"There are things in control of you that you know nothing about, and it's probably just as well you don't."—Lindsey C Vickers
For the 17th TMR Movie Roundtable we welcome back our good friends Frank Johnson, Antony Rotunno and Mark Campbell for another four-way discussion, this time on the cult British supernatural horror film The Appointment (1981/2) starring Edward Woodward and directed by Lindsey C Vickers.
"An evil and enigmatic entity throws a family into turmoil in Lindsey C. Vickers' much sought-after cult horror. Unable to attend his daughter’s violin recital, suburban father Ian—played by Edward Woodward (The Wicker Man)—is haunted by a series of prophetic nightmares that seem to foresee a looming tragedy. Are dark forces gathering to be unleashed upon him?"—BFI.org.uk
After initial screenings at film festivals in the early 1980s, The Appointment wasn't released in cinemas or on television (for various unfathomable reasons) but only on home media, although it did eventually get broadcast on UK regional television in the 1990s—a showing that, ironically enough, its director missed! Ever since, many have searched for the film—religiously scanning TV schedules and hunting in second-hand shops in the hope of tracking down one of those old VHS or Betamax video tapes—but it was not until 2022 that the film became widely available once again thanks to the British Film Institute and the film's director Lindsey Vickers (who was extensively involved in the project). The Appointment is now available on Blu-ray Disc as part of the BFI Flipside series (see show notes).
Join us as we discuss the production and reflect theologically/philosophically on the themes and meanings of this almost-lost cult British movie.
