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Stark Fear

  • 1962
  • 1h 26m
IMDb RATING
5.4/10
560
YOUR RATING
Beverly Garland, Skip Homeier, and Kenneth Tobey in Stark Fear (1962)
DramaThriller

A sadistic husband mentally tortures his wife, while eventually planning to murder her. Although no one believes her, she gets help from an unexpected source.A sadistic husband mentally tortures his wife, while eventually planning to murder her. Although no one believes her, she gets help from an unexpected source.A sadistic husband mentally tortures his wife, while eventually planning to murder her. Although no one believes her, she gets help from an unexpected source.

  • Directors
    • Ned Hockman
    • Skip Homeier
  • Writer
    • Dwight V. Swain
  • Stars
    • Beverly Garland
    • Skip Homeier
    • Kenneth Tobey
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.4/10
    560
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Ned Hockman
      • Skip Homeier
    • Writer
      • Dwight V. Swain
    • Stars
      • Beverly Garland
      • Skip Homeier
      • Kenneth Tobey
    • 24User reviews
    • 7Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos2

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    Top cast15

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    Beverly Garland
    Beverly Garland
    • Ellen Winslow
    Skip Homeier
    Skip Homeier
    • Gerald Winslow
    Kenneth Tobey
    Kenneth Tobey
    • Cliff Kane
    Hannah Stone
    • Ruth
    George Clow
    Paul Scovil
    Edna Newman
    John Arville
    Bruce Palmer
    Carey Mount
    Cortez Ewing
    • Party-goer in chair
    Robert Stone
      Barbara Freeman
      Darlene Dana Reno
      Joseph Benton
      • Directors
        • Ned Hockman
        • Skip Homeier
      • Writer
        • Dwight V. Swain
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews24

      5.4560
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      Featured reviews

      5jordondave-28085

      Ellen's best friend Ruth almost steals the movie

      (1962) Stark Fear PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA

      Co-produced and directed by Ned Hockman has Gerald Winslow (Skip Homeier) scolding his wife, Ellen Winslow (Beverly Garland) for accepting a desk job from his rival Cliff Kane (Kenneth Tobey) during when she was trying to celebrate his birthday. And before he breaks up with her, he gets more rough with her, even slapping her around. And then after she makes a call to Cliff to turn down for a job, it is not long before he scolds her some more before he demands for a divorce. She then confides to her best friend, Ruth (Hannah Stone) pledging for her job back. There is no mention about dividing up assets or the house they use to live in, for Gerald appears to just like disappear. When she is informed by her husband's bosses her husband is this close to getting himself fired, she then goes on a search rant, just so she can tell him of the news. And while she does this dumb thing by visiting the same city where he grew up in, she then gets herself assaulted by an old friend of his we find out later it was all part of Gerald's plan in the first place.

      If it was not for Ellen's best friend Ruth, she would have made so many dumb and idiotic choices it would not even be worth mentioning. She neither calls the police when her husband assaults her or that during that era or on that environment the police do not care whether women are assaulted or not. Anyways, the does have a good ending but one would have to go through a lot of nonsense to get their. 5 out of a 10 is a respectable thumbs down for me despite those good things.
      7Hey_Sweden

      A fun sleazy-B with a debt to "Psycho".

      Beverly Garland is winning in the role of Ellen Winslow, a young woman married to a vile, insecure man named Jerry (Skip Homeier), who doesn't like that she got a job when he seemingly made enough money to support both of them. Jerry soon disappears, and poor Ellen is obliged to search for the bum when his boss demands that SHE do something about it! Ellen then runs into a variety of sordid, unsavoury characters while falling in love with her new boss, Cliff Kane (the great Kenneth Tobey).

      Ellen is the kind of character that would surely anger feminists, as she tends to blame herself for everything. That said, there's no doubt that Beverly still deeply commits herself to this performance. Ellen IS sympathetic, enough so that you wish she'd have more moments where she got tough and stood up for herself. At her lowest point, she gets raped by Jerry's old friend Harvey Suggett while combing his hometown.

      Homeier is excellent at making his character truly despicable. Within seconds of meeting him, we're hoping he comes to a bad end. Tobey is as engaging as he's ever been, although even his character has a "history" that may have colored his actions. The supporting cast consists of unknowns, although the guy playing Suggett is suitably creepy, and Hannah Stone has an effective presence as Ruth, Ellens' friend.

      Although "Stark Fear" may wear its influence right on its sleeve (right down to leading lady Garland resembling Janet Leighs' Marion Crane), it does have a very seedy atmosphere that helps to carry it through an amusing 86 minute run time. It's no lost classic, but it should entertain lovers of low budget cinema reasonably well.

      Seven out of 10.
      7melvelvit-1

      Another low-budget "shocker" influenced by PSYCHO

      Ned Hockman's STARK FEAR is yet another obscure low budget "psycho- thriller" heavily influenced by PSYCHO and not just because B-movie babe Beverly Garland resembles Marion Crane while looking at herself in the rear view mirror on her way to a sleazy motel. Husband Skip Homeier (who took over directing when Hockman quit) is a sadistic "pervert" (read homosexual) with a mother fixation and Bev's a plucky masochist who blames herself for everything that happens. When Skip goes missing, she looks for him (God only knows why) in an Oklahoma hometown just this side of DELIVERANCE where she's raped in a cemetery by his childhood friend. Unbeknownst to his ravaged wife, her husband's secretly watching in the shadows of his mother's grave and keeps her bloody bra as a souvenir. He's later holed up in a motel room with her rapist and no explanation's given (connect the dots) as Garland goes home and throws herself into her work where her boss (genre fave Kenneth Tobey) falls in love with her ...but he's got a secret, too, of course. There's no end to this woman's woes.

