Night of Fear

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

Fearless editing and sound design from an unknown Australian filmmaker in the early 70s. Night of Fear - It's not a completely lost treasure but it does contain incredible composition, editing and brave use of sound (none being dialogue) skills throughout.

It would've been a hard fight to get any distribution- not so much because of subject matter or the violence, but of the techniques used that would not have been endorsed by standard filmmaking at that time. What was more impressive is the quality of the print they had for the telecine transfer! It was almost spotless!

Terry Bourke (19 April 1940 - 2002) I salute you.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_Fear_%28film%29

My knowledge of Australian horror cinema isn't exactly encyclopaedic, but apparently, this is the first Oz horror film. Night of Fear was originally intended to be the first episode in a twelve part Australian TV horror series, but because Australian censors deemed it 'too gory', it never saw the light of day; until its DVD release some years later. The film definitely is nastier than your average TV show, and it's not really surprising that it never got shown on television. There is no dialogue at all in the film, although this is masked by a barrage of tense and macabre scenes that our young heroine terrorised by a madman. While the film does well in the violence and gore stakes, I personally don't rate it as a masterpiece simply because there isn't all that much to it. The film only lasts for fifty minutes, so you can't expect too much - but the unrelenting pace can become monotonous. You've got to respect writer-director Terry Bourke for attempting to bring horror to Australian TV screens and having his attempt dismissed for featuring too much horror, but personally I'd rather have seen him put his efforts into a more ambitious feature length film instead, and I'll endeavour to see his later efforts such as 'Inn of the Damned'.

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.

"Night of Fear" tells the story of a young woman terrorized by a crazy drifter,who lives in the abandoned hut with his colony of rats.This grisly,grainy and unsettling horror is the first part of never completed anthology series called "Fright".The film was banned by Australian censors on the grounds of being indecent and obscene and is pretty close to an exploitation cinema.The most interesting aspect of "Night of Fear" is the lack of dialogue.The pace is uneven,although there are some moments of unrelenting terror.Terry Bourke's little shocker in many ways reminded me Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre",however it was made two years earlier.Give it a look,if you like early 70's psycho flicks.I'm quite sure that the makers of "Wolf Creek" were also influenced by it.9 out of 10.