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Sexy Susan George (Straw Dogs) pouts and peers from wounded eyes like a B-movie Julie Christie as Marianne, a go-go-dancing free spirit on the run from her lordly father, a defrocked magistrate enigmatically called the Judge (Leo Genn), and her psychotic half-sister. It seems our shapely sweetheart has something everybody wants, namely incriminating files and a small fortune in ill-gotten gains left by her light-fingered mum in a Swiss bank to be handed over on her 21st birthday. A little conspiratorial conniving brings Marianne back to the Judge's seaside estate to await her inheritance, and the blood sport begins.

Handsomely shot in the lofts of swinging London and on the sunny coast of Portugal by future British goremeister Pete Walker, this is a competently made little thriller, familiar in parts and clumsily executed in moments--the flaming car wreck is particularly ragged--but engaging overall. There is no shortage of murder and mayhem, but despite its provocative title, Die Screaming, Marianne only hints at the sex and violence that later became the hallmark of Walker's savage productions Frightmare and House of Whipcord. His signature is found in the sheer desolation of the project. In a Pete Walker film, innocence is no guarantee of survival.

Image Entertainment's full-screen release marks the film's first uncuthome-video release in the U.S. The print is worn in places and in parts resorts to less than stellar footage (ostensibly to reconstruct the full version), and the color is slightly subdued, but considering that this is a 1970 drive-in film it looks fine and is quite watchable. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Slow, unappealing potboiler by Walker
A few weeks shy of turning twenty-one, Marianne McDonald is seen leaving a Spanish town, quickly packing her bags and fleeing from some men in a Mercedes. She gets a lift from a long-faced, long-haired, smarmy-looking Briton, Sebastian Smith, whom she follows back to England. He pushes her into a marriage for reasons she suspects aren't purely noble, but she turns the tables on him by marrying his best man Eli Frome, who isn't cocky and brusque but seems quite the gentleman. In fact he doesn't make a pass at Marianne for ten days and it is she who has to remark on that fact.

In order to set things straight, she and Eli go to a villa in Portugal, where her father, a former judge, and half-sister Hildegarde live. After her mother's death, Marianne had bad vibes of being marked for death--hence her flight at age sixteen. Hildegarde, a blonde with narrowed face and heavy lashes does not like her one bit. Things start happening after her and Eli's arrival, involving her inheriting a bank account whose contents compromise her father.

Susan George (Marianne) may have a nice body that could've sold Coppertone by the gallon, but she's nothing special to look at. Even the title sequence mimics that of a James Bond movie, with some woman getting her groove on. This movie seems to get its strength on having Susan in miniskirts, bathing suits, or in a bath towel, which doesn't quite cut it with me. Except for Eli, none of the characters elicit much sympathy, and the story is nothing to scream home about. Even the on-location shooting in the Algarve in Portugal don't help.

Anthony Sharp (the marriage registrar) may be a familiar face, as he played the Minister of the Interior in A Clockwork Orange. He later appeared in another Pete Walker film, The Confessional.

Despite being labeled as a horror film, slow-moving, unappealing potboiler is more appropriate. And Pete Walker has done better than this. Kathe Greene's string-accompanied title song is the only other good thing about this film. "Love is not for you, Marianne," she sings. As for the viewers, they may die screaming that this movie doesn't live up to expectations.

?
This was supposed to be Pete Walker's first horror film, it isn't. It's not a horror film at all, it's a movie with hardly any violence, gore or action, no sex, no nudity and no laughs. So what is it?. I guess it's a chase movie with a bit of family drama. I really don't know who this will appeal to. Looking at the title and the cover art you would think you're in for a sexy exploitation movie, but I can't really call it an exploitation movie because it doesn't exploit anything apart from a shocking haircut on one of the lead actors. I still thought it was alright though and watched it all the way through in one sitting, mainly waiting for Susan George to get her clothes off, but sadly it doesn't happen, though of course she has a lot to offer with her clothes on too and the acting is very good for this sort of film, actually it's good for any sort of film.

The DVD is the most basic release I have ever seen, not even having a main menu screen, just a scene selection screen. The print is worn, but it's still reasonably sharp and is certainly watchable.

If you've seen the movie and liked it then you may want the DVD, but if you haven't seen it it's not something I'd recommend purchasing. ... Read more

Description

A little girl watches helplessly as she is the sole witness to her mother's murder. Years later, that little girl has grown into the beautiful skating star Samantha Gray (Lynne Frederick). But after her wedding announcement is published in the local newspaper, a man who becomes more and more obsessed with her begins turning up everywhere she goes. Samantha's fear mounts as one by one her friends are murdered, and she becomes convinced that the stalker is no stranger! Directed by British goremaster Pete Walker (Frightmare, The Flesh and Blood Show), this suspenseful horror thriller was one of the early slasher films, rich with gore, an intriguing story, scenes reminiscent of Psycho and a twist ending considered so frightening that squeamish theater patrons were promised free smelling salts if they fainted! ... Read more

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Britain's answer to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre finds its villain in a little old fortunetelling lady who likes to take an electric drill to the skulls of her customers. Sheila Keith is the seemingly dotty old woman recently released from an insane asylum with her doting husband (Rupert Davies). Brunette Deborah Fairfax's good-girl heroine helps stepmom through the transition with midnight visits and animal brains (yum!), while her thrill-killing delinquent half-sister (the appropriately named Kim Butcher) takes to the family business with a deliriously ferocious glee.

