And while the Irish pack the multiplexes in Dublin, Cork and Galway for their own movies--whether shlocky horror, goofy comedies or heavy dramas like "Barley"--British auds are allergic to anything with an Irish accent.

Having filled most of her early albums with tales of pain, drug and booze abuse and men who have wronged her, this time she is in far better shape, which leads toa succession of love songs to her producer husband - though sometimes they are a little too shlocky for their own good.

But Brad let slip that he thinks the Gold Coast "is a shlocky tourist area".

Though it's still pretty shlocky, pic gains from quoting the classics from "Dial M for Murder" to "Vertigo." Co-produced by sales company RAI Trade as the first in a proposed made-for-TV thriller series, this enjoyable romp should amuse young DVD buyers the world over.

Production values are solid, with Cliff Bradley's rousing music score adding distinction to the deliberately shlocky goings-on.

"We got rid of a lot of the shlocky, lower-end titles because the video business is not there.

It's not happenstance, of course: The intimacy of movies better serves the genre's visceral appeal, as the unfortunate "Voices in the Dark," which trades on the same shlocky shocks that are scary movies' stock in trade, only succeeds in proving.3