| Author | Message | ||
     Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
All these years later it's still depressing as hell... Just watched it on DVD and really wish I hadn't. It brought back all those memories of nuclear paranoia; the nightmares, imagining my mother dead from radiation poisoning, crying myself to sleep when I saw the "nuclear clock" poised at one minute to midnight on The News at Ten. God, the 1980s were fucking shit. | ||
| Alansjf (Alansjf) Username: Alansjf Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 93.97.93.216 |
If I could remember enough of the 1980s I'd probably agree with you, but I can't, so I won't. Though enough people have expressed the same opinion that it's pretty much official anyway. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
Zed - Threads is fucking bleak, probably the bleakest thing I've ever endured. And yes, the 80's were shit. Though a lot of great horror fiction came out in that dreadful period. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I've owned the DVD for 2 years and only just been able to watch it because of how much it affected me when I first saaw it on TV. It's beyond bleak; horrible, squalid, truly nightmarish. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.19 |
From what I remember of it the first half was exceptionally scary but the second half more of a standard "after the nuclear war" drama, but by then the damage had been done! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Yes - me and Marie remember those times well, that palpable sense of certainty that it was going to happen. It was nothing and yet it was so big. On a lighter note me and the lads watched Stand By Me last night; an eighties film that doesn't feel like at all like one, has none of those affectations. Lovely film (and I don't know if it caused it but I had a nightmare about Tristan falling off a small ravine crossing a stream in what felt like Yorkshire last night; absolutely horrendous. Woke up whimpering so convinced it was real.). And the lads LOVED it. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.157.91.19 |
The War Game is worth a watch whilst we're on the subject of depressing "what if" tv programmes. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.194.210 |
Threads is very grim, I agree. It's far more interesting and convincing than the US's similarly-themed The Day After, which seems rather tame by comparison. The 1980s were good for me. I got to see a lot of the world, immersed myself in a new culture and put myself through university using a language I'd just learned, delved deep into all kinds of interesting things (like martial arts and Chinese opera), made some good friends, had a gorgeous girlfriend, and had some great experiences that I'll never forget. And I co-owned a great little pub named 'Barfly'. ;-) Plus, some of Ramsey's best stuff was published then (in fact, there was a lot of horror about - not just Ramsey, Clive Barker and Stephen King, but many others in mass market editions in any decent bookshop). Some great music too (and some not so great). I won't miss the hair and clothing, though. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
How can anyone dislike a decade that produced the inimitable genius of the likes of Kajagoogoo and Howard Jones? Dear me. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.187.180 |
There was a lot of egregious, embarrassing crap, to be sure. But then, you also had the likes of The Fall, Siouxsie, New Order, Killing Joke, The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, the Psychedelic Furs... so, a mix of good and bad, really. Politically it was a pretty fraught time. Over here there was constant threat of war with China (indeed, martial law was in effect until the late eighties). | ||
| Simon_b (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Threads is one of those films I've always wanted to see and never have. I was very young then, but I remember Tony's sense that nuclear Armageddon was inevitable. James Herbert's Domain, for that reason, was one of the scariest things I'd read- and the only thing of Herbert's I've found genuinely frightening. Because of the war and aftermath sequence, easily the best work he's done. After all that, I couldn't give a flying fuck about the bloody rats... Used to lie awake at night (aged about eleven here) convinced the air-raid sirens were going to start wailing at any moment. I had a couple of vivid nightmares about nuclear attack that I can still remember to this day. But not as scary as some of the music people liked. I mean- Bananafuckingrama?! But there was some great stuff too- including New Model Army, my favourite band of all time... | ||
| Danzinger (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.50.191.46 |
"One day, last year, during the depths of a dry winter, our parents locked us in our rooms for a whole 24 hours. We heard a van pull up to the back door and all sorts of commotion ensued. As we listened, with ears pressed to our doors, the sounds of loud groaning filled the corridors as something with heavy feet stumbled about the whole house, accompanied by the unmistakable and mocking laughter of our parents. Father would often refer to that day as The Visitation - but he would never elaborate." | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.113 |
The economy's shit...The weather is crap...Everyones fed up... And you watch Threads???? Wot? needed cheering DOWN or something???  gcw | ||
| Simon_b (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
I guess, Gcw, after watching it the only way is up? Pissing rain and global financial meltdown look pretty small beer next to actual Armageddon... | ||
| Martin Roberts (Martin_roberts) Username: Martin_roberts Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.5.239.91 |
