I was a huge fan of the original movie, one which only improved with repeated exposure. We reviewed it not once but twice, then wrote in depth about the original script in Trash City #12 and it’s undeniably a case where the film could simply not be made today. It came out a decade before Columbine pushed school violence front and centre. While I can hardly call that “a kinder, gentler time,” its pitch-black humour regarding the topic would be considered thoroughly inappropriate these days. Though as writer Daniel Waters points out, “No one wanted it to be made in the late 80s, either.” Still, it became a musical, about which I have absolutely no interest. Then, in 2018, a TV series was made – the third attempt to do so – and that’s when the shit truly hit the fan.

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I was watching the Netflix documentary, Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story, over the weekend. I was reminded of the time, over 20 years ago and well before he was officially outed as a massive pedophile predator, when I brushed tangentially against him. In 2000, I had published a spoof Have I Got News For You transcript supposedly detailing out-takes from the show episode in which he appeared, and which saw Paul Merton tear into Savile mercilessly. Demon, my hosting provider at the time, got hit with a legal take-down notice.

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A Netherlands television series from the sixties is not something you would typically expect to be covered here. But in this case, there are a couple of interesting people who were very much involved. They would both go on to achieve international fame, at a level likelyfar beyond what was expected when beavering away in Dutch TV. The star of the show was then unknown theatre actor, Rutger Hauer. But the director would also go on to greater things, making Robocop, Total Recall and Showgirls. For it was none other than Dutch cinema’s greatest export, Paul Verhoeven (on set, above).

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Very disappointed in the lack of actual cephalopods. Would not watch again. Two stars.

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The Dyatlov Pass Incident is one of the weirder events of the 20th century. Nine Soviet hikers were found dead on the side of a remote Siberian mountain, in very unusual circumstances. Some were half-clad. Others had crushing injuries. Their tent had been ripped open from the inside. Theories for what happened range from the prosaic (avalanches triggering a panicked exit) to the esoteric (UFOs, naturally).

Nobody knows for sure what happened, which makes speculation all the more fun. There have previously been both documentaries and fictional features about the event. Now, comes this 8-part Russian TV series which while fictional, is based on official records, and purports to tell the true story of what happened in 1959.

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