Great Britain, Canada

In recent years some of the very best science-fiction novels, from writers such as Philip José Farmer, have deliberately and successfully set out to dazzle the reader with the sustained complexity of their ideas. For a while the cinema lagged behind, relying on a simple story, some ray guns and a variety of monsters to amuse its audiences. The early Seventies, however, saw a change of pace, with film-makers becoming emboldened to produce such ingenious constructions as Westworld for the entertainment of their sophisticated viewers. The plot of Welcome to Blood City is equally original. The central characters wake up to find themselves in a strange deserted land. They have vague memories of a previous life, but soon find themselves in the midst of a brutal slave society, which appears to be based on a crude reinterpretation of the Wild West, in a place called 'Blood City'. At its centre is the smiling, demonic Sheriff Frendlander, played by Jack Palance in a parody of his previous role as the brutal hired gun in Shane. This is the first truly cinematic clue that all is not as it seems in 'Blood City': movie audience may recall that in Westworld, Yul Brynner played a Yul Brynner robot programmed to perform Brynner's role in The Magnificent Seven! But, without giving anything away, Blood City is not just a remake of Westworld and Palance is no robot. Instead it gradually becomes clear that everyone in this distorted human society is being tested by an outside force. And as we become aware of the sinister computer games being played behind the scenes, the plot takes on a nightmarish quality as it explores the twin themes of manipulation and predestiny. Welcome to Blood City is certainly one of the most ambitious science-fiction movies made under the auspices of a British studio (it's an Anglo-Canadian production). And it should come as a real filip to those legions of fans who yearn for the return of that remarkable TV series The Prisoner. DAVID PIRIE