If movie theaters are churches for cinephiles, the Scala was a genuine cathedral for U.K. movie fans during its legendary cinema club days from the late '70s until 1993. In 2018 the Scala and its impact on popular culture became the subject of Jane Giles and Ali Catterall's book Scala Cinema 1978-1993, which was transformed into a full-length documentary in 2023, Scala!!! or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits. From an early pivotal screening of Eraserhead through the Shock Around the Clock horror festival and the many wild genre titles launched within its walls, creating a fertile ground for the artists of all stripes who sat in the audience over the years. That included numerous musicians whose work in new wave and punk mirrored what was happening up on the screen. Along the way you get some background on the venue's significance to the music scene beforehand with performers like Lou Reed and Iggy and the Stooges, and lots of memories of the predominantly "teenage-smelling" moviegoers who came to partake in often forbidden cinematic pleasures thanks to their handy membership card. Among the interviewees here are  John Waters, Ben Wheatley, Jah Wobble, Mary Harron, Kim Newman, Adam Buxton, Nick Kent, Isaac Julien, Lina Gopual, Cathi Unsworth, Caroline Catz,  Stewart Lee, M. Matt Johnson and many more, plus brief but fun film clips and schedule art to give you a nice nostalgic rush.

After doing the festival circuit, Scala!!! first turned up on Blu-ray from the BFI in the U.K. as a single-disc Blu-ray in 2024 featuring a commentary by the two filmmakers recalling the various participants and how they tracked them down, the path to turning the book into a film, and the logistics of coming up with a structure for telling this unusual story. There's a large amount of dead space here, but the material they do provide is solid. Also included are a 59m55s reel of interview outtakes, a 36m40s snapshot of the theater from 1990 by Michael Clifford made for Cable London, a 1992 Scala Cinema student short (3m46s) by Ali Peck and Victor de Jesus featuring music from a familiar '80s French film classic, a cast and crew intro (12m29s) from a 2023 screening at the London Film Festival, a short 40s sampling of artist Osbert Parker's animations for the film, a 3m13s cartoon demo by artist Davey Jones, a 12m7s featurette on the program art, a "Cabinet of Curiosities" (18m3s) look at various bits of ephemera and memorabilia from the theater archive, the trailer, and three short films once shown there: Christopher Newby's Relax from 1991 (23m22s), a harrowing and frank look at a partnered gay man anxious about his impending HIV test result; Richard Kwietniowski's Flames of Passion from 1989 (18m), a quirky gay romance; and Viv Albertine's Coping With Cupid (19m2s) from 1990, a fun lark about three sparkly alien women wandering around Soho listening to a motley crew of locals talk about love.

A far more expansive three-disc Blu-ray edition arrived later in the U.S. from Severin Films, with the first disc obviously centered around the main documentary (with DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 audio, optional English subtitles, and the audio commentary). Obviously a film of this recent vintage shot digitally is going to look and sound great, so no tech issues to report here. Also on the first disc are the London Film Festival intro, a new intro by director Michael Clifford (3m53s) about the venue's role in his filmmaking, the 1990 short doc, the 1992 student short (with optional commentary by the two directors), the program featurette and "Cabinet of Curiosities," more animation bits ("Primatarium," 54s, "Tentacles," 1m19s), the trailer, and the extended outtakes reel. Also here are some more interview outtakes presented separately with Mary Harron (14m28s), Nick Kent (29m29s), Thurston Moore (11m39s), and John Waters (15m30s).

Disc two is devoted entirely to short films from the Scala era covering a wide range of genres and topics starting with 1978's Newsreel Collective interview collage, Divide and Rule - Never! (40m42s), a fiery, rock-fueled look at racism in London as seen through various working class young people (ranging from ex-fascists to immigrants) who use music as part of a larger ongoing protest. Previously out on Blu-ray in the U.K. in the BFI's Jarman Volume 2 set, David Lewis' Dead Cat (19m57s) from 1989 is a black-and-white oddity with an insane cast including Derek Jarman, Genesis P-Orridge, and Andrew Tiernan. Creepy sexual and violent imagery abound in this avant-garde sketch about a grieving young man coping by drifting through a bizarre array of characters and coming up with a disturbing final solution. Lewis also contributes a 15m5s interview about his film school days and the connections that led to the creation of the film. Another familiar one here is 1986's The Mark of Lilith (33m23s) by Bruna Fionda, Polly Gladwin, and Zachary Nataf, a standout from the BFI's Short Sharp Shocks Vol. 2 set, followed by Relax and Coping with Cupid from the earlier BFI release. Aggy Read's Boobs a Lot (2m49s) from 1968 is exactly what it promises, a rapid-fire collection of pin-up nudie shots, and Bob Godfrey's Oscar-nominated Kama Sutra Rides Again (9m3s) is a funny, very NSFW cartoon famously shown before the controversial U.K. release of A Clockwork Orange, depicting a British couple going to delirious lengths to spice up their sex life. Finally, Susan Lambert's On Guard (51m27s) from 1984 is an Aussie mini-movie about four activist women of various sexual stripes who decide to sabotage the new domineering supercomputer that will alter the process of human procreation. It's a fascinating mixture of kitchen sink realism and dreamy sci-fi, with the latter taking over in the memorable finale.

Finally disc three consists of various odds and ends starting with "The Art of the Calendar" (46m) going into a meticulous history of the development of those eye-catching monthly calendars created by movie theaters (a tradition carried on today by several repertory houses today) with appearances by the likes of The Strand's Mike Thomas, Landmark Cinema's Kim Jorgensen, The Nuart's Mark Valen, Other Cinema's Craig Baldwin, and film historian Adam Carston charting the evolution of the very expressive promotional tool. Jasper Sharp's feature-length Splatterfest Exhumed (80m1s) is dedicated to an infamous 1990 all-night horror spree with John McNoughton, Brian Yuzna, Scott Spiegel, Graham Humphreys, Sean Hogan, Stephen Thrower, Jane Giles, David Gregory, Jon Caspard (a.k.a. Lovely Jon), Graham Rae, and more looking back at the festival that ran from Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer to Re-Animator at the height of BBFC puritanism. One of the shorts that ran there, the oft-released Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie (7m25s) seen earlier on Combat Shock and The Last Horror Film, is included here with commentary by director Buddy Giovinazzo, followed by Paul Hart-Wilden's 1990 Horrorshow (4m42s), with optional commentary as well, for a violent depiction of young men having a very macabre evening at home. The goofball 1982 Republic serial / Raiders riff Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter (9m11s) from director Josh Becker is presented here in both its original 9m11s and alternate 10m39s producer's cut, the latter with commentary by producer Scott Spiegel (Intruder). The difference here is a more expansive and slick opening intro setting up the story background, but either way it's quite the curiosity with Bruce Campbell doing the starring honors alongside familiar faces like Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert. 1988's Mongolitos (7m17s) from Stéphane Ambiel is another very lo-fi curiosity (with optional director commentary), this time assaulting you with nonstop repulsive, scat-obsessed gags that make the banquet scene in Salo look subtle. Proceed with this one if you dare. Finally you get a VHS-shot 15m44s appearance by the legendary Herschell Gordon Lewis making a 1989 Scala appearance to a very appreciative crowd of movie maniacs.

Reviewed on May 4, 2025