Another manic film creation from the scavanging Craig Baldwin. By STEVE GARDEN.

THOSE familiar with the found-footage creations of Craig Baldwin (O No Coronado, 1991; Tribulation 99, 1992; Spectres of the Spectrum, 1999) will have some idea what to expect from his latest excursion into cut-and-paste retro-chic, Mock Up On Mu. Baldwin’s inventive concoctions have always been more than mere film-geek indulgences. He is obviously a fan of industrial-films, government-films, and all grades of pop and pulp culture from B to Z, but he is also very adept at subverting the original intent of the material to ironic and pointedly critical effect. In Mock Up, Baldwin takes his iconoclasm further by enlisting the services of fellow cult-film connoisseur, Damon Packard (creator of the infamous Reflections of Evil, 2002). Packard turns in a suitably over-the-top caricature of L Ron Hubbard (one-time sci-fi author and founder of the Church of Scientology), now based on the Moon where he plots all manner of nefarious bits of business that involve a tattooed femme-fatale called “Agent C” and a dubious defence contractor by the name of... Mr Lockheed Martin.

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The plot is typically convoluted (perhaps even more than usual), and everything from weapons dealing to religious hokum (and all shades of political and social charlatanism in between) is subjected to Baldwin’s sardonic wit. Coming at a furious clip and packed with aural, visual and intellectual stimuli, Mock Up On Mu is an unrelenting ride. But in a world dominated by (and currently suffering from) the excesses of the High-Priests of Self-Serving Materialism, films like this are a necessary reminder of just how easy it is to fall prey to (as Baldwin might put it) The Tentacles of the Octopi of Mammon!