Magic, Myth & Mutilation: The Micro-Budget Cinema of Michael J. Murphy, 1967–2015

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You're acting now," Murphy says to Bunday at her first on-screen appearance, to which she replies, "Ooo, am I? There is a more detailed breakdo\wn of the restoration details in the accompanying book, but this swallows up two densely packed pages that I'm not about to reproduce here. With no-one on the island willing to come near a house that they believe is haunted, the couple advertise in England and secure the services of young Liz (Carol Aston). Another rather nifty trailer, this time selling Invitation to Hell and The Last Night as a 25 Year Anniversary double-bill but using the sort of digital effects unavailable when the films were made to combine and animate clips and add some neat graphics. Murphy also added digital VFX to the DVD version of Invitation to Hell, enhancing four shots with glowing demonic eyes, but since this is the only difference between the 16mm print and the DVD (aside from the latter's horrendous cropping and stretching to get the original 1.

Wood, whose budgets he severely undercut with his microbudget works, then noting that "this doesn't make the films good or me a good director. Low-budget independent filmmaker Chris (Jonathan Whalley), leading man Mark (John Wright) and his older co-star Helen (Helena Zeffert) arrive in Greece to shoot scenes for their latest production. A violent and invigorating assault on the senses with energised camerawork and editing that confirms from the off that this boy had talent and vision. For me, this proved a fascinating and often surprising journey, with the films I expected to like the most overshadowed at seemingly every turn by ones I would not have expected to have warmed to so readily. A traditionally assembled making-of video built around interviews with lead actors Mary-Anne Barlow, Ross Maxwell, Valia Yanarou and Bruce Lawrence, and peppered with outtakes and behind-the-scenes shots.He also says of his earlier work, "As I get older, I look back on some of these films I made, and some of them I think, 'what was I thinking of? While his earliest works were shot on an 8mm home movie camera, he quickly moved up to 16mm film, and later to mini-DV video and eventually HD. Certain items can take longer to source than the estimated week, particularly during busy trading periods and may take longer to arrive at our warehouse.

It also transpired that the final reel of Invitation to Hell was missing, so we had to source that from a telecine as well, although most of our presentation is 16mm-sourced 1080p. Back in the late 1960s and 70s when Murphy started making short films, it was a different story, and I'm speaking from the voice of personal experience here. I should note that it's one that the interview material in this set tends to suggest that Murphy shared. There's more than a whiff of Beauty and the Beast to the fantasy folklore element that edges its way into the film and that may be real or the product of the troubled Helen's imagination, and it's she that provides the film with its emotional core. Murphy here talks about the origins of the project and the original version – which was scuppered when most of the footage was lost in the post – and the changes that were made for this second take on the story, and Judith Holding comments on what a joy her character was to play.Good-looking 21-year-old Paul (Russell Hall) hires a holiday apartment in Greece and starts a friendship with his older married landlady Gill (Carol Aston), one that quickly develops into something more. Murphy reveals that some of the dialogue was re-recorded in post to improve the acoustics, worries that an essentially silly premise is undermined by sequences that take it too seriously, winces at the memory of difficult to film scenes, and says of a lock used to keep the heavily muscled Dan from escaping, "That lock is so flimsy it I don't think that would stop a chihuahua trying to break in.

Although he was not so happy with a key change made by Jupp for his alternative take, he admits to enjoying the film, despite some technical shortcomings, and notes that, "It's a laugh, sometimes for the wrong reasons.A slickly assembled trailer that has the potential to spoil the film's best plot twist, so worth saving until after the film, just in case. I would think there's an unwritten rule somewhere that if you're making films on microscopic budgets, then you don't even attempt a feature-length drama based on an ancient legend, but either no-one told this to Murphy or he just didn't give a hoot – this was the movie he wanted to make, so he went and did it anyway.