Frightmare

Excellent thriller/horror that could only have come out of Britain. What a terrible shame the impact of these mid seventies films was such that they were seemingly shown the door by our reactionary press barons. Exploitation, yes, but also touching on real issues surrounding family and 'insanity' as well as reflecting upon the times. We are thrust into a murky degenerate fantasy but all the time reminded that this is 'true'and that we cannot trust our sisters, mothers or even fathers. Central performances are fine but there are a couple of bit parts letting the side down and losing this it's other star. Nevertheless, a real surprise and a genuine horror.

This film is typical of early Seventies British horror in its style and format, though this is much more dark, morbid and disturbing than the average example.

The film features a psychotic woman with a penchant for cannibalism, and her equally disturbed family, hiding out as a recluse in a remote English farmhouse following her release from 15 years in an institution.

A few items of gore are presented here (the UK version will be cut by three minutes), but the real beauty of this film is its dark and unnerving undertones, along with its shocking and feel-bad finalé.

It deals a psychopatic mum and her husband who have been locked at a mental institution for crimes they have previously committed . After long years, the vicious couple : Sheila Keith , Rupert Davies are freed , living at an easy and isolated farm . But then things go wrong , going on a criminal spree .If you like this , have you brain examined ! ..more than a bad dream ! World than you most shocking nightmare ! Daré you see the film that shocked the critics ? Far beyond a nightmare . What terrifying craving made her kill ... and kill..and kill...

Scary terror movie with disturbing chills , eerie intrigue , twisted suspense and violent events with gory scenes . It is far better written and played than you might expect , if the first part with two daughters living apart from them results to be slow-moving as well as boring, lacking exposition, but when appears the creepy marriage : Sheila Keith and Rupert Davis things get better . It packs a simple and basic formula , with neither deep exploration of characters , no analysis of environment or circumstances , but massacres without much sense. With "Frightmare" following on "House of Whipcord" , David McGillivray's scriptwriting is undoubtedly having a marked effect on Peter Walker's pictures . Main and support cast provide decent interpretations . Sheila Keith gives a nice acting as the ruthless mom who has the scary habit of going after victims with a drill or knife before devouring them raw , while Rupert Davies is fine as her faithfully hubby .

This gory picture was professionally directed by Peter Walker . He was an expert on Terror movies , though he also made other genres and TV series . As Peter Walter directed the following ones : " House of the long shadows , Home before Midnight , The Comeback , Schizo , House of Mortal Sin, House of Whipcord , Frightmare , Tiffany Jones" . Most his films used to settle for routine or run-of-the-mill storylines, however , nowadays teem with demonic life and made in exploitation style . Peter Waker's "Nightmare" filmmaking is on another level , altogether from " Cool it Carol ¡" or "The Flesh and Blood Show" . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable though it tends to leave a highly unpleasant aftertaste .

Pete Walker's 'Frightmare' is a gloriously gory mix of psychopathic and cannibalistic killings and pretty English cottages, all topped with all those naff '70's fashions, haircuts and British cars.

Walker regular Sheila Keith is the woman sent to an asylum fifteen years ago, along with her abetting husband. He's helpless when her cravings come back and assumed cured, she now reads tarot cards. Their daughter gets romantically involved with a young psychiatrist and when her younger, adopted sister starts going off the rails, the young doctor naturally wants to help.

She's actually helping find feeding matter - and their brains - for her step mother. And step mother uses an array of everyday tools and appliances to get to her subjects' juicy bits. Electric drills, pitchforks, you name it. There's plenty of reasonable looking blood at the right times and some great make up effects of everyday folk with half their heads missing.

Now, nearly forty years on it's more a chiller than a screamer but very effective nonetheless and certainly one of the better Brit horror flicks I've seen. I saw it on The Horror channel.

Peter Walker, the director of this notorious British horror film, said that he wanted audiences to leave the cinema feeling angry and frustrated after seeing it. He succeeds.

Unpleasant and cynical though "Frightmare" may be, it is brilliantly made and cleverly written. We move between two worlds, of 70s juvenile delinquency in the heart of London and the chintzy, old-fashioned farmhouse inhabited by Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith. What unites both worlds, shockingly, is violence and murder.

There are other dualities in the film. There is the generation gap, between the elderly couple and their children and the gender gap, for here is a horror film where it is women who are the aggressors and the men are impotent onlookers or helpless victims.

The acting is remarkably good, right down to the bit parts, such as the hapless little man (played by Andrew Sachs of "Fawlty Towers" 'Manuel' fame)who is the first victim, in the film's moody, black-and-white pre-credit sequence. But the real honours are stolen by Sheila Keith, at times pathetic, at times terrifying as Mrs Yates and by Rupert Davies as her defeated, despairing husband.

Parts of the film look a little cheesy and dated but it is still a remarkably powerful work. The music score is a bonus too - in place of the usual screeching brass, Stanley Myers score is subtle, eerie and menacing.

I can't really recommend this film as "fun" viewing and it is light years away from the comforting certainties of Hammer's Gothic tales, where good always conquers evil. But "Frightmare" is that rare beast - a genuinely disturbing and unnerving horror film.