Leofwine_draca A slow-moving psychodrama from the Hammer stable, this was the last of the Hammer thrillers (probably due to diminishing returns). Although the film is badly flawed, there is still some fun to be had with the twisting plot as alliances change throughout the film. It's also good fun to watch actors and actresses from a typically period setting act in a contemporary setting like this.The acting in this film ranges from good to bad. As the dim-witted, drippy female lead, Judy Geeson is highly annoying. We don't care for her, we just want her off the screen. She's a lot like the character of Barbara in the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, in that she sits around in silence and screams sometimes, while not doing much herself. This is a long way from her outstanding performance in INSEMINOID. However the other three actors and actresses all act well to make up for this disgrace, so three out of four isn't bad. Joan Collins has a ball as an evil character who specialises in sadism and torturing people, and it's obvious that she enjoyed the role a lot.Ralph Bates is good value as the apparently kind husband. It's the only time I've seen Bates do this type of role, so the novelty value is there. Peter Cushing is also on hand in an unfortunately brief role as the crippled, one-armed headmaster of the school, and he's great as always, stealing every scene in an enjoyably sinister role. His presence is felt even when he's not on screen.While the film is hardly original - the premise had already been done by Hammer many times before - and offers up nothing new in the way of suspense, there are some chills to be had, mainly in the scenes in the deserted school, while recordings of the children play in the background. There is little gore on offer, apart from a shot rabbit; this film works on suspense instead. For many fans this is going to be a turn-off, mainly because of the incredibly slow pace. For the first hour not much really happens and things are over-simplistic, it's not until the final half an hour that things hot up and become quite exciting. Is the climax worth waiting for? I'd say so, but then again I'm biased in this film's favour, in that I like the cast so much.

Jonathon Dabell Fear In The Night is a late entry in Hammer's sub-genre of contemporary psychological thrillers. While most commonly remembered for its Gothic horrors, the studio frequently tried its hand at other stuff (historical swashbucklers, prehistoric adventures, TV comedy spin-offs, sci-fi, etc.) Their modern-based thrillers include such movies as Taste Of Fear, The Maniac, Nightmare, Crescendo and Straight On Till Morning. Fear In The Night marks the final time Hammer regular Jimmy Sangster directed a film for the studio, and he brings a reasonably intriguing sense of mystery to the proceedings. It's a very low-key, low-budget affair – almost along the lines of a filmed stage play – and when you've seen it once it's not a film that encourages repeat viewings (without the fun of anticipating the twist in the tail, there's not much else to it).Recovering from a nervous breakdown, pretty but vulnerable Peggy (Judy Geeson) marries a charming school teacher, Robert Heller (Ralph Bates). She plans to move into a house with Robert inside the grounds of the well-to-do public school where he works. However, shortly before the move, Peggy is assaulted by a mysterious assailant. She blacks out during the attack, but before she faints she manages to pull off the attacker's false arm. Later, a still-jittery Peggy arrives at her new home at the school. Here she meets the Headmaster's wife, Molly Carmichael (Joan Collins), an abrupt and bitchy type who instantly makes Peggy feel less than welcome. She also meets the Headmaster, Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing). Michael demonstrates some downright eccentric behaviour, such as teaching in empty classrooms and playing tape recordings of pupils' voices… but none of that is as disturbing to Peggy as the realisation that Michael has a false arm….The four main characters are quite nicely played overall. Geeson is surrounded by some pretty heavyweight talent but she rises to the role very well; Bates creates an interesting characterisation in a rare contemporary role; Collins (an actress I usually really dislike) is particularly memorable as the film's super-bitch; and ever-reliable Cushing only gets around ten minutes of screen time but makes every second of it count in his pivotal guest cameo. The story unfolds slowly – sometimes too slowly? – but generates intrigue on the whole. There's a nicely controlled atmosphere thanks to the secluded deserted-school locale, and Sangster clearly relishes punctuating the story with various red herrings and open-ended exchanges of dialogue. The twist, when it comes, is rather clever. As noted earlier, though, the twist also provides the film with its main appeal… so once the audience is "in" on the film's secret there aren't many reasons to watch it again. Overall, Fear In The Night is a competently made but undistinguished suspenser in the 'Diabolique' mould.

ferbs54 "Fear in the Night" is a somewhat contrived and lesser Hammer picture from 1972 that somehow still manages to work up a fair amount of suspense and one or two chilling moments. The film concerns young Peggy Heller (excellently portrayed by Judy Geeson), who, after suffering a nervous breakdown, moves with her new teacher husband to a large, private boys' school on 1,200 acres of English countryside. Poor Peggy is soon made the victim of a string of attacks by a stalker with a prosthetic hand, and her lot is hardly made more comfortable by the presence of the very strange headmaster (Peter Cushing) or his haughty young wife (Joan Collins). The film builds to a surprise ending of sorts that probably won't surprise many, especially those viewers who have already seen a certain classic Vincent Price horror movie from 1958. Still, the film does offer some compensations, including very fine performances by the actors just mentioned, as well as by Ralph Bates, playing Peggy's husband. Viewers will appreciate just how fine the acting is, perhaps, after a second viewing, with a greater knowledge of all the characters' secret motivations. The film also offers some beautiful scenery, both in terms of the autumnal Hertfordshire countryside AND Ms. Collins herself. Thirty-nine years old here, and nine years prior to incarnating TV's ultimate bitch on wheels, Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter, etc. on "Dynasty," she really is quite gorgeous to look at. (Sadly, she and Cushing, though playing man and wife, share no screen time whatsoever in this picture.) But the film belongs to Geeson, who appears in every single scene (with one major exception). Just five years after her "To Sir, With Love" debut, she turns in a very credible and ingratiating performance. Indeed, it is the sterling acting by all four principals that elevates this rather pedestrian thriller into something quite admirable indeed.

lazarillo Although this is certainly not one of their more famous titles, I was actually quite impressed with this Hammer movie which is an interesting variation on the famous French thriller "Diabolique" but with four main characters instead of three. Judy Geeson is a naive schoolmarm who marries a man (Ralph Bates) who she thinks is also a schoolteacher but actually turns out to be the caretaker of an abandoned boys' school and its mentally unstable former headmaster (Peter Cushing). The headmaster in turn has a shrewish, grasping wife (Joan Collins)who spends her time cruelly blasting cute bunnies with a double-barreled shotgun. Without giving too much of the plot away, two of the characters are having an affair and scheme to drive another of the characters insane so he/she will kill the fourth character. But as usually happens, the plan goes horribly awry for almost everyone involved.This is one of the more interesting 70's Hammer films because it actually tries to do something new rather than just mining the old Gothic formulas and monsters that served them so well in the 60's. Hammer had of course done psychological thrillers like this as early as "Scream of Fear" in 1961, but this is one kind of film that they actually refined and perfected in the 1970's (rather than beat like dead horse)with entries like this, "Straight on Until Morning", and the Gothic/psycho-thriller "Demons of the Mind". It was definitely better than Jimmy Sangster's first directorial effort "Lust for a Vampire", even though the latter was much more famous (probably owing to Yutte Stensgaard pulling her two Danishes out every five minutes). It will probably never be regarded as a Hammer classic, but is interesting film at least, which is more than can be said of a lot of their 70's product