Not a film about a zombie hooker, (that would be Grub Girl), Resurrecting the Street Walker is an unjustly obscure British mockumentary about a cursed film. There have been several films about cursed films. But this may have been the first faux documentary about one, beating Fury of the Demon by seven years. And it deserves more recognition.
Resurrecting the Street Walker opens with a brief recap of the “video nasties” uproar and some background on the unfinished film The Street Walker. From there we move onto the story of James Parker (James Powell). James is determined to become a director. And to get himself in the door he’s taken a position as an unpaid intern with a small British film company.
While cleaning out the basement he finds the reels of an unfinished film, The Street Walker. He convinces his boss Mike Lowrie (Hugh Armstrong, Deathline) to let him finish it. A task that soon turns into an obsession.
Resurrecting the Street Walker is composed of a documentary of the project shot by James’s friend Marcus (Tom Shaw), excerpts from James’s video diary, interviews with those involved. And, of course, clips of The Street Walker itself. Those clips are rough, black and white, (who was shooting black and white in the 80s?), and revolve around a man known as The Street Walker (Gwilym Lloyd) who lures women back to his soundproof apartment in order to torture and kill them. And they are effectively grim bits of film.
The only feature from writer/director Ozgur Uyanik, Resurrecting the Street Walker does a great job of stitching these elements together. And working in the details that turn what should have been a bland series of pickup shots into something much more. An accidental glimpse of the now-dead by suicide’s director’s reflection in a window. A bit of stray audio that possibly says “I think she’s dead”. Yes, The Street Walker may have been a snuff film. And James is hooked.
Things begin to spiral out of control. A fire on the set nearly kills James and his crew. An actress dies of asthma. Is it a curse or a coincidence? Or just one man’s obsession and madness? Resurrecting the Street Walker isn’t scary in the jump out of your seat sense of the word. But it leaves you with shivers afterwards.
The DVD is long out of print. Severin, Code Red or Vinegar Syndrome should look into this film. Because Resurrecting the Street Walker is a film that deserves its own resurrection