Thursday, June 13, 2013

Fear in the Night (1972)

Director: Jimmy Sangster

Starring: Judy Geeson, Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing, Joan Collins, James Cossins, Gillian Lind, Brian Grellis, John Bown

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It starts in the dark, in throat - gripping fear - and the worst is to come.

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.


My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

#49 on Hammer Horror (1957-1976)

Reasonably decent flick with a GREAT ending but getting through it can be a slog.  It's slow.  I've seen it twice now (I had to re-watch it today because I COMPLETELY forgot just about everything since I watched it last year) and while it's not bad, the pacing kills it.  I don't know if a better score could have helped or what but until Peggy (Geeson) and Robert (Bates) have a discussion about where Michael (Cushing) went an hour in, it challenges my attention span.  That last half hour, though, is fantastic!!!  I've never seen anything from Cushing but solid performances.  He's always an actor you can count on delivering.  Everyone else does a fine job as well.  There's just something about the first hour that moves too slowly for my money.  It's almost like those hour long TWILIGHT ZONE Episodes in the early 60s; they padded the story a little too much to keep in line with that longer format and it often suffered from it.  Perhaps this could have been a great 80 minute movie instead of an OK 94 one.  Man, that finale is well done!










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