No Subject

[Neil Calton <nbc@vd.rl.ac.uk>]

Well, friday afternoon I type in a message saying I had not seen
the 'Experiment IV' film, then I go home switch on the TV and what do
I see but 'Experiment IV' on 'The Tube' - there must be a higher force
after all!

Anyway, the video was directed by Kate herself and features two well-known
character actors Peter Vaughan and Richard Vernon, plus two of the new wave
of British comedians: Dawn French (from the Comic Strip) and Hugh Laurie
(Saturday Live). 

Assuming its not been shown in the US yet, the scenario is as follows: 
(obvious *** SPOILER *** for those who wish to be surprised by their 
first viewing).

 An old man (Vernon) enters a small shop called 'Music for Pleasure'
 which leads into a secret research lab. where he is met by a white-coated
 scientist (French) and taken to a small room filled with sound equipment
 controlled by another scientist (Laurie). They then go to see a military
 officer (Vernon) who shows them a file marked  'For the attention of Prof.
 Jerry Coe' and asks for 'a sound that can kill'.

 The Prof. is visibly upset but proceeds to record various sounds which
 are then played back to a man strapped up in a chair with electrodes
 all over him. The sounds cause a ghostly apparition of a girl with long
 blonde hair (Kate) to be generated, who floats around the guy before
 transmogrifying into a nightmarish ghoul-like spectre. At this, the Prof.
 attempts to switch off the machine but the creature breaks out causing
 everyone to drop down dead (through fear, insanity ?). The military
 man is then seen being brought tea by a uniformed woman (Kate) who
 also transmutes into the creature - with the resulting demise of said officer.
 The film closes with the scene around the music shop being cordoned off and
 'prohibited' signs being errected by a military man in a van. As the van
 drives off it stops to pick up a girl hitch-hiking (Kate) who turns to
 camera, winks and puts her finger to her mouth - still frame closes.

I enjoyed the film immensely and having taped it have viewed it several times.
The special effects are good but not over-done and the 'creature' is a truly
gruesome thing. The film conveys the insidious way in which innocent research
can be corrupted by malicious government/military officials and the fact that
we may be tampering with things we cannot control. The songs message comes
across well in the video and the overall effect is quite disturbing. Yet the
final shot leaves just a hint that Kate is also paying an acknowledgement to
such films as 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. In addition, Kate seems to
be suggesting that she/the creature will only be wreaking havoc on those
who create evil and not on the innocent i.e. us - her audience, since she is
taking us into her confidence with the wink and the shush gesture.

The fact that the Prof. is called Jerry Coe would seem an obvious pun
on Jericho - whose walls came tumbling down at the sound of trumpets (if I
have got my biblical facts right) - or does anyone know of a real Jerry Coe?