Fear in the Night

Pretty, neurotic newlywed Peggy (Judy Geeson) survives an attack by a leather-gloved, one-armed assailant the day before she is due to leave London to live with her husband Robert (Ralph Bates) who teaches at a posh boys school in the country owned by sinister headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing) and his bitchy young wife (the lovely Joan Collins).

Once there, though, poor Peggy soon realises that, even though she is now miles from the city, she still isn't safe: the one-armed maniac appears to have followed her to her new home...

It shouldn't take seasoned fans of psychological thrillers very long to suss that the mysterious goings on in Hammer's Fear In the Night are intended to turn the protagonist completely insane, drive her to murder, or both. But although the film's plot doesn't earn many points for originality, being heavily reminiscent of the French thriller Les Diaboliques, director Jimmy Sangster delivers enough startling imagery (Cushing's shattered glasses; a gloved prosthetic arm) and well-handled scenes of suspense to ensure that the film is certainly never dull: from its wonderful opening credits sequence, in which the camera pans across the school to eventually reveal the legs of a man hanging from a tree, to its tense denouement, Fear in the Night is a solid slice of macabre entertainment.

Often effective British thriller features a tip-top cast(Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Ralph Bates, Judy Geeson), but suffers from a lack of originality as this is, for the most part, a rehash of similar motifs explored in earlier British horror films like PARANOIAC and NIGHTMARE, which themselves derived from the brilliant French thriller DIABOLIQUE. Still, the good outweighs the bad and there are plenty of nice, genuine jolts.

This Hammer film has remained in the wilderness for years, but thanks to Optimum Releasing, it now has its long awaited DVD release. The back of the box proclaims this film to be the last of Hammer Horror's suspense films, and one of the best - and both of those statements are true! Many of the suspense films that Hammer produced are among the best that the studio had to offer - Taste of Fear and Paranoiac being among the finest of them. This film isn't your usual Hammer film or your usual Hammer suspense film and plays out a lot like a Hammer version of Italy's popular Giallo sub-genre. Hammer Horror would go on to make a lot of films that took influence from the more lurid Eurohorror imports in the seventies, and while this shift in focus didn't always serve them well - it certainly does here! The plot focuses on a boy's school. Peggy Heller is recovering from a nervous breakdown, and she goes to stay at the school with her teacher husband Robert. Upon arrival, she discovers that the school is run by headmaster Michael Carmichael, and she soon becomes the victim of murderous attacks by a one-armed man. However, nobody believes her...

It has to be said that the plot runs rather slowly for the first hour, with the hapless victim being attacked a couple of times and facing disbelief from both her husband and the wife of the headmaster. It's always interesting, however, and this slow burning first half soon gives way to a more furious final third, where revelations about the school and its headmaster become the forefront of the story and give way to a delicious double twist. The film features performances from three big stars of British horror - the sinister Ralph Bates is perfect as the husband, while the beautiful and deadly Joan Collins provides an extra dimension and things are topped off in style courtesy of a great performance from Hammer's main man Peter Cushing. Judy Geeson holds her own in the lead role also, and the film certainly doesn't come a cropper on the acting front. It has to be said that the final twist is somewhat predictable considering the film's genre, but it's carried off well and the way that the tale concludes is both clever and exciting. Overall, Fear in the Night might not have gained the same amount of praise as Hammer's more popular offerings - but it's a damn good film and I'm glad I saw it!

In London, the twenty-two year-old Peggy Heller (Judy Geeson) meets and marries the school teacher Robert Heller (Ralph Bates) after recovering from a nervous breakdown. Robert works in the countryside in a private school owned by the headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing), who is married with Molly Carmichael (Joan Collins). On the eve of moving to the country with her husband, Peggy spends the night at the board house of Mrs. Beamish (Gillian Lind) and is attacked by a man with mechanical arm in her room. Mrs. Beamish calls the doctor but they do not believe in Peggy. On the next morning, she heads with Robert to the country and moves to the cottage in the school. But soon Peggy is attacked by the same man but Robert does not believe in her. Then she meets The Headmaster and realizes that he has a mechanical arm. What will happen next?

"Fear in the Night" is an intriguing and mysterious thriller by Hammer with Judy Geeson in the lead role. The storyline is good but could have more characters to increase the mystery of the identity of the attacker. But it is worthwhile watching this thriller. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Um Grito Dentro da Noite" ("A Scream in the Night")

It took Peggy Heller a long time to recover from the trauma of a brutal physical assault, suffered in her youth. When she married Robert, he provided her with the love and reassurance she craved for and the two settled down in a pretty house in the grounds of the public school where Robert was a master. But the headmaster of the school is not what he seems and Penny is convinced he means to harm her - is her fear a figment of her tortured imagination or are there forces at work that intend to manipulate her anxieties with fatal consequences?

Fear in the night, a suspense thriller with sinister undertones, benefits greatly from Judy Geeson who is mesmerising as a woman who had suffered a nervous breakdown, and is quite mentally fragile. The plot is pleasingly twisted and the climax suitably dramatic. It's a bit drawn out in the end, but it's an efficient thriller that is about uncertainty around what is real and what is imaginary. There are good performances from Peter Cushing and Joan Collins. It's well-handled by Freddie Francis, the prowling camerawork is effective, and the tension is well constructed till the end.