Pete Walker (director)

Pete Walker
Born (1939-07-04) 4 July 1939 (age 85)
Brighton, Sussex, England
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
ParentSyd Walker (father)

Pete Walker (born 4 July 1939)[1][2] is an English film director, writer, and producer, specializing in horror and sexploitation films, frequently combining the two.[3][4][5]

Biography

Walker was born on 4 July 1939 in Brighton, England, the son of stand-up comic Syd Walker and a showgirl mother.[6][7] He began his performing career as a stand-up comic while a teenager, but quit at age 19.[6]

Walker made films such as Die Screaming, Marianne, The Flesh and Blood Show, House of Whipcord, Frightmare, House of Mortal Sin, Schizo, The Comeback, and House of the Long Shadows.

His films often featured sadistic authority figures, such as priests or judges, punishing anyone – usually young women – who doesn't conform to their strict personal moral codes, but he has denied there being any political subtext to his films. Because of the speed with which he had to make his films, Walker often used the same reliable actors, including Andrew Sachs and Sheila Keith, the latter playing memorable villainesses in four of Walker's pictures.

Walker decided to retire from filmmaking after his last film in order to focus on buying and restoring cinemas.[8]

Malcolm McLaren hired Walker to direct a documentary on The Sex Pistols entitled A Star Is Dead. Walker was an unlikely choice of director for this project and the deal fell through when the band split up.

Walker's work was reviled and condemned by some contemporary critics, while others were surprised to find relatively sophisticated subtexts in what were made and marketed as commercial exploitation films. Although Walker's movies have never undergone a critical reappraisal in the same way as Hammer films or his American contemporaries Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven, the release in 2005 of a DVD boxed set of five of his films was greeted with some good notices in the British national press.

On his own work, Walker has said when asked if his films had hidden depths, "Of course they didn't. But recently I had to record commentary for the DVD releases, so I saw the films for the first time since making them, and you know what? They're not as bad as I thought. But searching for hidden meaning ... they were just films. All I wanted to do was create a bit of mischief."[8]

Filmography

Year Title Notes Ref.
1967 For Men Only Directorial Debut
Alternative title: I Like Birds 		[9]
1968 The Big Switch Alternative title: Strip Poker [10]
1969 School for Sex
1970 Man of Violence Alternative title: Moon [11]
1970 Cool It Carol! Alternative title: Dirtiest Girl I Ever Met [12]
1971 Die Screaming, Marianne Alternative title: Die, Beautiful Marianne [13]
1972 Four Dimensions of Greta Alternative title: The Three Dimensions of Greta [14]
1972 The Flesh and Blood Show [15]
1973 Tiffany Jones [16]
1974 House of Whipcord [17]
1974 Frightmare Alternative titles: Cover Up and Once Upon a Frightmare [18]
1976 House of Mortal Sin Alternative titles: The Confessional and The Confessional Murders [19]
1976 Schizo [20]
1978 The Comeback Alternative title: The Day the Screaming Stopped [21]
1979 Home Before Midnight [22]
1983 House of the Long Shadows [23]

References

  1. ^ "Pete Walker". Moviefone. Archived from the original on 28 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Pete Walker". Moviepilot (in German). Archived from the original on 24 February 2023.
  3. ^ "Pete Walker". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times (profile). 2012. Archived from the original on 4 November 2012.
  4. ^ Rigby 2000, pp. 254–256.
  5. ^ Chibnall 1998, pp. 14, 72.
  6. ^ a b Walker, Pete (2014). "Flesh, Blood, and Censorship". The Flesh and Blood Show (Blu-ray interview short). Kino Lorber.
  7. ^ Botting, Jo. "BFI Screenonline: Walker, Pete (1939–) Biography". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 28 August 2022.
  8. ^ a b Hodgkinson, Will (10 March 2005). "'God, what a terrible film'" (review of The Pete Walker DVD Collection). The Guardian. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  9. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 38.
  10. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 45.
  11. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 59.
  12. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 67.
  13. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 85.
  14. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 88.
  15. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 100.
  16. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 111.
  17. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 117.
  18. ^ Chibnall 1998, p. 135.
  19. ^ Chibnall 1998, pp. 151–155.
  20. ^ Chibnall 1998, pp. 163–168.
  21. ^ Chibnall 1998, pp. 175–179.
  22. ^ Chibnall 1998, pp. 195–200.
  23. ^ Chibnall 1998, pp. 209–210.

Sources

  • Chibnall, Steve (1998). Making Mischief: The Cult Films of Pete Walker. London, England: FAB Press. ISBN 978-0-952-92601-6.
  • Rigby, Jonathan (2000). English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema (Third ed.). London, England: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 978-1-903-11179-6.

Further reading

Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema by Simon Sheridan (fourth edition) (Titan Publishing, London) (2011)

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Peter Walker