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This site is in not an affiliation of MalleuS but is an independent critique site created by Josie Kogge, who is in no way associated with MalleuS or their productions.
Last updated 6th August 2001
Malleus Independent Motion Pictures is a small group of artists and performers from accross the globe unitied by The Internet. Their aim is to make quality zero-budget video chillers and make them available free for download from thier website at www.malleus.co.uk
The above is the MalleuS Mission Statement as decreed by Andrew John Morris - Malleus' founder and driving force. Andrew has dabbled with video cameras since they were invented, trying - often in vain - to realise his movie projects on a shoe-string budget. A majority of his work remains unseen and unreleased to the public at large, largely through choice. He is evasive and modest - and expressed a wish not to contibute to this critique, fearing any collaberation between him and your reporter might bias any asessment of his work.
He did however permit me to use www.malleus.co.uk as source material and suggested I correspond particularly with two of the MalleuS Team - Morris-Henshaw and Ruth Elizabeth.
They were most helpful.
Morris-Henshaw (his real name - one word, no forename) provided me with the origins of MalleuS over a drink in a Worcester pub -
Back in the summer of 1993 I performed - along with D. Robertson Cane, Tim Ricketts and others - an open-air, two act play I had penned entitled Man Made Monster at a local beauty spot. It was a reworking of the Frankenstein story with a few live conjouring tricks thrown in for the resurrection. Essentially the plot went like this; Doctor Adam Ansellstein and his deformed assistant Egore labour in their lab assembling a corpse - which was a sawn-up mannekin in reality - on thier operating table. Egore is sent to get the brain - the brain of Ansellstein departed mentor Doctor Jenner,- which he drops and so substites with another - one belonging to Kurten, an executed serial killer. Ansellstein is satisfied that all is ready - not knowing about the goof - covers the body with a sheet and throws a switch. A few fireworks later and - hey presto! - Tim Ricketts in green make-up throws off the sheet and stands up...
...to some applause from the crowd of about seven, I might add!
The Kurten Creature goes wild and throws a bitterly disappointed Ansellstein out of the window - a free standing wooden wall behind us. It spares Egore and asks for money and clothes, which Egore provides. Kurten then wanders off to the local Inn.
At the Inn there is some philosophical siloquey from Kurten about second chances and how wonderful life is, and how he is a reformed character - then Ansellstein, looking more like an assembled monster than Kurten (having fallen out of a window and what-not) storms into the Inn and blows Kurten away with a revolver!
The villagers in the inn are horrified that this bloodied masked maniac (he never removes his surgical mask or gown during the play) has murdered the nice stranger in cold blood! The village Justice was present in the Inn during the shooting and so without further a do, they drag Ansellstein off and hang him.
We left feeling pretty pleased that the picnickers present had enjoyed the play, and we had even handed out copies of the play in comic-book form. It was an experience!
It was some time later - I forget how long now - that Andrew John Morris got in touch with me. he had seen the play, held on to his copy of the comic, and finally decided to mail me (my address was printed on the back cover). He said he was an amateur film maker and he wondered if we would like Man Made Monster captured on video the next time we performed it live...
...we had no plans to do the play again, but I thanked him for the offer. He then suggested we should perform it especially for the camera, without a live audience it could be shot like a movie, with various takes and camera angles. And while we're at it, why not pep-up the script a bit, expand on ideas.
Andrew spent 1997 writing a script based on Man Made Monster entitled The Wrath of Frankenstein. Mister Ricketts, mister Cane and myself had very little to do with the scripting process - save watching endless Hammer Horror Movies with Andrew, usually after a night discussing the project in this very pub! The finished script - the ninth rewrite or something like that - was superb! And the cover had a legend on it which read MALLEUS presents...
Malleus is latin for Hammer, and The Wrath of Frankenstein was essentially a Hammer Horror film. The word also appealed to Andrew because it sounded menacing and yet familiar - malleus - malice - malicious.
Making The Wrath of Frankenstein was going to be a piece of cake. We spotted the Hammer formula early on in tha game - you need three sets, three good actors (and a few lousy actors), some location work, victorian costumes, and a fucking good script! We had all that!
It was the intention to shoot the film, edit it onto video and ten sell it through horror magazines and at conventions. It was not to be a profit making venture and the cost of the finished vhs tape would only reflect the amount of money spent on creating the work. Andrew was to edit the movie, being the owner a professional video-to-video editing kit.
The first scene to be shot was Act One Scene One - The Duel. The scratch edit I've seen of this sequence is excellent, it sets the pace for the movie, is well directed and well acted by Ruth Elizabeth (as Eve), Ted Morris (as The Colonel) and D. Robertson Cane (as Spinhousen). The sequence runs for nearly ten minutes - arguably 15% of the complete movie - and is marred only by intermittantly poor sound caused by inadiquate sound kit and a strong wind that day.
It is the only footage to be shot to date...
The film is set in the Hammeresque country of Bohemia in the year 1850. That was the hardest part to realise! Finding interesting locations in the UK void of traffic, telegraph poles, and aircraft is almost impossible unless you're prepared to travel beyond The Midlands and down Dartmoor way...which we weren't!
The project was put on hold.
The Wrath of Frankenstein WILL be made one day. You just can't do this kind of stuff with no money. The script is so damned good it deserves to have a lot of time and money spent on it, and that is something that MalleuS just can't do right now. It's Andrew's MAGNIFICENT OCTOPUS (magnum opus) and it will be done...one day.
In the meantime we turned our minds to other things...
...and discovered The Internet along the way!