Fear in the Night (1972)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Jimmy Sangster

Writers:

Jimmy Sangster (writer)
Michael Syson (writer)

Release Date:

October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown moves with her husband to a boys' school, but finds herself being terrorized by a mysterious one-armed man - and nobody believes her. |

Plot Keywords:

Nervous Breakdown | Beautiful Woman | Independent Film

Cast

Judy Geeson	...	Peggy Heller
Joan Collins	...	Molly Carmichael
Ralph Bates	...	Robert Heller
Peter Cushing	...	Michael Carmichael
James Cossins	...	The Doctor
Gillian Lind	...	Mrs. Beamish
Brian Grellis	...	2nd Policeman
John Bown	...	1st Policeman

Also Known As:

Dynasty of Fear
Honeymoon of Fear

Runtime:

USA:94 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | France:-12 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in Judy Geeson: Inseminoid Girl (2004) (V)

Old-school terror.

Pretty, neurotic newlywed Peggy (Judy Geeson) survives an attack by a leather-gloved, one-armed assailant the day before she is due to leave London to live with her husband Robert (Ralph Bates) who teaches at a posh boys school in the country owned by sinister headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing) and his bitchy young wife (the lovely Joan Collins).

Once there, though, poor Peggy soon realises that, even though she is now miles from the city, she still isn't safe: the one-armed maniac appears to have followed her to her new home...

It shouldn't take seasoned fans of psychological thrillers very long to suss that the mysterious goings on in Hammer's Fear In the Night are intended to turn the protagonist completely insane, drive her to murder, or both. But although the film's plot doesn't earn many points for originality, being heavily reminiscent of the French thriller Les Diaboliques, director Jimmy Sangster delivers enough startling imagery (Cushing's shattered glasses; a gloved prosthetic arm) and well-handled scenes of suspense to ensure that the film is certainly never dull: from its wonderful opening credits sequence, in which the camera pans across the school to eventually reveal the legs of a man hanging from a tree, to its tense denouement, Fear in the Night is a solid slice of macabre entertainment.