MIST RAIDERS

Late in 1993, occasional Pwürg cohort MC1201 (aka Ben Lee) decided to make a short film for no fixed reason. Little did anyone know then that the resulting work - Mist Raiders - would not only become an arthouse classic for Pwürg fans, but also take over four years to shoot and fully complete the editing. Although versions at varying stages of completion have made their way into public domain over the years, it is the "1999 Special Edition" that remains the final unexpurgated edit.

So, what exactly is this whole Mist Raiders thing?

The working title of Mist Raiders - The Search For A Plot - summed up the actual circumstances of the shoot quite accurately. Basically, the lead characters: Father Haldane, Iolo Ezekial & Alaric Belcher - played respectively by Owen, Damon & Matt - arrived on location at the CRCMH in ridiculous gothic/ medieval swashbuckling attire and the whole thing just went from there in a dark comedic fashion. By the time that filming moved to the south coast of Australia, a more coherent script had been developed.

The finished film makes interesting viewing with its diverse use of locations, such as the Avebury stone circle and Red Lion pub; Maidenhead Bridge & Police Station; a snow-covered watertower in Holyport; a sunny beach, palm-covered cemetery, and kangaroo infested golf-course in Australia. Although a gigantic hit within Pwürg circles with its madcap humour and obscure twisted time-traveling script, Mist Raiders has nevertheless proved to be too much for many regular viewers to take. However, it does contain images of the utmost importance for this site - footage of the CRCMH no less...

The Special Edition video cover

Obviously, it would be impractical to include every single shot featuring the CRCMH on this site, therefore an interesting mixture of locations - especially those given the least coverage elsewhere - have been chosen. A large number of the stills featuring the hospital appear in the Virtual Tour . These have been taken from a combination of the film itself, its 20 minute prelude - a B&W art piece entitled The Harrowing, and assorted rushes from the shooting. For images of the former Taplow Lodge across the road from the CRCMH (which features rather heavily in The Harrowing), go here. And remember - because these are captured videotape images - the quality isn't quite going to match that of the scanned photographs elsewhere on this site. You can rest assured though that this is as good as we can get them.

Anyway - here's a few more. There'll be many others joining them here very soon too - including scenes featuring other areas of Maidenhead and elsewhere.

Alaric Belcher - Triumph over building materials

Father Haldane's death scene - Second in length only to Patton's

For all queries relating to Mist Raiders - contact us.