The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)
A anonymous producer assembles a group of actors to be in a play, rehearsing in an abandoned theatre beside the sea before heading off on a national tour. However before long the cast are soon being killed off one by one.
One of director Pete Walker's less celebrated efforts but it's a film i really like. More slasher than Walker's usual kitchen sink horror grittishness, the film plays like an earlier version of Benatti's The Killer Reserved Nine Seats or Soavi's Stage Fright, although this is my preferred film. Walker also weaved elements of his sexploitation films into the mix here culminating in an often sleazy piece of British exploitation.
The Flesh and Blood Show was the first film where Walker had the main protagonist or killer as an older person. Something he would employ to even greater effect in films such in later films.
The film has a great cast of familiar faces from the period - Ray Brooks, Robin Askwith and Patrick Barr immediately spring to mind as well as a fine array of leading ladies in Jenny Hanley, Luan Peters, Judy Matheson and Candace Glendenning.
The 88 Films Blu-ray looks exceptional at times and the 3D segment at the end far better realised than i was expecting having seen it previously as an extra on the Odeon dvd.
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