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Reviews
BBC Sunday-Night Theatre: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954)
The best
There is very little which can touch this programme. Made with extremely limited resources, given the extra strain of being performed mostly live with just a few filmed inserts, Nineteen Eighty-Four had a profound effect on television at the time. Questions were asked in parliament about it, and the BBC came in for considerable criticism at the time for broadcasting it. However, the production found its way into the minds of the public, giving the world such expressions as "Big Brother is watching you". Nowadays Big Brother is little more than the title of a cheap, spineless TV series. Back then it was a terrifying possibility. I've been fortunate enough to see Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I have to say that if TV was still prepared to take risks like this, it wouldn't be seen as cinema's poor cousin any more.
Night of the Demon (1957)
Casting the runes...
This is easily the creepiest supernatural film so far. In an age when special effects mean so much more than the plots, this film looks even stronger. There aren't many effects in the film, but they are all convincing (assuming that you believe what is happening), particularly when the demon makes its appearances. Niall McGinnis, as the demon-caller Karswell, heads a splendid cast in a film which deftly presents the horrific without ever going over the top. Even the concept, that an unstoppable demon could be unleashed on one person by another - is terrifying. To use the hideous old cliche, they don't make them like this any more, which is a great pity because cinema would be much richer if they did.