Sintomas

A young woman called Anne (Lorna Heilbron) is invited by her girlfriend named Helen (Angela Pleasence) , who lives in an English country house , to stay there with her. The estate, however, isn't quite what it seems and neither is the friend who issued the invitation, as things go wrong when strange happenings start appearing at the woods and at the weird mansion .

An interesting and terrifying movie with tension, thrills, chills, suspense and an unexpected conclusion. It is an enjoyable film that owes a lot to ¨Polanski's Repulsion¨ and ¨Hitchcock's Psychosis¨by taking parts here and there , although , of course , inferior to these two great terror films that quickly established themselves as classics in its field and whose frames have been very imitated since . This Symptoms (1974) packs a chilling feeling of incipient madness that has seldom been realised with such imagination and skill , containing some hallucinatory and surprising scenes . Larraz's direction is slow but deliberate , never missing a chance of jolting the audience with a sudden shock . This disturbing horror movie was such a critical and public success at the time , but unfortunately after being forgotten , and nowadays recuperated from obscurity and considered to be a cult movie . Terrific acting from main starring Angela Pleasence who shows efficiently all the agony of a tormented mind in her eyes .Also very nice acting from his beloved friend Lorna Heilbron and the suspicious handyman played by veteran Peter Vaughn . Special mention for the thrilling and suspenseful musical score by John Scott.

This much-loved 70s shocker was professional and stylistically directed by Jose Ramon Larraz . Larraz who deceased in 2013 started in cinema world by casual way when he meets the famous director Josef Von Stenberg running a cinematographic course in Brussels . Larraz was a director of horror and erotic films and former comic book illustrator and fashion photographer . Worked in England as Joseph Larraz, and in Spain, using the pseudonym Joseph Braunstein . Larraz subsequently shot horror classics , cult obscurities , euro-trash , and even some sexploitation . As he filmed his first movies in England , plenty of terror , suspense and sex , such as ¨Whirlpool¨ (1970) , ¨Deviation¨(1971) , ¨La Muerte Incierta¨(1972) , ¨Scream or die¨(1973) and ¨Symptoms¨ with Angela Pleasence and Peter Vaughan . He also shot soft-cores and then Jose Ramón returns Spain filming horror and semi-exploitative movies such as ¨Estigma¨ , ¨Ritos Sexuales Del Diablo¨, ¨Al Filo del Hacha¨ and ¨Descanse en Piezas¨ , imitating the American Slashers of the 70s and 80s . His most successful film is this ¨Vampyres¨ about bloodsuckers who get victims to pull over hitchhiking , played by Playboy young models with sexy bodies , blending arty house , horror and erotic situations . Symptoms (1974) rating : Notable terror movie . Most hardcore Euro horror fans will appreciate the kinkiness of this film as that is what gives it its distinctive flavour . A compelling movie that's a must for connoisseurs of the cinema's darker corners.

the plot is paper thin but what it lacks in story it makes up for in good acting, excellent cinema photography like visual poetry, and a creepy moody atmosphere. I watched it in black and white and it looked beautiful.. I may watch again in color just to compare. This is the kind of movie that needs to be remade.. fix some of the clunky dialog and establish a more cohesive story arc.. but then again the feeling of being lost as to what exactly was happening on screen is part of this movie's charm.

Called out to an ancestral house, a troubled woman is invited by her friend to spend time together and strengthen their relationship, but the more they spend together the more the house has an effect on her psyche and mental sanity bringing a deadly resolution for all around her.

Overall, this was a decent enough if somewhat troubled psychological genre effort. One of the better features here is the main descent into psychological instability that becomes the focal point of the film. Since the signs of her unhinged state are given to us from the very beginning through the journal writing and just reserved remarks that present themselves whenever she's on-screen, the seeds are sewn so that the unnerving nature of the house, as well as the surrounding woods on it's grounds, offer the kind of appropriate setup for where this one goes. As the reserved and blank expressions, cryptic sayings about nothing in particular, or just plain odd behavior finally come to a head, the atmosphere built up here features quite the fun turn of events at play here which makes for a fun enough time. However, there are some big issues with this one. The main drawback on display here is that for all the good this does in establishing the psychological breakdown of its main character and what's going on with her, nothing else really happens here. This one becomes incredibly repetitious in the use of a formulaic storyline involving her snapping at something her friend does, blaming it on her psychosis but doing nothing to help remedy the situation, and then trying to rebuild their friendship until the next incident. This produces a dull and generally dreary pacing which is hardly all that memorable or exciting in the slightest, and without explaining anything until a brief conversation at the end to reveal what the twist actually meant means this one is based solely on the atmosphere generated.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

First of all I love pretty explicit and audacious lesbian vampire flick "Vampyres"(1974),but more rare and obscure "Symptoms" is even better and certainly different in tone.It's a very subtle,calm and restrained horror film with plenty of mysterious atmosphere.Helen Ramsey arrives back from Switzerland to her old-fashioned family home,accompanied by a friend Ann West.It quickly becomes clear that Helen suffers from a nervous disposition.At night both Helen and Ann hear voices in the house and Helen seems convinced that there is something in the attic,a trap door to which is in the ceiling in a corner of her room."Symptoms" is a genuinely frightening horror film about a woman slowly slipping completely into madness.The cinematography is striking,the interior sets are terrifyingly dark and the acting by Angela Pleasence is fantastic.I fell in love with this film and can't praise it enough.

"Symptoms" follows a paper-thin plot line that details a woman who invites a girlfriend to her remote mansion for the weekend, but her true motives come into focus as something far more sinister than imagined. Originally screened at the Cannes Film Festival, "Symptoms" inexplicably became a lost a film in the ensuing years, until being unearthed and re-released on Blu-ray for the twenty-first century.

To put it plainly, if you're looking for a film where things "happen," then look elsewhere. This is a film that never quite entirely gets onto its feet, and instead wallows in its own mysteriousness and atmosphere—and the atmosphere is laid on thick. The camera meditates on the foggy England backwoods, the swampy lake that holds dark secrets, and the dilapidated mansion that is quite literally engulfed in trees and foliage. If nothing else, "Symptoms" is a mood piece, and a fantastic one at that.

Given its sparse scripting, the film demands top-notch acting from its performers, and the audience gets as much with Angela Pleasence in the lead role of the mysterious, violent hostess. She is vulnerable and simultaneously terrifying, and has a compelling screen presence. Lorna Heilbron matches Pleasence as the seductive and insouciant house guest.

Writer-director José Ramón Larraz, who is perhaps best known for his over-the-top lesbian vampire flick "Vampyres," has a consistent style established with this film, and his vision comes across on screen very strongly. Given his notoriety for the aforementioned film, the natural expectation I had for this was along the lines of an exploitation film, but it is far, far from it—it's actually a classy, quiet, and ominous meditation on broken femininity, at times evoking Robert Altman's "Images" or 1971's "Let's Scare Jessica to Death." It is part horror film and part psychological character study, moving along in that order; after the first dramatic scene of violence, the film and its heroine unravel before the audience, and the result is nothing short of compelling.

Overall, "Symptoms" is a phenomenal and under-appreciated horror film. Its status as a lost film has no doubt robbed it of the wider contemporary audience it deserves, but hopefully the re-release of it will attract modern genre fans. I was blown away by the nuance and all-around skillfulness of it. It's a quietly spooky and wildly atmospheric film that is well-acted and well-shot. Truly something to behold for fans of understated cinema. 9/10.