Frightmare (1974 film)

Frightmare
Directed by Pete Walker
Produced by Pete Walker
Tony Tenser
Written by Pete Walker
David McGillivray
Starring Rupert Davies
Sheila Keith
Deborah Fairfax
Paul Greenwood
Kim Butcher
Music by Stanley Myers
Cinematography Peter Jessop
Edited by Robert C. Dearberg
Distributed by Miracle
Ellman Film Enterprises
Release dates
 6 November 1974 (1974-11-06)
Running time
 88 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Frightmare (also known as Cover Up and Once Upon a Frightmare) is a 1974 British horror film directed by Pete Walker and written by Pete Walker and David McGillivray.[1] It starred Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith.[2] The story focuses around Dorothy and Edmund Yates, who have recently been released from a mental asylum, and is one of Pete Walker's most notable films.[3][4]

Plot

In an isolated farmhouse, a woman named Dorothy Yates lives with her husband. Dorothy has just been released from a mental institution after it was found she was a cannibal who killed and partially ate at least six people in 1957. Her husband, Edmund Yates was convicted as well but we come to find out that he only faked his dementia in order to remain with his wife. He was a truly devoted husband who loved his wife dearly but really had nothing to do with the actual murders in 1957 and in the present.

Now it is 1974 it seems as if Dorothy has had a severe relapse. She secretly lures lonely young people to her Haslemere, Surrey home, promising tea and a tarot card reading, only with the session ending with a violent murder and "feast". Jackie, (Edmund's daughter by previous marriage) began to suspect her stepmum, Dorothy, rather early in the film and juggles her family ties while at the same time, trying to control her stepsister, Debbie (Dorothy's actual daughter that she and Edmund had shortly before being committed to the asylum). Debbie rides with a violent bike gang and has apparently inherited her mum's appetite for human flesh herself. Debbie became involved in a fight with her boyfriend and a barman after closing time near one of London's hip nightclubs. The bike gang leave when spotted by customers but Debbie hid the body in a car shelter before the police arrived.

Debbie has severe arguments with Jackie about where Jackie goes at night. She learns (offscreen) that Jackie has been visiting her parents in Haslemere. Debbie finds out where they live and she and boyfriend (Alex) flee to the countryside home to be reunited with mum and dad. They are a family again and plan to plot against Jackie, who kept Debbie from them.

Cast

Critical reception

Time Out wrote at the time of the film's release, "it is far better written and acted than you might expect, and Walker's direction is on another level altogether from Cool It Carol! or The Flesh and Blood Show. The problem is that there is absolutely no exposition or analysis, no flexibility about the theme; still contained within a basic formula, it tends to leave a highly unpleasant aftertaste"; [5] while Allmovie wrote "Frightmare is a potent little chiller that is worth a look to horror fans in search of suitably grim fare from the 1970's and a worthy testament to Pete Walker's distinctive genre skills";[6] and DVD Talk wrote, "one of Peter Walker's best known and best remembered films, Frightmare gave the director the chance to really capitalize on his working relationship with oddball actress Sheila Keith and give her a starring role that fit her unusual looks and acting style perfectly. At the same time, Frightmare also stands as an excellent example of the type of darkly humorous and semi-satirical horror movies that Walker excelled in, the kind that weren't afraid to rub the viewers nose in the dirt a little bit or to give the establishment the big middle finger salute." [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Frightmare". BFI.
  2. ↑ "British Horror Cinema". google.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "The Pleasure and Pain of Cult Horror Films". google.co.uk.
  4. ↑ "BFI Screenonline: Walker, Pete (1939-) Biography". screenonline.org.uk.
  5. ↑ "Frightmare". Time Out London.
  6. ↑ Donald Guarisco. "Frightmare (1974)". Allmovie. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  7. ↑ "Frightmare". DVD Talk.

External links

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