Muerte en la noche

During the 1960s, Hammer would sometimes counteract their lavish color Gothic horrors with some effective black & white psychological thrillers; this is one of the latter type.

Moira Redmond plays Grace Maddox, a nurse/companion hired by attorney Henry Baxter (David Knight). Henry is guardian to a very fragile teen aged girl named Janet (Jennie Linden), who as a child witnessed her mother snap and kill her father. Plagued by nightmares, Janet travels home from school and continues to be haunted by visions of a scar faced woman in white (Clytie Jessop).

It would be better for me to not relay too much about the plot, so that potential viewers can experience the twists and plot developments fresh. It manages to avoid being particularly predictable.

Written and produced by famed Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster, "Nightmare" is good fun, although I don't know if the screenplay would hold up under any intense scrutiny. Still, it is quite entertaining, and slickly directed by ace cinematographer (and sometime director) Freddie Francis. It's got plenty of atmosphere, especially in the opening scene, and Francis works well with the D.P. on this show, John Wilcox. The music by Don Banks is excellent.

The cast is full of solid actors but no major stars. Brenda Bruce as kindly teacher Mary Lewis, George A. Cooper as chauffeur / gardener John, Irene Richmond as housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs, John Welsh as a doctor, Timothy Bateson as a barman, and Elizabeth Dear as the younger incarnation of Janet round out the credited players. The film ultimately belongs to those performers who are required to act out stress and hysteria; they're utterly convincing.

A worthy viewing for any Hammer fan.

Seven out of 10.

Young Janet (Jennie Linden) saw her insane mother stab her father to death when she was a little girl. Years later she's still traumatized by it and is afraid she'll become insane like her mother. Her guardian Henry (David Knight) and nurse Grace (Moira Redmond) try to help her but she starts going mad...

This turns out to be nothing more than a reworking of the French film "Diabolique"--but it's pretty good. I have to admit I was actually surprised by one or two events that I should have seen coming. The film is shot in moody black & white (and Hammerscope) which helps immensely. Also there are good performances--especially by Knight and Redmond. This was a strange movie for Hammer--it wasn't shot in color and had no monsters. Still it works. Recommended. I give it a 7.

I've been a fan of Hammer horror for a while, and have only recently discovered this whole new side of theirs. Hammer have become synonymous with fun horror films, but their serious little black and white flicks show that they're certainly not limited to doing just what we know they're good at! Like Freddie Francis' Paranoiac a year earlier, Freddie Francis' Nightmare works through it's thick macabre atmosphere, tight plotting and great acting performances. The film is also very paranoid, which helps you to get under the skin of the plot and into the heads of the characters. The film starts off following young Janet. Janet's mother stabbed her father to death on her birthday many years ago and has spent her life in an insane asylum ever since. Janet is now having horrible dreams of her mother, and fears that she may go the same way...but after being sent home, her problems really start. The plot for this film is odd because once we reach the half-way point, it makes a full turnaround and we begin following two of the smaller characters from the first part of the film.

The second half of the story is definitely more interesting than the first, so the switch is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. This film appears to have been an obvious influence on Pete Walker's exploitation flick 'Frightmare', as the two follow pretty much the same theme. Hammer's version of the story is far better, though. The ensemble cast here are excellent, with everyone giving a terrific performance. Jennie Linden is convincing as the young girl being terrified by her dreams and more than does justice to the role. The greatness of the plot can be summed up by the fact that I often find myself giving low ratings to Hammer's black and white films, simply because I love to see the colours that Hammer do so well. This film is so professionally handled, however, that the lack of colour doesn't harm the film at all - and actually helps it. The atmosphere would never be the same in colour, and the colours are made up for anyway by the wonderful use of lighting. On the whole, this isn't one of Hammer's most important films - but it is a very good one, and I highly recommend it! Just one thing to note...it's not recommended that you watch this film with a headache - there's a lot of screaming!

One of Hammer Films' best psychological-shockers features a marvellous British cast, great black and white cinematography, and solid direction by veteran horror filmmaker Freddie Francis. Like so many of Hammer's psychological scare flicks, the plot-within-a-plot owes much to the 50's French classic DIABOLIQUE, but this is still a moderately creepy little thriller.

Mysterious puzzle of who or what is behind a young girl, having just returned from a boarding school in the English countryside, becoming increasingly paranoid and psychotic. The girl witnessed her mother killing her father years ago and has nightmares of the event. She believes that she has the same mania and starts seeing her mother, other apparitions, and various things connected with the event that happened on her birthday so long ago. She is heir to the house, but her uncle manages her estate. A nurse is supplied for her and the home is run by an elderly couple of servants that have been with the family for a long time. What starts out as something you keep thinking you have seen before - swiftly and adroitly changes direction and becomes something I had never seen before. This is above all a well-crafted film made with creating suspense and maintaining suspense as its primary objectives. Director Freddie Francis, the Hammer stalwart, directs with his usual keen, meticulous detail for the lens. He paces the film very nicely, and he is aided by very good performances from all concerned. The real credit for the film's success though must go to veteran Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. Above all this is a script-driven vehicle. Certainly one of the lesser known Hammer horror films but definitely one of the better psycho films I have seen.