Fright

Year:  1971

Director:  Peter Collinson

Screenplay:  Tudor Gates

Starring:  Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, John Gregson, George Cole, Tara Collinson, Dennis Waterman

Running Time:  87 minutes

Genre:  Horror

College student Amanda (George) is hired by wealthy couple Jim (Cole) and Helen Lloyd (Blackman) to look after their young son (Collinson) while they go for a night out.  However Amanda soon finds herself terrorised by Helen's psychotic ex-husband, Brian (Bannen).

Directed by Peter Collinson, best known for The Italian Job (1969), this is a pretty unassuming little British horror film that is pretty typical of the early 1970s.  It's deeply problematic in it's depiction of mental illness and women.  Susan George does the best she can with what she is given, although she isn't really called upon to do much except look pretty and scream, and be leered over by men.  She would, of course, suffer an even worse ordeal in what would be her best known film, Straw Dogs, the following year.  Ian Bannen is effective as the disturbed ex-husband Brian, who is threatening, but also strangely sympathetic and pitiable at other times.  Honor Blackman is good as the haunted woman, whose fears turn out to be all too justified.  John Gregson is convincing as the condescending doctor who is convinced that Helen's fears are all in her head.  George Cole is engaging as possibly the only likeable man in the film, and Dennis Waterman is convincingly loathsome as Amanda's obnoxious boyfriend, who almost sexually assaults her.  Although they don't share any scenes in the film, George Cole and Dennis Waterman would both co-star again in the popular British comedy-drama TV series Minder (1979-1994).  Incidentally, the child that Amanda is babysitting is played by director Peter Collinson's own son Tara.  The film starts off satisfactorily creepy, with Amanda alone in the vast, gloomy mansion, full of strange tappings and drippings, however the atmosphere isn't really sustained, and the build up is spoiled somewhat by frequent cutaways to the Lloyd's night out at the most 1970s restaurant imaginable, and some comic relief business with the police slow the pace down even more, which feel like they were added in order to pad out the film's run-time.  In some ways it could be seen as a forerunner to the "slasher" film and bears some similarities with the far more celebrated Halloween (1978).  It is worth watching for horror fans, and it really does work for the most part, even if the sleazier aspects leave something of a bad taste in the mouth.

I could be so good for you:  Susan George and Dennis Waterman in Fright