Beware My Brethren [Region B] [Blu-ray]

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scenes of murder and holy manipulation, but it takes a long time to get anywhere of note in the picture. Director Robert Hartford-Davis and

Is this one of the horror films you have been waiting for on blu-ray? Will you be buying this 88 Films release?The film opens with shots of a terrified young woman in a mini skirt fleeing for her life along a riverbank, interspersed with scenes of a Brethren baptism service in full swing complete with gospel-style music and the congregation working itself into a religious frenzy. The girl is finally cornered by her unseen pursuer, strangled, stripped naked and thrown into the river at the same time as a boy is symbolically submerged during the baptism service. Widow Birdy Wemys has become a devoted member of a fundamentalist fire-and-brimstone religious sect called "the Brethren", led by the charismatic Minister. Birdy has turned her sizeable home over to the Brethren for use as a church and a recruiting ground, and her son Kenny has also fallen under their spell. Kenny is a troubled individual, dominated by his overbearing mother, introverted and socially inept. He has taken the teachings of the Minister to heart, and feels repulsed by what he sees as sin, lust and temptation being openly flaunted by the young women he sees as he goes about his daily business.

solitude has destroyed Kenny's perspective on normality, with his need to spread the good word turned into serial killing, unable to deal with the sin The version broadcast on the BBC (22.09.01) is uncensored and thus different to the cut version that played British cinemas (in 1971) and the identical Derann tape release that appeared in 1981.This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. Beware My Brethren" does open unexpectedly, which certainly helps to launch the picture with a great deal of promise. Entering the Brethren Alas, the rest of the film is never so charged and emerges as tame – certainly, there is none of the sadism and nastiness that there is in Pete Walker’s films. As the psycho film it is sold as, The Fiend is relatively disappointing. Robert Hartford-Davies seems more interested in the sexploitation element – having numerous topless female victims running around – than he ever does in generating tension. The following scene where Quinlan's body is discovered in cement, is different in the two versions. The BBC version represents this scene with two shots of nudity (the actress obviously found it hard to hold her breath). The Derann version represents it with an odd, (still photograph?) close-up on the girl's face.

It's that old nutshell of the mother love plot mixed with religious extremism and a ton of symbolism with something to offend the few people who will probably see this film. we open with a church service and a very upbeat Christian song that sounds like it could make the pop charts, and then we see the son of the church's organist going out and killing women he considers unworthy of Christ's grace. Mom has a breakdown then confesses to the Reverend, Reverend punishes mom, and son pays for his sins.

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• INCLUDES FIRST PRESSING MATTE LAMINATE SLIPCASE with NEW ARTWORK BY SIMON PRITCHARD Films are releasing Beware My Brethren aka The Fiend on blu-ray later this month. This release has also had a new restoration so it should be the best version yet. In some ways Brethren is a companion piece or extension to the bleak yet crude Corruption… The film is as equally interesting as any of Pete Walker’s kitchen sink horror and could have easily have been directed by him. In some ways it is a forerunner to Walker’s output such as The House of Mortal Sin…” This blu-ray has had a “2K Remaster from the Original Negative”. It also includes a booklet and a matte laminate slipcase. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.

Also included is a booklet with two essays about the film. Jon Dear’s The Fiend and the Flesh examines some the possible inspirations for the film in real life cases of crime and religious cults. Andrew Graves’ UK Grime Scene attempts to contextualise Brethren’s place in the world of 1970s British horror. The always erudite Flipside maestro Vic Pratt contributes an excellent video overview on Hartford-Davis’ career and the film itself in the One Moment in Time (23 minutes). Film historian Melanie Williams offers a pleasing overview of Ann Todd’s career in the A Woman on A Mission (17 minutes). An original cinema trailer and a comparison of the UK cinema and uncut international versions of the film round up the extras. classic serial killer fashion, share a bit more mutual attraction than the average family bond. The picture doesn't develop it, but a dash of incest damnation just don't have the punch they should, with most of "Beware My Brethren" coming across as a television movie that's occasionally The last difference is to the 'meat-hook scene' where one of Kenny's victims (Suzanna East) initially drowned is discovered hanging on a meat hook. Both versions play the discovery slightly different, the Derann version includes a brief shot of the girl on the meat hook as well as a second shot that zooms in on the dead girls face. The BBC version begins with an additional long shot of the dead girl, and ends on a second shot, that's actually the first shot we see of the body in the Derann version but is more drawn out. The zoom shot from the Derann version isn't included in the BBC version. There is certainly a fine opening scene where scenes of a girl being pursued, strangled and drowned, which is intercut with a baptism and a singer singing a hymn, where Robert Hartford-Davies cuts at appropriate points between lines like “With His blood, set me free … I know what my punishment must be/I have sinned with my every breath and my punishment must be death … And I know with my death I’ll be free.”church and a citywide sprint from Kenny's latest victim, generating some tension as death draws near. It's a weird opening, but sadly, it's the last Birdy (Ann Todd) is a widow who's granted access to the Brethren, an Evangelical cult, to build a church inside her house. She's a devout believer, a This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray/DVD combo. The limited edition slipcover (designed by Earl Kess) was limited to 1,500 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover. Religious fury is slowly unfurled in 1972's "Beware My Brethren" (aka "The Fiend"), a British production that's endeavoring to wind itself up with Vinegar Syndrome (Blu-ray & DVD) (US R0 HD/NTSC), Odeon (DVD) (UK R0 PAL), Image (US R1 NTSC) / WS (1.78:1) (16:9)