Review of Red

Red (1976)
7/10
Bizarre Mid 70s British erotic horror short
21 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Though I've only seen this film once - and then over 25 years ago, much of its detail has stayed with me due to its erotic content - seen at a time when as a 16 year old I was very impressionable. I'll run through the plot, as, at a guess, I doubt anyone will get a chance to see it.

I saw the film in Guildford, UK - probably in 1979. It was a short feature in support of the dreadful Omen 2 (William Holden etc). This was at a time when shorts were not infrequent in support of a main film in the Uk. I went with a group of friends one afternoon, and this was an X, (or 18 cert) so we were over a year too young to get into the film - the first time I had done this.

The film was written and directed by Swedish starlet Astrid Frank, who makes a brief appearance as a maid with a low neckline. Essentially, the plot is this: A painter is entertained by a group of 3 troubadours - two males (one played - hilariously- by Roy North who at the time was undergoing some celebrity as straight man to children's TVs puppet fox, Basil Brush on the BBC)and one female, played by the utterly delectable Gabrielle Drake. I remember a rather awful musical sequence a few minutes in.

That night, the unseen painter witnesses a horrible ritual. There is something of an extended orgy, with Gabrielle (extensively nude)tied up and ravished by her two colleagues, who then murder her and cut off her head (the head was quite chilling, I remember). The painter rushes back to his room, and paints the gory scene.

That morning, Gabrielle seems alive and well - except for a ruby red scar around her neck! Quite a twist, eh? (Ahem) I can't tell you whether this was any good or not - it probably wasn't, and it certainly couldn't have been made in todays mainstream, but the film had a profound effect on a teenager during that difficult emergence from puberty...
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