Frightmare (1974)

Director:

Pete Walker

Writers:

David McGillivray (writer)
Pete Walker (story)

Release Date:

July 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | 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

Filming Locations:

BBC Television Centre, Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush, London, England, UK

Company:

Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd.

Trivia:

The film that the hero and heroine go to see on their date is La grande bouffe (1973), which deals with characters who set out to eat themselves to death - a touch of ironic humor in view of the plot of "Frightmare." However, the dialogue we hear is not from "La Grande Bouffe but from Pete Walker's previous film, House of Whipcord (1974).

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 Frenzy (1972)

70's exploitation movie...could have been better...

There were some great exploitation flicks made in the seventies; but unfortunately, Frightmare isn't one of them. That's not to say it's terrible, or even really bad; as the film definitely does have it's moments, but it's also very talky and the plotting is far too slow, which isn't what you want when you're watching a film that has supposed to have been made to entertain the gore fanatics of it's day. If the entire movie was as good as it's last half hour, I'd be on here praising it to high heaven right now; but for some reason, director Pete Walker has seen fit to make us sit through a sometimes interesting, but more often that not tedious first hour; which doesn't do anything that couldn't have been done in half the time. The plot follows murderer and cannibal by the name of Dorothy, who is sent to an asylum along with her devoted husband Edmund. They are released after fifteen years; and this proves a problem when it seems that the couple's daughter, Debbie, has inherited her mother's lust for killing. Step daughter Jackie tries to sort things out with her father, but that doesn't stop the mother and daughter team getting seriously into cranial DIY...

The atmosphere of the film is superbly sleazy, with the couple's isolated living place taking on the foreboding role of the film's central location. Insanity often makes for a theme that allows a film to present a great atmosphere, and Pete Walker has capitalised on that. Another thing he's capitalised on is power tools. Power Tools would come to great uses again in films such as The Driller Killer, The Toolbox Murders and, of course, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and it's obvious why they continue to get used in gory exploitation flicks. Things get very messy when you've got a deranged lunatic brandishing a power drill, and this serves as one of this film's main talking points. Walker makes best of the 'insane granny' theme too, ands he gets his lead actress to show how good she can be in that respect several times in the film. In the final half hour, the film really starts to come together and as the gore increases, the tension mounts and that is when this movie is at it's very best. When the film has to rely on it's script for intrigue; it falls down, and that pretty much sums up the first hour. I'd like to like this more; but just so you know, once the first hour has elapsed; you're in for a treat!