ORCHARD END MURDER (FLIPSIDE) - BLU-RAY

The BFI Flipside presents...
THE ORCHARD END MURDER (DVD + Blu-ray)
A film by Christian Marnham

This latest release from BFI Flipside is the newly remastered rarity - one of a series of British mini-features that shocked UK cinema audiences during the 1970s and early 1980s

Set in an idyllic Kent village one balmy summer during the 1960s, this obscure British oddity is a macabre tale of murder and mischief

A young woman from the suburbs (Tracy Hyde), bored by a countryside tryst, wanders off to explore her surroundings. When she meets a gnome-like stationmaster and his towering, half-witted railway-worker friend (played by Casualty's Clive Mantle), an initially strange encounter turns sinister among the trees of a nearby orchard.

Written and directed by Christian Marnham and shot by Pete Walker's regular cameraman Peter Jessop, The Orchard End Murder is a violent, darkly humorous thriller, unseen since it originally shocked UK cinema audiences as the supporting feature to Gary Sherman's Dead and Buried.

Special features

• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
• The Showman (Christian Marnham, 1970, 25 mins): Short documentary about fairground Wild West showman Wally Shufflebottom
• Christian Marnham on The Orchard End Murder (2017, 38 mins)
• From Melody to Orchard End Murder: An Interview with Tracy Hyde (2017, 12 mins)
• An Interview with David Wilkinson (2017, 13 mins)
• Illustrated booklet with new writing by Josephine Botting and Vic Pratt, along with full film credits

UK | 1981 | colour | 50 minutes + special features | English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles | original aspect ratio 1.85:1 | cert 18 (contains sexual assault)