Frightmare: The Best of British Collection

Released at the same time as The Exorcist was scaring the bejesus out of audiences worldwide and the US had their own cannibal movie with Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this little seen British cannibal shocker did good business at the box office and has carved out a reputation as an effective horror film that lives to this day. I had read and heard bits about Frightmare and was aware that it was a major influence in the low budget British horror film Mum & Dad. I heard a great deal about it at University as another student was using it for part of his dissertation and wanted to see it but found that Frightmare was unavailable on DVD. Thankfully, thanks to Odeon, this has been remedied and Pete Walker's cult film has now been released as part of their Best of British series.

The film begins with a black-and-white pre-credits sequence where a man (played by Andrew Sachs, no less) walks through a deserted funfair and knocks on the door of a caravan. A cut shows that he's been brutally murdered and the next scene shows a judge sentencing a couple to spend no less than 15 years in a mental institution. The credits roll in full Technicolor and then some teenagers on bikes ride up to a bar and disco. One of the girls tries to buy some drinks but is refused as the barman thinks she is under 18. Although she is underage, the girl, Deborah, is upset and tells her boyfriend that the landlord was extremely rude to her and called her a slag. The group wait until the bar is closed and when the man leaves his premises, they beat him to death.

Deborah is only 15 and lives with her older sister, Jackie, who sneaks out when Deborah is in bed. This seems to be going to plan but Deborah is wise to what's going on and says that if her sister can go out at 2 AM then she can come in at 2 AM. The question is, why does Jackie keep going out at such an hour and why did she take blood-soaked packages to an elderly woman?

It seems that the authorities have determined that the couple shown at the beginning are fit to rejoin society and have been released from an asylum to live in a remote farmhouse where the woman, Dorothy, provides a tarot card reading service. When she isn't telling people's futures, she is busy murdering them in extremely gory and unpleasant ways.



The horror genre has always been one that has been unpopular with critics and, although this is changing now, it was always the case that horror films were seen as low art and far from respectable cinema. This was the case with Michael Powell's masterpiece Peeping Tom (a film that dealt with many of the same issues as Psycho but was unceremoniously dumped on from a great height by the British critics who would later herald Psycho is a masterpiece) and was the case with Frightmare. Critics hated it but it is fairly well at the box office and has picked up a following since its release in 1974.

I've been waiting a long time to see it on DVD and wasn't disappointed. Pete Walker is an extremely talented director and the script and acting are top notch. Although the psychiatrist is a bit of a limp figure, the story holds up as the idea of criminals being prematurely released to be free to harm again shortly after release is as valid now as it was 35 years ago. Although this is fairly light on gratuitous violence, with much of this committed off-screen -- there is one sequence where Dorothy uncovers a corpse (or perhaps the man is still alive, this is unclear) to take a drill to his head and you only see the drill moving down and then blood splatter across her face. If this was made now, you would probably see the head been drilled and the special effects make-up crew would have assembled a realistic head and brain to be destroyed with the power tool. It is instances like this where less is more and it is almost as effective to show the maniacal look on Dorothy's face, than what she is actually doing.

The Disc

Extra Features
This is the first disc I've seen from Odeon Entertainment with a commentary and this one, Pete Walker's biographer Steve Chibnall and featuring the director and co-writer Pete Walker and Peter Jessop, the director of photography on Frightmare, is an interesting talk as there is almost no dead air thanks to insert name here moderating skills and Walker's ability to talk at length about the film which he does with gusto and is obviously pleased to have the opportunity to do this.

Also included is an interview with Pete Walker in which he discusses the films origins, casting and Peter Jessop's cinematography. This runs at nearly 18 minutes and is revealing piece by an experienced director who loves to talk and is a must see featurette for fans of his work.

There is the theatrical trailer and trailers for other Odeon releases in the Best of British category and a stills gallery.


The Picture
Frightmare is very nicely shot movie with focus firmly on the tension rather than the gore so that you get cutaways when someone is about to be killed and, when a body is revealed, the camera doesn't linger on the corpse. It is clearly made by a director who knows what he's doing with a skilled cinematographer is the focus is very good and this is evident in the print which has made a very good transfer to DVD. It isn't as pristine as it could be with some scratches, grain and print damage that hasn't been removed in a restoration process but is it still a good picture that makes the film a good watch.

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack presents the dialogue clearly and effectively and the more tense scenes are highlighted by an excellent score composed by Stanley Myers.


Final Thoughts
I don't know of others are the same as me, but I've been waiting for this release for some time and am very glad that it is available in the UK on DVD. This is as good a package as I was expecting and I would have felt short-changed if all the disc had was the selection of trailers so the commentary is not exactly a bonus, but something that should be there in the first place. All in all, this is one of the more interesting horror films made in Britain during the 1970s and one to be celebrated.