Horror and comedy strange bedfellows when you think about it. After all the two genres are at extreme ends of the spectrum, well away from each other and they should not really work well when mixed. Of course they do but the problem with putting them together is that sometimes you can get the worst aspects of both types of films. Occasionally though things are bang on, you have horror films that truly gross you out and make you piss yourself laughing. It’s not often that you get genuinely scared but have a good guffaw too though. The crowned king of an example of this is undoubtedly Sam Raimi’s seminal Evil Dead and with part two he upped the anti bringing what became known as splatstick into the equation paving the way for a score of imitators. Great success was found by a few such as Peter Jackson with Bad Taste and Braindead. Others had been at the game for some time before like the debauched excesses of Frank Henenlotter and Troma studios but for every Return Of The Living Dead there was always a Return OTLD part II!
Over in the UK we got our own examples, probably the best and most respected will always be Sean Of The Dead but again before this some cult films were borne. A real oddity and one still highly sought after on DVD is the excellent Revenge Of Billy The Kid a tale of incestuous inbreeding down on the farm on a remote backward island. This brings me very nicely onto this little beauty set in Yorkshire a place where “dirty” traditions are still practised at the expense of the unsuspecting visitor.
Alex Chandon started out making highly regarded (amongst the debauched) and gory short movies such as Drillbit and Bad Karma which we keenly tape traded back in the day. These were great little splatterfests that proved the young director could work his way around some guerrilla film making techniques that were highly proficient as far as special effects were concerned. After the very odd and deranged sci-fi ala Flesh Gordon oddity Pervirella, his debut full length feature, we admittedly scratched our heads but eagerly awaited greatness. We almost got it too with Cradle Of Fear an anthology wrap around movie which helped pave the way for actresses like Eileen Daly and Emily Booth and in the greatest short roll since The Sinful Dwarf also sunk Dani Filth’s film career thankfully forever more. It was a lorra fun though and still is worth a watch with a few beers. Alex has been quiet for a long time but the genre was far from dead in the UK with lots of crap films and some very good, most of the latter due to another rising director Jake West whose Evil Aliens is a firm favourite. Finally Chandon is back and about bloody time. 
As far as I know the director grew up in NW London and around Stanmore but still he obviously thought Yorkshire was an easy target taking this movie to a fictional small community although actually filming in and around Thirsk. I honestly doubt that anyone from oop Tetley’s country would seriously get offended by some of the genre stereotyping here, it is all done in the worst possible taste for the best possible laughs and it could have easily been done inNorfolkbut the county was probably shut. We meet our intrepid cast after viewing a bit of a gory film they are watching on their phone. In my opinion it serves absolutely no purpose other than to get Emily Booth in on the film, nothing wrong with that really though is there? We are off in a van with four ‘urban offenders’ (yeah right call em Juvenile Delinquents and give them the birch) and their mentors, a pally lass who wants to be their friend and win them over and the more authoritative guy who is fair but firm and a bit of a fuddy duddy. What the tearaways are guilty of we are not yet aware but one is a particularly annoying gobshite. They are off to clean up a ramshackle cottage in the middle of nowhere which they do with a bit of moaning before they are treated to a visit to the local pub, The Dirty Hole.
Behind the bar is veteran soap actor Seamus O’Neill who puts in one of many star rolls and enthusiastically wins over every scene he is in. The group are fed local delicacies such as pork scratchings with and without hairs and cloudy lemonade which is tart to say the least. They also meet some of the locals who are a very odd lot and seem in severe need of a good dental practice. Amongst other things they have rather odd vegetable fetishes more of which we encounter the next day when the group go and have a smashing time on some abandoned trains and run into the troublemaking trio of locals again.
From here it all goes very shit for them all literally. Captured and held at the Dirty Hole they are subjected to all manner of depravities at the local show or cabaret as it resembles. This is the worst sort of Northern working men’s club you could possibly envisage though, anything seems to go unless you are one barred local and his ferret (we never do discover why he is barred). If you ever fancied seeing people being tortured by bizarre looking vegetable enhanced characters with gallons of slurry you are in the right place. Things build up to a desperate survival game between the remaining group and the villagers. The villagers like doing things with a song and dance too and long after watching this the song ‘Eeh By Gum’ will be going round in your head. Some of the locals look like they could be in a Yorkshire metal band even without needing a drummer (stones do just as good a job) not sure actually if the cast does include any members of Solstice in disguise? It does however have a fine cast, many recognisable from the likes of Skins and This Is England. 
If you are looking for gore you will not be disappointed, there is gallons of it. As far as influences are concerned I found many wrapped up in this although it is very original too. Namely if a mix of The Wicker Man, the aforementioned Revenge Of Billy The Kid, The League Of Gentlemen, Calvaire, Straw Dogs, Animal Soup and Rivers And Rhodes appeal you are going to enjoy repeated viewing of this little bugger!
The Anchor Bay DVD came with a score of extras running just under two hours. These include video diaries from Alex and others involved in the movie, a massive insightful making of feature and some deleted scenes (which you can honestly see why they hit the cutting room floor).
The only really annoying thing is it seems like the director has nothing in pre-production at the moment. Someone put him to work quickly. Although the Yorkshire Tourist board probably won’t be hiring him, someone really should.
Review Pete Woods
12/11/2012 at 5:36 pm
aye, ah wonder why t’feller wi’ ferrets were barred……….
Top review Pete
12/11/2012 at 5:58 pm
Ha cheers for stopping by, must have been summat to do with what you had down yer britches!