Il mostro della strada di campagna

I really liked this film. Although the twist ending was not exactly unexpected, the story kept me guessing. Beautifully shot with lots of very effective scenery adding to the overall feel. Director Robert Fuest's work is evocative of Hitchcock. The use of French actors and the absence of subtitles is a smart move, giving the viewer a sense of the young girl's confusion and mounting fear. The location filming in France pays off beautifully as the movie had an otherworldly feel to it. Pamela Franklin stars and it quit good. She is asked to tell a lot of story with only her expressions and she does so splendidly. Fuest trusted her performance and it paid off. Solid story, good acting and a firm, polished hand at the directorial helm make this an underrated thriller.

"And Soon the Darkness" is a slow-moving,but still surprisingly spooky horror film about a pair of women bicycling through rural France who run into a vicious rape-killer.Most of the movie is set on a sunny road,but the settings provide a claustrophobic atmosphere.The acting is okay,and Robert Fuest("The Abominable Dr.Phibes")directs with a sure hand.It's nice to see also horror regular Sandor Eles in the cast.8 out of 10.Recommended.

Very menacing atmosphere throughout. The two girls, Franklin and Dotrice look wonderfully vulnerable and add a sexual frisson to the film. The pace is leisurely and the lack of subtitles deliberately enhances the confusion and sheer terror that is building up in Jane's mind. Sadly unavailable on this side of the world but thank God for Region 1 DVDs.

7/10

"And Soon the Darkness" – which takes entirely place during the daytime – is a fairly creepy but sadly neglected 70's Brit-chiller directed by Robert Fuest, who would later focus on horror movies that have slightly more extravagant story lines, like "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" and "The Devil's Rain". This movie exclusively revolves on moody atmosphere and eerie setting, as there are no nasty bits or gratuitous sleaze. The film starts out rather slow but gradually gets tenser, and particularly the last half hour is terrific and nail-biting. Two young British nurses spend their holiday bicycling through rural France, unaware that another tourist girl was brutally slain in the same region two years earlier and unaware that they're being targeted by the same fiendish rape-killer who's still at large in the area. Following a banal quarrel, Jane becomes separated from her friend Cathy. The latter then mysteriously vanishes and during the search for her friend, Jane only encounters suspiciously behaving locals. Robert Fuest maintains a continuously high tension-level using only very basic tricks, most notably the inability to communicate. Jane doesn't speak French and therefore she cannot understand the warnings of people or explain what happened to her friend. There aren't any subtitles for the French dialogs, so even the viewers are unaware of what's going on most of the time in case they don't speak the language. Pamela Franklin's acting performance is very convincing and the music as well as the photography is extremely uncanny. Definitely on of the most efficient women-in-peril horror/thrillers of the early 70's.

This minimalist thriller is a one-of-a-kind film with an excellent pedigree; not only is it directed by Robert Fuest, who gave us a minor horror classic in THE ABOMINABLE DR PHIBES, it is also written by two top television writers of the time, Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS) and Terry Nation (DR WHO). However unlike the various work of the contributors this isn't an effects-driven exercise in flashiness and action; instead barely anything happens in the movie.

The pacing is deliberately slow, and the film as a whole is largely an atmosphere-building exercise with the only action appearing at the very end of the film. The visceral horror aspects are mainly non-existent and instead the film strives hard to create and maintain high levels of suspense and foreboding. The forbidding setting of a rural French landscape is a clever touch and through static camera angles and creepy music we are led to believe that the landscape we see is both alien and dangerous.

Beautifully filmed and with a strong script - with little dialogue Clemens and Nation make sure that every word counts - AND SOON THE DARKNESS is an exercise in realism. As there are no special effects involved the film hasn't dated at all and could be taken for the present day if it wasn't for the minor trappings, i.e. the old fashioned vehicles and hairstyles. Again the realism is strengthened through the matter-of-fact storyline, with large periods of inaction adding to the experience.

The main emphasis is on the murder mystery aspect of the plot, most of the film acting as a whodunit and asking the viewer to guess firstly what happened and secondly who is responsible. The task isn't easy at first, with loads of red herrings and plot twists being thrown in our way, but gradually light will begin to dawn on those who have prior knowledge of these kinds of movies.

The cast is an extremely small one, consisting of only four or five major characters. This adds to the isolated nature of the movie, especially with the language barrier deeply affecting the situation of our leads. Pamela Franklin proves she has grown up a lot since THE INNOCENTS with her mature yet fragile nurse character and her subdued turn is generally spot on. In comparison, Michele Dotrice (SOME MOTHERS DO 'AVE 'EM) is flirty and attractive as her outgoing companion and also makes a favourable impression. Sandor Eles (COUNTESS Dracula) is given a chance to shine as the shifty Frenchman who gets caught up in the events and becomes a prime suspect.

Shots of unkempt farmers staring at Franklin over lonely open landscapes and cars soaring into the distance go a long way in adding to the increasing atmosphere. Despite the lack of violence, murder and bloodshed, horror fans should enjoy this movie through the sheer amount of suspense and atmosphere that it offers. Definitely a thought-provoking and at times gripping movie. A similar offering - but even rarer - followed three years later with DEADLY STRANGERS.