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| Courtesy of BFI Video |
A film originally made as a television pilot
for the ill-fated A Step in the Wrong Direction supernatural anthology
series that never came to be before executives hastily dumped it as a
standalone theatrical feature, The Appointment has since gone on to
amass status as one of the top-to-bottom strangest examples the horror genre
has ever produced. Originally thought to be lost until a single broadcast tape was discovered, the film now has a chance to catch up to its cult reputation as a most peculiar offshoot intended for TV that somehow snuck in and out of theaters.
Some untold years ago a young girl is walking home from
school by way of the woods when an invisible entity seems to yank her from
sight, causing authorities to fence off the woods. Decades later upstanding family man Ian
(Edward Woodward) lives with his wife Dianna (Jane Merrow) and young daughter
Joanne (Samantha Weysom) who has been practicing intensely for her upcoming
violin recital. At the last-minute Ian
is called into a work-related appointment that prevents him from attending Joanne’s
recital, leaving her heartbroken. Soon Ian and
Dianna begin experiencing strange prophetic nightmares involving Rottweilers
stalking the premises and a potentially fatal car accident which
grow steadily more real with time. Coincidence or the work of unseen spiritual forces?
Best remembered for maybe the most baffling car crash sequence
ever staged, replete with slow-motion shots of clothing and a suitcase flying
out the window before the vehicle proceeds to stand upright on its nose, a
strange “accident” involving a mechanical car repair and scenes where the crew
seems to toss an armful of big black dogs onto the windshield, The
Appointment is at times more peculiarly funny than frightening. Despite generating a creepy mood with its
many running long takes of scenery real and/or imaginary lensed handsomely by Wake in Fright cinematographer Brian West and boasting a moody score by
legendary The Sender composer Trevor Jones, The Appointment is so eyebrow raising the concerted efforts to generate fear are threatened.
Edward Woodward is dependably good in the piece, channeling
his good cop everyman vibe in The Wicker Man with many scenes of
extended dialogue and intense delivery.
Jane Merrow from The Lion in Winter is also good as a devoted wife
and mother who finds herself plagued by bizarre inexplicable nightmares. Young child actor Samantha Weyson brings a certain
measure of creepy child horror aura to the role of a girl who might have some
dealings with the devil. Mostly, this is
director Lindsay C. Vickers one and only chance to flex horror muscles far more
dumbfounding than the likes of M. Night Shyamalan aspire to be. Evidently heavily choreographed and
storyboarded, some of the film’s wildest cranium splitting scenes just baffle
the mind’s eye with startlingly peculiar narrative choices. The message of the film involving neglectful
parenthood is deceptively simple but The Appointment couldn’t be any
weirder about it if it tried.
Perhaps the oddest film since The Visitor in terms of
sheer abandon of logic and reason while sort of being a traditional
supernatural thriller on paper, The Appointment as part of the BFI’s
ongoing Flipside series unearthing forgotten or neglected gems represents a
concerted effort to rerelease a film that has been completely lost to
time. Made in 1981 on 35mm film with a
brief theatrical exhibition before going to VHS and Betamax tape, the film
elements were never recovered despite years of extensive searching with only a
one-inch broadcast tape held in the Sony archives being the only survivor.
Much like the BFI’s DVD for Ken Russell’s The Devils,
the tape masters provided have been cleaned up to give this only-on-tape movie
a chance to still be seen by moviegoers keen on the wacky, wild and wonderful
side of overlooked British horror. In
spite of the low-fi appearance akin to such tape sourced blu-ray releases as Victims
or Deadly Prey, The Appointment doesn’t disappoint in terms
of the sheer oddball factor while also giving viewers another example of Edward
Woodward as a kind of heroic figure of unusual British horror. You won’t find another example of the English
supernatural cinematic scare fest quite as derailed or warped as this, a truly
one of a kind go-for-broke hard swing that doesn’t always work but isn’t easily
forgotten!
--Andrew Kotwicki
