Chad

Spiderbite

I was excited to watch this since I have Severin's boxset All The Haunts Be Ours and not watched it yet. Having listened to Severin's podcast before they released this, this short film sounded like one of the more interesting films included.

Well...it starts interesting enough but devolves into an insipid, dull affair. If you like micro-low budget and bizarre but also slow and dull...then this is your film! Seriously...how in the world can a 56-minute film feel like an eternity? Well...when nothing happens is a good guess. Watch dance scenes go on and on! Watch dialogue that goes nowhere and pointless happen frequently! Watch how it appears every actor was picked up off the street and offered 10 bucks for a few hours of their time!

With such a great folk tale at the beginning, it is maddening to watch such a promising story go absolutely nowhere.

My rating: *1/2 out of *****

ps...even though the film is only 56 minutes long, I am assuming it counts as "1" whole movie on our lists? If so, that may be the only positive thing I can take away from this viewing.

brainee

While I don't think I'd call this movie "good", it was certainly something ... different. Never heard of it before, and I probably wouldn't have watched it if I wasn't a pick here (and I'm glad I did see it). I do have questions though.

So the "Tilbury" is conjured ... and just shows up and gets to be a high ranking officer? Is this some kind of mind control magic?
What's the endgame for the girl? A creature that steals milk sounds good in the middle ages. In 1940? Not so much. I guess she can start a chocolate business. But it can't be good for business if eating the chocolate makes you drool green and pass out. Maybe it was worth it to the girl to have a kick-ass dance partner?

I agree Spiderbite ... the English-speaking actors reminded me of the Americans who would have bit parts in old Japanese monster movies. Sounding like they just pulled random guys off a military base and threw them in there.

Gobear

I agree, this movie is dullsville. The opening started out with a helpful explanation about the creation of tilburis, but the story went nowhere. Aslo, how did the tilbiri become a British army officer?

WillieMLF

Has anyone seen any of the other films in this set? I've been reading the Penda's Fen book and it's a bunch of compiled essays on the film.

Spiderbite

I haven't yet.

I am halfway through the big documentary in the set (figured I would watch that first before the other movies) and it is exceptional. It is also 3 hr. and 15 minutes long, but it doesn't drag at all. Highly recommended so far.

Undeadcow

This seems like the sort of allegory with a lot of political subtext that might escape me but be more seething about Britian and Iceland if I knew more the history; and it's hit on just a bit at the end.
The Tilbury myth is an awkward one suggesting an obsession with dairy that feels out of it's time even for the 1941 setting of the movie - and the controller's motive appears to be chocolate oriented even to the climatic reveal of a Hershey's ghoul seeding Iceland with a new brand of chocolate.
I think Tilbury had a lot of potential and the bookends intro and ending show it but there is a lot of dull filler in the middle.

According to IMDB Tilbury is a 'TV movie' so it should count for that checklist item, and if so it's a curious feature for television.

Toddarino

The leg nipple, the cameo by the pig nosed guy from Star Wars and the bizarre Twin Peaks dance number were the highlights.

brainee

I didn't know anything about Iceland's role in WW2, so it was interesting for me to be exposed to it (and it had me doing some reading up on the subject afterward). Like, I had no idea that England outright invaded and occupied Iceland early in the war (who were officially trying to stay neutral but Allied intelligence thought were leaning too much towards the Axis side for their comfort). And that America took over as the occupying force in 1941 (which the movie shows at the end).

And there was some resentment amongst the Icelandic men about how the British soldiers were coming in and "defiling" their women. Which is a theme that ran in this movie. In the mid 80s, there were still plenty of people around who were alive during the occupation (and strong feelings like that can be passed down a generation).

Trevor

I watched it initially as a bizarre low budget Lynchian movie with too much vomit, but found it oddly compelling. Afterwards, I read it had political subtext so researched the British occupation of Iceland during WW2. It made me appreciate the film more.

So this probably lowest budget film of the Challenge taught me something! And it fulfilled one of the tougher for me checklist items, 16 mm iirc.

clckworang

I picked this one because I knew it was short (just under an hour), fit the TV movie category, and had an odd premise. After the initial opening, it does drag for a stretch, but once things get going, I think it does indeed bring the weird. I guess I sort of like it just for the oddity that it is. I totally understand it isn't for all, but that's also why I wanted to subject people to it.

I watched it previously, so I decided to give the audio commentary a listen this time. There was some interesting information, much of which was covered in this thread. Like the movie, it takes a little bit to get going, though.

I haven't seen all, but I've watched a few. I've enjoyed the ones I've seen for the most part. I like that they feel a bit like artifacts specific to these different cultures.

clckworang

Speaking of films I've inflicted upon you all in past challenges, you can pre-order your 4k edition of Dr. Caligari at the Mondo Macabro site on Oct. 31.

jholmes

I gave this a 1/5 stars. Really painful. The Icelandic folktale was interesting, but I didn't gibe with the movie. I agree with GoBear--how did this TIlbury creation get to be an officer in the British army? And what was the girl trying to achieve by making the Tilbury and chocolate? Maybe it's silly to even try to make sense of this.

I find it surprising this was made in 1987. It felt quite a lot older. Since it's set in the 40's. I suppose that's a compliment.

WillieMLF

I guess you learn something new everyday. I thought I recognized the band playing Georgia on my Mind? Seems it was originally written in the 30s which would make sense where the band was playing it in the 40s during the dance sequence.

Regarding the movie, I'm somewhat at a loss as what to say. I'm glad it was brief, and I'm sure I will be thinking about this one for a while.

wishbone

This was an odd movie for sure.
I paused the movie early on to better understand Iceland in World War 2 as well. From that reading I heard one of the women say Ástandið when the subtitles mentioned the 'situation' between Icelandic women and Allied troops. Tilbury seemed more effective as a period piece than horror but it was a quick watch at under an hour.

numbercrunch

I watched the whole box set with special features. The documentary is great. my favorite in the set is clear cut and witchhammer

Trevor

ororama

This must be one of the strangest creatures from folklore to have its own horror movie, more grotesque than horrifying.

I took the butter/chocolate aspect of the story to be metaphoric rather than literal. There is an reference to the concept of guns and butter late in the movie, and references to troops giving away gum and chocolate, and apparently the war was very good for the economy.

There was a sexual subtext that was consistent with the resentment of Icelandic men about competition with foreign soldiers for Icelandic women, with Gudrún's gentle but pointed sexual mockery of Auðun, suggesting that she considered him sexually immature long before she went to Reykjavík. There was obviously some sort of sexual encounter involving them and Sigrún after their First Communion, and presumably he somehow screwed it up, probably as a result of his prudery. The sexual aspects of the story probably go beyond Icelandic politics, and into the relationship between witchcraft and female sexuality.

Thanks for recommending this, clckworang. I'm interested in folklore based horror, and probably wouldn't have found this without your recommendation.