Vingança

This was originally called simply "Revenge" but the title was probably changed to avoid confusing it with other films so named, including an American film released the same year.

There is nothing American about this tale of revenge though, rather this is a typical low budget English drama that was quite common in especially the 1960s, albeit with a slightly unusual theme.

The principal characters are the loved ones of a young girl who has been murdered by a sexual predator, a local man believed to be responsible for at least one similar crime. The film begins with this man being released from police custody, apparently against the weight of the evidence.

Obviously this does not go down too well, so our misguided heroes follow him and their brief, distant interaction convinces them he is indeed the killer, so they decide to kidnap him and beat a confession out of him. What could go wrong?

A lot of things, naturally, and there is not one but two twists in the tale. One warning though - don't try this at home Or anywhere else.

Joan Collins stars in this well-crafted British suspense-drama about a grieving family who take the law into their own hands and seek revenge on the man who raped and murdered their young daughter. Sidney Hayers' direction is smooth, the cast(particularly Collins and James Booth) is terrific, and there are some effective shock and suspense sequences, but it's all been done before, and it's pretty dreary and unpleasant stuff.

This film starts out at a fair pace,but then the writer must have run out of fresh ideas and cobbled together the rest of the lcklustre plot.What is very strange is that top starred Joan Collins disappears well before the end.

Surprisingly, upon watching this, I found that I had never seen it before and that it was most enjoyable, if a little distasteful. The locations, shops and house and pub interiors are most evocative and if some are sets they are very good ones. Joan Collins is also surprisingly good but then she really only has to play at being a barmaid. Gripping from the start, this is a really well paced and intelligently told thriller. Things lurch a little two thirds in but by then we have bought into the rather lurid tale and it was always going to leave something of a bad taste anyway, with little girls being taken on their way to school, so what harm a little incest along the way. Just as the film seems to be loosing pace we have a surprisingly and confrontational ending that leaves you wondering just who the intended audience was for this. Well worth a watch for the open minded.

Stalwart British filmmaker, Sidney Hayers relentlessly raises the teeth-grinding tension to a murderously-fevered pitch in his strikingly brutal, emotionally raw, uniquely British 70s suburban revenge classic, 'Terror in The House aka 'Revenge!'. A young girl is abducted and killed by a vile-minded predator, and once the victim's grief-stricken family furiously enact their righteous revenge they descend inexorably into a dismal existential miasma of blinding rage, bloody retribution and crippling emotional despond! Which is mother's milk to the likes of me!

Director, Hayers coaxes tremendously vivid, full-blooded performances from his singularly game cast of film & TV icons, the scintillatingly sleek Glamourpuss, Joan Collins, and James Booth were rarely better, with esteemed character actor, Kenneth Griffith twitchily putting in a career best as the disgustingly seedy sex-fiend, Seely! This is a long-cherished, excitingly mounted, unflinchingly dark British psychodrama that I never once expected to see so gloriously manifested on Blu-ray, and in this delightfully pristine, lovingly restored version,'Revenge!' is thoroughly deserving of an equally brand new, hopefully no less adoring audience! With an exemplary script by 'Saint' screenwriter, John Kruse, sterling performances, an engagingly grim tone, plus a fine score by, Eric Rogers, this gritty, downbeat 70s thriller remains one remarkably tough thrill-spiller that has lost little of its formidable dramatic impact.