      The IMDb Trivia on the film says it was Beverly Garland's least favorite of all her movies but I don't know why since she gives it all she's got and turns in a sincere performance in a film that's equal parts sleaze and hokum. Bev's best friend actually tells her to stay with her abusive husband rather than end up a spinster like herself and after Garland is raped, she, of course, blames herself and not her attacker. And although she loves him, she won't go all the way with her boss because she's (gasp) still married. Geez Louise. A truly bizarre "shocker" that looks like it's trying to say something, I just don't know what.
      7richardchatten

      A Strange Hybrid of Psycho-Thriller and Soap Opera

      The title, date, subject matter and the presence of Beverly Garland and Kenneth Tobey led me to expect a rough, tough woman-in-peril psycho thriller; which it certainly has elements of, the script including words like 'rape' and 'pervert', the rape taking place in the graveyard of a creepy small southern town straight out of 'Deliverance'.

      But heroine Ellen Winslow also pulls herself up by her bootstraps and gets a responsible job, and has several heart to hearts with manless female buddy Ruth Rogers. The film's troubled production in Oklahoma shows in the often disjointed and overwritten end product, and it has a wholly inadequate music score that is often either inappropriately jaunty or simply not up the demands of the dramatic moments. But some of the photography is excellent, and most of the supporting cast (presumably recruited locally) turn in memorable work.
      5XhcnoirX

      Stark Frustration

      Beverly Garland is mentally abused by her husband Skip Homeier. She has taken on a job under Kenneth Tobey to make ends meet, but Homeier sees it as another excuse to have a go at her. Garland doesn't know what to do to please Homeier, but her upbringing tells her she must stick with him, despite her best friend Hannah Stone telling her otherwise. When Homeier disappears, and his boss tells her he is about to lose his job because of it, she goes in search of him. She goes to the small rural town he grew up in where she is confronted with his past and even has to deal with rape.

      This was the final movie I watched from the 6-movie 'Weird-Noir' DVD set. It is not all that weird and really not all that noir, but more of a psychological horror/exploitation movie. What sets it apart from the rest of the movies is that it seems to have had a (relatively speaking) bigger budget, as well as more talented actors. Homeier is a truly despicable sadist, Garland portrays her naive character well, and Tobey is a solid character actor (I didn't recognize his name, but I've seen his face dozens of times). It also has a longer runtime at 85 minutes, which is too long, the movie has some rather slow sequences and could've used some tightening and more rigorous editing. 65-70 minutes seems like a more appropriate length.

      The movie is pretty direct in showing Homeier's mental abuse, and gets downright ugly when it comes to Garland's rape, and especially Homeier's reaction to it (which is filmed really effectively, in probably the best shot of the entire movie). There is also a nice chase sequence between the two which ends in a jukebox repair shop, which does feel kinda weird because it feels like it's filmed in seedy big city alleyways, while it takes place in a small town with less than 1000 inhabitants. But suffice it to say, there is no ambiguity in Homeier's character, and one wonders what Garland saw in him originally that made her want to marry him.

      It's a bit of a frustrating watch. The movie has some good things, and the principal actors know their craft well. But it's way too slow, the plot makes no sense in too many places, and it looks flat aside from a few nice shots. According to Garland the movie was frustrating to make as well, with original (one-time) director, Ned Hockman, walking away from the set angrily, leaving Skip Homeier to finish directing the movie. It was her least favorite movie to do. I can't recommend this one. 5/10

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      Storyline

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      Did you know

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      • Trivia
        Beverly Garland says this is the least favorite of all her movies, that first-time director Ned Hockman walked off the set after disagreements with the cast and producers, leaving co-star Skip Homeier to take over direction and finish the movie.
      • Goofs
        Harvey's "un-hn" confirmation of Ellen's plans to meet at the graveyard is heard over his close-up that is jarringly, inexplicably darker, like a night shot, relative to the brightness of the rest of the scene.
      • Quotes

        Harvey Stuggs: [wrestling with Ellen] Damn little snoop! You come down here and spy on Jerry!

        Ellen Winslow: Stop!

        Harvey Stuggs: [repeated line]

        Harvey Stuggs: Bus tickets cost money! You wanna ride, you gotta pay!

        [rapes her while Jerry watches from beyond his mother's gravestone]

      • Connections
        Referenced in DVD/Lazerdisc/VHS collection 2016 (2016)

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      Details

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      • Release date
        • December 1962 (United States)
      • Country of origin
        • United States
      • Language
        • English
      • Filming locations
        • Eureka Springs, Arkansas, USA
      • Production company
        • B.H.S. Productions
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Tech specs

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      • Runtime
        • 1h 26m(86 min)
      • Color
        • Black and White
      • Sound mix
        • Mono

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