Pete Walker brings us a proto-slasher that's now as cornball as can be. Is it worthy of respect in the pantheon of horror? Yes, maybe.

This is a coastal town that they forgot to close down.

A group of actors and actresses have mysteriously been lured to an end of pier theatre to star in a play. Pretty soon they start being bumped off one by one.

So it be! There's plenty of nudity, actors siting around musing on the "biz" and its perils, while the matter of fact attitude to the disappearances is almost as ludicrous as someone opening the door in the middle of the night stark naked...

It's good fun in truth, especially for British film fans like me to see the likes of Robin Askwith and Jenny Hanley in this. The run down theatre setting is a good one, while the play they are rehearsing makes no sense and is quite surreal! 5/10

This murky offering from infamous British horror director Pete Walker isn't really a bad film, it's just not great. The first half of the movie is by far the weakest of the two, a slow-paced bit of to-ing and fro-ing which is so poorly-lit that you actually have to sit about two inches away from your television screen with the brightness turned up to full to make out anything that's going on. The straightforward plot is that of a slasher movie, although bear in mind that this film was released about six years before the slasher film boom so any similarities are purely coincidental. Walker livens up the fairly dismal proceedings with lashings of gratuitous nudity from most of the well-proportioned female cast members as one would expect from a director who previously made THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF GRETA; indeed the film's opening sequence sees an appealing blonde-haired girl answering the door to her house in the nude! Quite why she would do this is anyone's guess...

For a while it's fun to play spot the familiar face, the cast being full of fresh-faced young actors and actresses mainly notable for their television roles in the '70s. Ray Brooks (the voice of Mr Benn) is the would-be producer of the group. Jenny Hanley (SCARS OF Dracula) is a "proper" actress who comes looking for a bit of stage work and finds only death and mystery, whilst Luan Peters, Candace Glendenning, Judy Matheson, and Penny Meredith fill out the rest of the performers who seemingly spend more time in bed with male cast members and technicians than actually rehearsing. Finally, there's David Howey as John, the bleedingly obvious red herring, and cheeky chappie Robin Askwith who gets some ripe dialogue in what amounts to a rather minor part. Patrick Barr is simply excellent in his part as Major Bell, a retired war veteran who lives alone with his dog and gets excited about the prospect of a theatre group inhabiting the long-abandoned pier.

Although Walker is heavy on the nudity, gore fans should seek their dirty thrills elsewhere as what (very) minor gore there is on offer here is almost completely obscured by darkness. Not that the film needs it, mind you: weird characters, bizarre actions, and a mildly creepy atmosphere propel this one along nicely until a fairly major plot revelation about an hour in. Then, surprisingly, things pick up towards the end, incorporating an excellent black-and-white flashback sequence (originally 3D) which plays as a nice little mini-film in itself, and a clever, well-acted finale which shares more than a few similarities with the following year's THEATRE OF BLOOD.

My only complaint with THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW is that Walker should have worked harder to make the final revelation a little bit more surprising as some of it is easy to guess. The film isn't really scary (but then, not many British horror films are, to be honest) and is far from the disturbing, graphic masterpieces like FRIGHTMARE that Walker became famous for later on in his career. But as a somewhat enjoyable, mildly effective proto-slasher yarn with an appealing cast, it deserves a look.

In Pete Walker's enjoyably trashy The Flesh and Blood Show, a group of young actors, preparing for a show in a ramshackle theatre at the end of a pier, become the target of a maniac with a hatred of decadent thespian types. With little in the way of gore, but loads of nudity by way of recompense, this kitschy take on the old 'Ten Little Indians' story (by Agatha Christie) is great fun for those who love 70s UK horror.

The film opens with budding actresses Carol (busty Luan Peters) and Jane (sexy Judy Matheson) being awakened in the middle of the night by a knocking at their door. With Carol leaping starkers from her bed (which she shares with her flatmate!) to see who it is, it becomes clear that Walker hasn't completely forgotten his sex/comedy roots—after all, how many girls do you know that would be happy to open their front door in the nude?

Anyway, the caller turns out to be a practical joker named Tony (he staggers through the door pretending that he has been stabbed),with whom Carol has recently worked on a horror film. No acceptable explanation is given for his unusual arrival at the girls' flat, but after some brief chit-chat, it transpires that both he and the two women have been given a job in a new show. They are to travel to the seaside town of Eastcliff where they will meet the rest of the cast (which includes 'Confessions' star Robin Askwith, and Jenny Hanley, presenter of kids' TV show Magpie) and the producer, Mike (Ray Brooks),to begin rehearsals.

Of course, it's not long after their arrival at the spooky old theatre that the troupe's number starts to dwindle, as the mysterious killer sets to work.

The Flesh and Blood Show might not be as shocking as some of Walker's later efforts, and is certainly not as gruesome, but with every pretty female in some state of undress during the film, a truly hilarious finalé featuring a Shakepeare quoting lunatic, and even a sequence shot in 3D, it is still a film worth seeking out.

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.