Night of Fear

Narrowly missing a collision with a truck, a young woman (Carla Hoogeveen) veers off the road and down a dirt track, her car ending up stuck in a ditch. Soon after, she finds herself menaced by a leering lunatic (Norman Yemm) with a gimpy leg and a rat on his shoulder.

Although considered quite the shocker when it first came out, being banned by the Australian Censorship Board, Night of Fear is a very rudimentary 'woman in peril' horror - woman crashes car in countryside, woman encounters killer hillbilly, woman flees with maniac in pursuit - which will hold very few surprises and deliver scant scares for seasoned fans of the genre.

I guess a few similarities to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from the following year will make it of interest to some - animal parts and stuffed rats adorn the killer's shack, and the man himself likes to play with the bloody skull of a previous victim - but on the whole, this is a mildly interesting Antipodean obscurity (the complete lack of dialogue certainly marks it as unusual) rather than an essential piece of Ozploitation.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for Pinkie the rat.

Terry Bourke's Night of Fear was originally meant to be the pilot for an Australian TV-series titled "Fright." However, the censors banned it on the grounds of "indecency and obscenity." That is unfortunate, as it would have made a great TV series, as this was a pretty good movie in its own right. Although you can tell it was a pilot, as the movie has opening titles very much like a TV show (and it is called "Fright), plus it only goes for 50 minutes and there is pretty much no dialogue.

Having said this, it is grisly and unsettling and although tame by today's standards, does feature a few nasty scenes. Also (and very interestingly) this was made two years before Tobe Hooper's widely regarding cult classic, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." While I was watching this, I was constantly reminded of Hooper's film, with the outback setting, the distressed and screaming heroine and the disturbed hillbilly villain. Night of Fear is virtually plot less, it follows 'The Woman' (Carla Hoogeveen) who takes an accidental wrong turn to avoid a collision and crashed her car near 'The Man's' (Norman Yemm) house. He stalks and terrorises her for the rest of the film.

It is a shame this was extended into a feature length with some dialogue, as it would make a great 70's exploitation film along the lines of Hooper's "Massacre." However, for what it is, it is quite good and it would not surprise me if some filmmakers got inspiration from this...("Wolf Creek").

3½/5

Pursued by madman (Yemm) after making a wrong turn, young secretary Hoogeveen finds herself at the mercy of the elements (and animals) in this taut Ozploitation thriller that's light on detail but entertaining nonetheless.

Virtually no dialogue is spoken, instead set design, makeup and location cinematography are the stars whilst the usually conservative Yemm (formerly one of the lead detectives from TV's 'Homicide') is cast as a backwoods tramp with just one thing on his mind (besides eating rats). TV soap star Behets also appears in the beginning as an ill-fated saddler.

Terry Bourke's first Australian theatrical film doesn't even make feature length at just under an hour head to tail, yet displays enough mindless mayhem to kickstart a career that would soon see the under appreciated horror-western 'Inn of the Damned', and then the more commercially successful 'Lady Stay Dead' for the 80s video market. Quick and dirty, but definitely worth a look.

And, that makes up about half of Night of Fear. I will say, this movie has "distractions," as in, it's stylishly filmed, creates its own atmosphere, and my Umbrella Blu-ray has some nice color and clarity. That's all I can say for it. First of all, it was meant to be an Australian TV pilot, clocking in at 53 minutes. You'd think brevity would be on the side of something so incredibly primitive, straightforward, and flat-out uneventful. Nope, it is a slog through 7 minutes shy of an hour! Writer and director Terry Bourke tries in vain to artificially manufacture tension (as the killer hobbles around on his leg brace), when, pardon the pun, there's no meat on the bone.

So, here's where all the annoyances come into play. Score, sound design (there is no dialogue), and editing especially grated my nerves. What a jarring score. I mentioned artificially trying to create tension. Suspect number one. Not to mention, the score keeps you awake when there's no tension to be found for miles! They didn't even know where to put this stuff!

The editing cuts both ways. Sequences go on for an eternity. Also, fast-paced MTV-style cuts! (in 1973). Bear in mind, Night of Fear is as basic, and basically told, killer-hillbilly-in-the-woods "tale" as you're likely going to find. To sum up, none of it works.

Oh, I didn't do a synopsis. Let's see, I think I covered it! Killer hillbilly chases women through the woods. Oh, he likes rats. Yeah, that's it.

Whether or not it's a landmark Australian horror/exploitation film, I don't care. It looks good, but frankly, offers absolutely nothing to sink your teeth into.

According to the writings of several of my respectable fellow reviewers around here, "Night of Fear" was the very first Australian horror/exploitation movie ever made. This bit of trivia also got confirmed in the brilliant documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation", so I just had to see it sooner or later… Well, the first Aussie horror flick definitely is a peculiar one. "Night of Fear" is very rudimentary, both in terms of plotting and execution, as if writer/director Terry Bourke was reading in his Horror for Dummies manual whilst operating the camera. There are no dialogs, only female screams and a lot of panting, no attempts to provide depth or background to the characters and the plot is simplistic as can be. Following a banal car accident, a sole young girl ends up on a rural backwoods road and quickly finds herself confronted with a hillbilly waving around an ax. She flees and seeks shelter in a nearby cabin, but obviously her troubles only get worse in there. It may all come across as formulaic and amateurish, but "Night of Fear" actually works quite effectively! The pacing is moderately fast and the suspense is non-stop throughout the short running time. Yup, a modest and straightforward little genre outing with some nasty images and authentic shocks. Sometimes that's all it takes to satisfy a horror fanatic. The ending is very shocking and immediately explains why Terry Bourke struggled against so much controversy when it came out. "Night of Fear" was supposed to be the kick-off installment of an Aussie horror TV-series, but the idiot censors didn't agree.