Frightmare (1974)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Pete Walker

Writers:

David McGillivray (writer)
Pete Walker (story)

Release Date:

July 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Worse than your most shocking nightmare!

Plot:

Edmund and Dorothy Yates are freed after fifteen years in an asylum. Edmund covers up for his wife who...

Plot Keywords:

Asylum | Cannibalism | Farmer | Slasher | Mental Institution

Cast

Rupert Davies	...	Edmund Yates
Sheila Keith	...	Dorothy Yates
Deborah Fairfax	...	Jackie
Paul Greenwood	...	Graham
Kim Butcher	...	Debbie
Fiona Curzon	...	Merle
Jon Yule	...	Robin
Trisha Mortimer	...	Lillian (as Tricia Mortimer)
Pamela Fairbrother	...	Delia
Edward Kalinski	...	Alec
Victor Winding	...	Detective Inspector
Anthony Hennessey	...	Detective Sergeant
Noel Johnson	...	The Judge
Michael Sharvell-Martin	...	Barman
Tommy Wright	...	Nightclub Manager

Also Known As:

Cover Up (USA)
Frightmare II (USA) (video title)
Once Upon a Frightmare

Runtime:

USA:88 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:16 | Australia:R | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Company:

Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd.

Trivia:

The final film of Rupert Davies.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jackie drives to her father and stepmother's house, she sits on the right-hand side of the car (as is normal in the UK). But when she drives back, the footage is the exact mirror of the drive there, with her sitting on the left.

Movie Connections:

References La grande bouffe (1973)

Cynical, depressing .... quite brilliant

Peter Walker, the director of this notorious British horror film, said that he wanted audiences to leave the cinema feeling angry and frustrated after seeing it. He succeeds.

Unpleasant and cynical though "Frightmare" may be, it is brilliantly made and cleverly written. We move between two worlds, of 70s juvenile delinquency in the heart of London and the chintzy, old-fashioned farmhouse inhabited by Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith. What unites both worlds, shockingly, is violence and murder.

There are other dualities in the film. There is the generation gap, between the elderly couple and their children and the gender gap, for here is a horror film where it is women who are the aggressors and the men are impotent onlookers or helpless victims.

The acting is remarkably good, right down to the bit parts, such as the hapless little man (played by Andrew Sachs of "Fawlty Towers" 'Manuel' fame)who is the first victim, in the film's moody, black-and-white pre-credit sequence. But the real honours are stolen by Sheila Keith, at times pathetic, at times terrifying as Mrs Yates and by Rupert Davies as her defeated, despairing husband.

Parts of the film look a little cheesy and dated but it is still a remarkably powerful work. The music score is a bonus too - in place of the usual screeching brass, Stanley Myers score is subtle, eerie and menacing.

I can't really recommend this film as "fun" viewing and it is light years away from the comforting certainties of Hammer's Gothic tales, where good always conquers evil. But "Frightmare" is that rare beast - a genuinely disturbing and unnerving horror film.