Killer’s Moon  | 1978 | UK | Alan Birkinshaw

Breathtakingly nasty and made cheap and cheerfully in the Lake District, this British shocker takes clear pointers from A Clockwork Orange and I Spit On Your Grave to inform its pseudo ‘rape and revenge’ template. Whilst on a school trip, a coach of schoolgirls and their teachers end up stranded in the country and take up temporary residence at a remote hotel. Unbeknownst to them, four mentally ill patients have escaped from a nearby hospital whose experimental psychedelic treatment has left them with the impression that their reality is just a dream. As they encroach upon the hotel, they feel absolutely no shame in mutilating local animals, murdering residents and raping the girls in a psychotic free-for-all as the guests try to repel them in whatever ways they can muster. Miraculously released without cuts in both cinema and video form, the alarmingly high levels of sleaze and sexual violence ensured that copies were confiscated during various raids but they were ultimately returned when it was found the film was not listed as a nasty.