How to watch 'one of most depressing and scary films ever made' for free
A cult film labelled as one of the 'most depressing and scary films of all time' can now be streamed online for a limited period of time.
The film, which is 40 years old this year, was shown on the BBC on Wednesday night (9 October) in what was only the fourth time it has ever been broadcast on television.
It is by no means easy viewing. In fact, it is quite the opposite and the main reason it has the reputation it has garnered.
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With a perfect 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it is safe to say the film has gone down well with critics - with many of the reviews from modern-day movie buffs.
"It's the accumulation of horrific detail that appalls and truly scares us - not just the putrefying bodies but the severing of civilisation's entire network, modern man trapped in modernity's ashes," says Rich Groen from Globe and Mail. Intense stuff.
A disclaimer was even forced to be shown before being broadcast for the first time in 1984, with then BBC Newsnight presenter John Tusa explaining it was a piece of fiction to try and normalise nuclear war for the ordinary man and woman.
"The characters and the events are fictional, and it deals with something that has never happened," Tusa told viewers.
The film we're on about is Threads. Check out the trailer here:
With audiences giving it a 92 percent rating on RT as well as an 8/10 on IMDb, it is universally liked by everyone as a genuinely high quality watch.
Ahead of its fourth showing of all time on the BBC this week, BBC film critic Mark Searby said he 'couldn't get over the fact' it was making it back on to our TVs.
Threads follows a young couple called Ruth and Jimmy, played by actors Karen Meagher and Reece Dinsdale. The couple decide to get married after Ruth unexpectedly gets pregnant.
Thinking their lives were already about to get turned upside down, their quiet lives in Sheffield get a whole lot more intense when the Soviet Union and United States go to war.
After a nuclear attack destroys a NATO base that is only 20 miles from Sheffield, the town falls into complete chaos.
Ruth and Jimmy get separated as the nuclear fallout spreads across the city sand region, with Ruth having to face struggling to survive alone in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
It's the concept of just how real the storyline feels that has left so many horrified, with people taking to social media to say it has never felt more appropriate given growing tensions around a world heavily armed with nuclear weapons.
Those interested in watching the film can do so despite missing out on the rare airing of the film.
You can watch Threads on BBC iPlayer for the next 11 months, according to the BBC website. You'll need a TV Licence to tune in.
Tom Earnshaw