I Start Counting

This is another very well made British Thriller from the late 60s / early 70s. Like other reviews I had seen 'I Start Counting' once before, on late night television, one (I think) Sunday evening in the early 1980s.

It is a film that stayed with me but could never remember its title or even who was in it (I didn't even remember Jenny Agutter as the lead!) until I accidently came across it on a IMDB list. I did recall that it was don't miss a minute suspenseful.

I have now just watched it again and it still stands the test of time. It's a horror / thriller that doesn't rely on blood, gruesome murders or cheap shocks. It keeps the viewer thinking but that is because it is a film with many levels of which the underlining narrative about a serial killer stalking young girls in a village is one of the least compelling - at least to me watching again 50 years after the film was made and around 40 since I last sat entranced.

Agutter and Bryan Marshall are superb in this. She of course has since given many more excellent performances in a lot of very good films but I have never seen Marshall in anything as good or give a portrayal as naturally convincing as this. To be honest I have not seen him in another role so integral to the story.

I would definitely be interested to know why this film is so rarely seen. It is certainly one for fans of the period and also for people who like their suspense to come without gratuitous violence.

A film well worth discovering.

I have no

I saw this film when it was on General release, and was somewhat taken-a-back by the acting ability of its very young leading Lady. Jenny Agutter was superb in the role of Wynne, a teenager who thought her step brother to be involved in some killings, and left nothing about her character's thoughts to the imagination. "I start Counting" was, of course, very different from M/s. Agutter's later work; and, to my mind, the character had more punch than many of her later portrayals. Perhaps, only her portrayal of the eldest daughter in "The Railway Children" carried the same amount of convincing charm as her portrayal of Wynne in "I start Counting". For me, Jenny Agutter "shines" in this movie: the storyline is right for her, and she was the right person to play Wynne. I could gladly watch this movie over and over again.

It is a good few years since I last saw this movie but the memory lingers on. I first saw it as a teenager a couple of times but haven't been able to catch it since. Boy it sure was creepy. The whole cast are excellent throughout. Has British television forgotten about this fantastically creepy movie. With the proliferation of movie channels now available surely one of them can secure the rights to show it. It would be even better if it was released on DVD.

I saw this film for the one and only time on English television back in 1980.At the time I thought it was the best thriller film I had ever seen.Since then to my knowledge it has never been shown again over here (I stand to be corrected on this one !) and appears to have sank without trace.Agutter is excellent as the schoolgirl who thinks her foster brother(Bryan Marshall) may be the local sex murderer and the creepy atmosphere builds up carefully helped by the location work on the wide windy stretches of an English New Town which I believe is Bracknell,Berkshire where Sean Connery's equally disturbing film "The Offence" was shot a couple of years later.Photography ,editing and supporting cast all first class.This film deserves to be better known in the history of British film and indeed the horror/thriller genre and its continued omission in most of the weighty film guides on the market remains ,to me, the biggest mystery and injustice of them all.

Jenny Agutter (Wynne) is 14 going on 15 and has a crush on her elder brother Bryan Marshall (George). He's 20 years older than her and isn't her real brother so it's not as twisted as it sounds. They live in the same family house along with another brother Gregory Phillips (Len), mother Madge Ryan and granddad Billy Russell. Agutter has a flirtatious friend Clare Sutcliffe (Corinne) and together they hang out and talk about boys and love. Agutter shares her fantasy about her brother with her friend and we see how she really cares for him. Alongside her troubled teenage time, there is a serial killer on the prowl and girls and young women are not safe in the area.

I liked it. Another British hit for creepiness. Who is the killer? You'll probably change your mind a few times on this one as you try to figure it out. It's filmed on location with a sinister undertone and keeps you watching with various plot twists. We also get Jenny Agutter on a journey to discover what her role in life isn't destined to be and the heartaches she encounters. Who knows, maybe she gets her way once the film finishes?