Eclipse (1977)

 

"Ultra-Obscure Late 1970s Weird British Oddity"

That alone should be enough to cause a veritable stampede of enthusiasts of arguably the most interesting decade for British cinema (and certainly British horror cinema, of which this could be considered to be a part - at a stretch). Simon Perry's ECLIPSE is coming out on Blu-ray in a 2K remaster from the best 35mm elements available on the BFI Flipside label.

Twin brothers Geoffrey and Tom (Tom Conti in a dual role) are at sea at night in their little schooner, intent on seeing a lunar eclipse. During the darkest part of the eclipse something happens and Geoffrey ends up overboard and drowned, with Tom unclear at the inquest as to exactly what happened. 

Tom travels to his remote childhood home on the Scottish coast to spend Christmas with Geoffrey's wife Cleo (Gay Hamilton) who has an impressive collection of gin bottles hidden away in every room, and Geoffrey's son Giles (Gavin Wallace, who delivers every line of dialogue as if he is much further away from the person he's talking to than he actually is). Over the Christmas period Tom and Cleo talk, Tom and Giles play with a train set, and dark secrets are revealed.

But what exactly is going on in ECLIPSE? It's not a spoiler to say that there's no straightforward answer, and the film doesn't so much end as come to a bit of an abrupt halt (one of the places where the commentary track is helpfully enlightening). Despite that, 1970s BritHorror fans will find much to enjoy, with the location and atmosphere appropriately moody and a menacing synthesiser score from the late Adrian Wagner that sounds similar at times to Ivor Slaney's work on Norman J Warren's TERROR.

Unsurprisingly, water plays a major part, not just in Geoffrey's death but in the story we are then presented with - both Giles and a dress Tom has bought for Cleo are seen submerged and even Cleo's perpetually drunken state could be considered akin to seasickness, while both leads have dialogue that circles around what they really mean like a whirlpool.

As usual the BFI have come up with some excellent extras. The commentary by the always listenable Vic Pratt discusses the themes of the film as well as the careers of those involved, including their involvement in the kind of obscure bits of British TV and children's cinema for which Mr Pratt's enthusiasm is always appreciated.

We also get two short films - Channel 4's The Chalk Mark (1988) and Marooned (1994) starring Robert Carlyle as a ScotRail employee. Finally, as well as an image gallery and trailer, we get three public information films on the theme of drowning which will be greatly nostalgic to those of a certain age, consisting as they do of Joe and Petunia, Charley Says and everyone's favourite, Lonely Water.

Simon Perry's ECLIPSE is out on Blu-ray from the BFI in their Flipside series on Monday 21st April 2025