Gary probably watched it to make sure his new zombie novel was suitably downbeat... I think it was the good Dr. Fry who was surprised by the lack of miserablism in Rain Dogs  I agree with Mick - The War Game is indeed worth a watch and with Simon in regards to Domain, I thought it was Herbert's best... although someone once told me there was not enough rodent action! I've always wondered why in the name of hades did my parents allow me to watch the original broadcast of Threads and yet they always pulled faces and/or refused to let me watch supernatural horror movies? | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
As someone once said, any decade that begins with John Lennon being killed and ends with Donny Osmond back on the charts is not a good decade. Though I spent most of that stretch of years blowing things up in the real world, I avoided books and films in which cities and nations went kablooey. Tried to keep my horrors small-scale and personal and entirely fictional, don't you know. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
DoGod! You're back! Where have you been? And; 'Though I spent most of that stretch of years blowing things up in the real world' - Unh? | ||
| Darren O. Godfrey (Darren_o_godfrey) Username: Darren_o_godfrey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 207.200.116.133 |
"DoGod! You're back! Where have you been?" Hi, Tony. I've been dealing with one family crisis after another, while trying to get some writing done. "And; 'Though I spent most of that stretch of years blowing things up in the real world' - Unh?" From 1982 to 1988, I was in the U.S. Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) (called UXB in the UK). We cleared bombing ranges of unexploded bombs, worked with the Secret Service making sure vehicles and buildings used by visiting V.I.P.s were explosives free, disarmed/disposed of homemade bombs (or I.E.D.s), such as a briefcase bomb found on the commanding general's desk, and various sundry blowie-uppie-thingy tasks. At the time, it was the only USAF job that had no mention of "killing the enemy" in its specific mission statement. While it sounds exciting (it was) and nerve-wracking (it could be), I've discovered a couple things even more stressful: 1. Driving in southern California, 2. Writing and selling works of fiction. No kidding. | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.209.220.3 |
We watched Threads at school in the 80s. I'm not sure if that was standard practice, or if it was just because I live very close to Sheffield, where it was set. My friends and I would talk about the risk of nuclear attack. It may have been just the product of our naive minds, but the very real threat of 'the bomb' coloured our imagination. Even that public service film that was sampled on Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Two Tribes' scared the crap out of us. I was born in 1971, so I like to think that the real threat of Nuclear War Horror eased my transition from boy to man. | ||
| Coral (Coral) Username: Coral Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 91.108.88.26 |
I saw this as a teenager too, it made me join CND!!! I watched it again for the first time since then only last year and found it even more shocking than I remembered, it hadn't dated or become irrelevant at all. I'm not sure whether showing it at schools is a good idea or not, but I do tend to think that older children might benefit from seeing it now. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.194.190 |
Haha! I joined the CND too, Coral! I was about fifteen or sixteen. My history teacher was not impressed by all the literature (or propaganda, as he called it) I brought in to class. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.194.190 |
I forgot to add that this was in 1979-1980, during my teenage angsty punk days. Impressionable youth, and all that. I keep thinking Threads was released around that time, but it actually came out a few years later ('84?), and I didn't actually see it until I'd moved over here to Taiwan. I remember when I was in high school in Taipei, they showed all the students The Day After (a similarly-themed but less intense and less hought-provoking American film) in the school auditorium, and got into trouble due to copyright infringement... | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 79.187.206.46 |
I remember what scared me more than the actual dropping of the bomb, was the woman standing in the high street, piss running down one leg. I'd never seen fear expressed in no uncertain terms before. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.94 |
Darren: interesting job. They must have paid you very well indeed to go on missions like the ones you describe. Over here, not too far from where I live, there are still lots of WWI (!) bombs burried in the soil. Every other year or so we hear of an exceptional find and some farmers have stacks of them awaiting dismantling. Only a couple years ago a quite heavy WWII bomb was found burried in the sand of a popular beach. I was there when it was detonated - a mighty rumble, indeed. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
The threat of nuclear war was always psychological. To fear it is to enforce it. Campaign against it and you are ultimately doing its work by increasing public fear. I don't count Hiroshima etc as nuclear war. It was one sided, hence winnable. | ||
| Simon_b (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Are you based anywhere near ths place, Hubert? http://www.greatwar.nl/gifgas/houthulst-eng.html It's hard for anyone to get their head around the sheer SCALE of WW1. And the effect still lingers on. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.21.234.94 |
My home is in Ostend, but I know Ypres and the area around Houthulst well. Yes, WWI boggles the mind, all the more since it's not as well documented as WWII. The WWI bombs are mostly German-made, while the WWII ones are generally American. Back in the seventies fishermen used to accidentally haul whole sections of Spitfires and Messerschmitts out of the North Sea. The planes' hydraulic systems would be pretty much intact - not a spot of rust. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.114.136 |
Lord. Go down to 'executed' and 'executioner'. http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-houthulste.html |