mifunesamurai
Before Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and way before WOLF CREEK, was this little Aussie treasure of sheer gore and stupidity of the Z-grade kind. What I admire about this film is the lack of dialogue, so there was no Aussie twang to cringe about. The effective campy horror suspense music with the wild and sometimes abstract editing made it more engrossing.If you peel away all the zany technical aspects of the movie and look at the bare bones, you are left with the hammy performances which was perfect for this slasher. On top of that was the very thin storyline, about a woman who loses her way in the Aussie bush and comes across this mad man who plays a game of cat and mouse with her. Nothing creative in the telling of this story, but still good ole trashy slasher fun.The highlight for me was those freaky cuts to naked bodies and sacrificial sex scenes, which almost made it very close to being an experimental slasher film. Maybe if it was recut to ten minutes, then this could have been a great experimental short film of the bizarre kind!
sydneyswesternsuburbs
Director and writer Terry Bourke who also created a couple of episodes of the classic television series, Spyforce 1971-1973 has created another gem in Night of Fear.Starring Norman Yemm.Also starring Carla Hoogeveen.Also starring Mike Dorsey who was also in an episode of the classic television series Spyforce.I enjoyed the cinematography, violence and sexual scenes.If you enjoyed this as much as I did then check out other classic Aussie horror flicks, Bloodlust 1992, The Tunnel 2011, Scare Campaign 2016, Charlie's Farm 2014 and Cut 2000.
HumanoidOfFlesh
"Night of Fear" tells the story of a young woman terrorized by a crazy drifter,who lives in the abandoned hut with his colony of rats.This grisly,grainy and unsettling horror is the first part of never completed anthology series called "Fright".The film was banned by Australian censors on the grounds of being indecent and obscene and is pretty close to an exploitation cinema.The most interesting aspect of "Night of Fear" is the lack of dialogue.The pace is uneven,although there are some moments of unrelenting terror.Terry Bourke's little shocker in many ways reminded me Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre",however it was made two years earlier.Give it a look,if you like early 70's psycho flicks.I'm quite sure that the makers of "Wolf Creek" were also influenced by it.9 out of 10.
Snowygooner
Night of Fear was supposed to be the pilot for a twelve-part anthology series titled 'Fright'. That series never saw the light of day. Night of Fear went on to become Australia's most controversial film of the '70s. The censor, who banned the movie, branded it "indecent" and "obscene". Which led to the film's producers fighting a long and defiant battle before it could be shown in theatres. It then remained unseen for 30 years until its DVD release.This is a very interesting film in the style of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', which incidentally it predates by a couple of years. It tells the story of a young woman who takes a ride into the Australian countryside. She takes a wrong turn, hits a bump in the road and crashes her car near a ramshackle lodge, where a redneck psychopath lives with a colony of rats. The girl is then stalked and terrorised throughout the rest of the film. I should also mention that since this was the pilot for the proposed anthology series. It still carries the original title 'Fright' in the opening credits and has run time of 50 minutes. Oh, I nearly forgot...there is no dialogue whatsoever in the film.I enjoyed this film: it is relatively tame by today's standards but has a bit of nudity along with a quite bizarre scene involving a human skull. The beautiful Carla Hoogeveen gives a great performance as 'The Woman', throwing herself right into the part. If you are a fan of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' or 1970s exploitation films in general, you might want to give it a look.
AD
