbery Blower / The Worm that Turned (both mini-serials that featured in The Two Ronnies)

Amazes me they don't make some cheap wins and replay this stuff from time to time instead of some of the bad new stuff.

I am watching The Wicker Man right now after a chance evening conversation about it.

Jealous

Great posts Geronibload. Will check these

that creepy gruesome animated sinbad by karel zeman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF_g5Kx7T4o&list=FLnOUBk1MGiej9OQigpX8B9w&index=77
with disabled green alcoholic piggyback abuser @ 24 mins

aw poop i was doing my very damnedest NOT to embed that fer cryin out loud !

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f9XlZ0ImI1U/UQ-5YwFySKI/AAAAAAAAA44/WR4LYc8XEl8/s1600/Children+and+hallucinogens.jpg

From the Scarfolk Council blog, which might be of interest to readers of this thread.

Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay."

I looked at that and although I liked a lot of it at times it was trying way too hard.

Aw, I love it!

I think calling the guy 'Spangles' in the tourist information poster pushed me over the edge, although I laughed at "so mote it be".

Nah, I agree with you, aldo. There's some good bits in it, but otherwise... eh.

I guess "wacky" doesn't really gel with "creepy".

sure it does, it's called the 70s.

None of the stuff listed here is wacky in that way. Campy, maybe. But not student japes zaniness.

the scarfolk blog is totally of a kind with the comedy books from 70s england I remember being all over our house, although yeah it's a different strain than the stuff that's the main focus of this thread. definitely related though.

Well, yeah! It's riffing on the stuff that is on this thread, totally. But the tonality it chooses sets it up as external to this stuff. It's a parody more than it's a pastiche.

It's like Ghost Box (which, although I like in principle I also feel is a bit over-egged) done for comedy by the Charlie Brooker that's completely run out of ideas.

See, I don't think that GB is over-done. They don't often write massive backstories, their presentation is mostly kept to sound and design, and the stories they have are firmly based in prosaic realism, not zany surreality.

See I've tried, but a record like... We Are All Pan's People, for argument's sake, just turned me off.

I like that Scarfolk blog - the posters are really well done. Great idea.
Also, talking of parodies, I assume you've all seen Garth Marenghi's Dark Place? God I loved that show but they only made 6. Definitely an 80s parody though, not 70s, but more importantly it parodies low budget, weird horror - albeit badly acted, produced, directed, ...
Parts of it remind me of some of the Hammer stuff, things like The One Game, Dr Who, Children of the Stones, but all ridiculously tongue in cheek. I suppose having lived in Romford helps too!

Garth Marenghi is far closer to the likes of Shaun Hutson and Guy N Smith than this thread imo.

Oh I don't know ... "characterized by spartan production values (which are generally made a virtue of), often a surface sense of middle-class normalcy masking something sinister, and also often a hidden authoritarian and/or supernatural power."
Yeah definite paralells between those authors and the author in the show.

Think I'll build a fire and watch some of these tonight... not much winter left down here, could be the last chance.

'la cabina' is a proper little nightmare, thanks for posting it geronibload.

Hey So' - yeah I'm sorry about that. Imagine seeing it as a kid though! It's so O/T from the original thread I shouldn't have posted it here really - it just popped into my head while I was thinking of the other stuff.

Just want to call attention to this show, as followers of this thread may dig it:
The Returned (French supernatural drama on Channel 4)

Can't believe no-one on this thread's mentioned The Changes. Super creeped me out as a kid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYkkfBMK-7c

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/styles/disk-product-image/public/disk/robin-redbreast-dvd.jpg http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/supernatural-1977-001-dvd-pack-shot-212x300.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BMBNJWspL._SY300_.jpg

^ all out at the end of the month, but i've never seen any of them myself. any good?

someone tell me that's steven stapleton in robin redbreast

Robin Redbreast has not been repeated since 1971, and yet is often recalled by viewers of the time, probably because of its eerie atmosphere, and particularly for its horrifying and surreal finale.

Not seen any of those, let me know if they're good.

its eerie atmosphere, and particularly for its horrifying and surreal finale

sounds like my journey to work tbh

anyway, if it really hasn't been repeated since 1971 then i'll be surprised if anybody here's seen it. the cover made me want to not read any more of that synopsis tho so i don't spoil it.

Another couple of things that are coming out as part of this BFI gothic thing are Schalcken the Painter, and Scary Stories ("a collection of creepy kids films from the Children’s Film Foundation featuring The Man from Nowhere, Haunters of the Deep and Out of the Darkness") *blank look*

Dead Of Night - The Exorcism is on YouTube.

always glad to see this great thread revived!

Robin Redbreast is being touted as 'the folk-horror precursor to the Wicker Man'. The alternative cover for it:

http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/robinredbreast.jpg

saw this one recently. kim stanley's face in lighting is v creepy.

http://www.leytonstonefilmclub.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/seance_on_a_wet_afternoon_uk_dvd.jpg

I like how http://scarfolk.blogspot.ca/ satirizes these aesthetics and is sometimes legitimately creepy in its own right

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f9XlZ0ImI1U/UQ-5YwFySKI/AAAAAAAAA44/WR4LYc8XEl8/s640/Children+and+hallucinogens.jpg

ha! oh damn - must read whole thread

I love Seance, Matt P.

Not sure whether this has been mentioned yet but series 3 of the League of Gentlemen is such a rich and under appreciated exercise in this style

In other news I've started watching the Children of the Stones and it's great!!

Since this thread has been bumped, I'd like to put forth an idea of mine for discussion: Am I the only one who sees the movie Hausu (1977) as a Japanese culture-bound manifestation of similar uncanniness?

Dead Of Night is ok. I had seen the first episode before so skipped it, but from memory it was quite good. The second story is rather uninteresting but Anna Massey is good value in the third.

Struggling with Supernatural. Two episodes in and it's heavy Gothic pastiche with little to recommend it. Maybe it will pick up.

In order to pitch in to this excellent thread I can only add that The Omega Factor was not just shown in scotland, though it may have been a northern thing as I was living in Darlington at the time.

Am I wrong to think that some of the uncanniness in the many HTV productions persisted into Robin of Sherwood