This is the film that gave British goremeister Pete Walker his notorious reputation, with its brain-munching matron and her gory murder spree (including a red-hot fireplace poker through the stomach--ouch!). The movie is tight and well acted, and Walker's usually blunt style rises to the occasion of David McGillivray's script, a sad and savage psychodrama that takes the blood in blood relations with a cruel literalness. Walker's grainy black-and-white prologue is startlingly visceral, and his penchant for numbing, nihilistic climaxes remains as strong as ever. This well-mounted splatter film is smarter than most of its ilk, with a strong subtext of family tensions, but it's definitely not for the squeamish.

Released uncut on home video for the first time by Image Entertainment, it's a sharp, colorful full-screen transfer of a good print, with only minor scratches. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Great Eurohorror title from the 70's! 3.5 Stars!
FRIGHTMARE is a classic example of great entertainment. It has all the elements of a horror film- it is shocking, violent, and scary as hell! The story follows a young woman and her half sister, whose parents were committed to an asylum in 1957. They were released in 1974, and are considerably sane- for a time. The mother (played wonderfully by actress Sheila Keith), who shows some signs of returning cannibalism (which is why she was committed in the first place), offers tarot card readings to lonely customers. She massacres them, and soon we find that the daughter of the father (she was not Keith's daughter, her mother was the woman before Keith came along) has suddenly become just like her stepmother. The girl disappears, and her stepsister (the young woman), goes looking for her, along with her boyfriend, Graham.

The movie is great, but the DVD itself is a disappointment. There are absolutely NO extras whatsoever, if you don't count scene selection, which isn't an extra anyway, as most DVDs contain that feature. But if you are looking to buy a movie packed with extras, this is not the one for you. If you buy this, buy it for the movie, not for the extras.

All in all, the presentation on the disc is crisp and clear, and the sound is great- perfectly representing this classic. If you are a fan of this film, a fan of films with gore, or are just a fan of Pete Walker's work, get this- you will be surprised how good it is! But remember: Don't get it because you are looking for extras, because there are NONE. This has become a subsequent thing with Image's The EuroShock Collection, so be careful when you buy them- you may find that they also have no extra features available.

But again on the movie- if you have seen it and loved it, or are just interested in viewing it, go ahead and buy it. To me, it is a great deal, and I don't bother counting the extras if I really like the movie. I just get it and be done with it. But if you are the kind of person who includes the extras with the price tag, you may feel you are getting ripped off. If this is so, don't get the disc. You may want to wait until a better version with features becomes released-- if it ever does.

Disturbing and compelling
This is a movie most people hate or admire, but it's very hard to love. Pete Walker no doubt wanted to make his own "Texas chainsaw massacre" and, at the same time, some sort of statement about families gone bad (in this case REALLY bad), all in exploitation movie format. "Frightmare" is a truly depressing, shocking and disturbing movie, primarily because it manages to make it's goings-on seem a little bit plausible. The performances are natural and unaffected, the murders unpleasant (but not as gory as you think they are at a first viewing) and the 70's settings grey and bleak. At the heart of the movie, and it's greatest strength, is Sheila Keith! Her performance as Dorothy Yates is truly chilling and yet strangely sympathetic. Her savage attacks on her victims and, moments later, her timid knitting-mother style, chilled me to the bone. The final family confrontation in the attic truly is one of british cinemas most disturbing moments. Rupert Davies as her weak and suffering husband is also strong, but more subdued (it couldn't be otherwise). You are at the edge of your seat almost during the whole movie because you feel that almost no one is save from the slaughter (and how right you are!). Pete Walker never did anything approaching this level ever again (though he tried hard and had Mrs Keith cast as a murderess two more times). However, be warned, this is not for every taste (no pun intented).

Not too bad; Sheila Keith is clearly the star
Servicable Brit horror entry in the early '70s about an elderly couple who was put away several years ago for cannibalism; the husband wants to put it behind him but the wife (Sheila Keith) can't help but lure visitors with promises of Tarot readings, which turn out, of course, to be dinner with the guests on the menu. And their 2 daughters are in the thick of it. Keith is lots of fun in this Pete Walker entry, which is miles better than his House Of Whipcord (also starring Keith). Not very gory, as British critics might try to persuade you to believe (only slightly cut for VHS release), and not great either, but worthwhile for Keith's enjoyable performance. Should be remade someday, with more gore, of course.

NOT "EUROSHOCK".....
This is not a "Euroshock" feature even though it's part of the Euroshock Collection. It's a well made but very tame British "gore" film from the seventies. Mother (Sheila Keith) and Daddy live on a farm in the country. Daddy is nervous and edgy over keeping Mother happy. One daughter lives in the city and makes trips to the country to deliver Mother's little "packages". This makes Daddy more nervous. The other younger daughter is a wild child with a violent streak who keeps getting into messy scrapes. Mother has a phony tarot card set-up where she sees clients who end up in the barn buried under the snow. Mother likes to eat brains. The "packages" the city daughter brings her are animal brains to try to pacify her cravings so she won't kill. She has a history, you see. The murders are few and the "gore" is minimal. The acting is good so you wonder what audience did they have in mind? The film is not scary and the ending is very downbeat--typical for the "type" of film this is supposed to be. If you're looking for a British 70's movie that tells more of a story than it does shock then this is OK. If you're looking for gore you'll be disappointed. Don't let the packaging fool you or the hype that accompanies it. "Frightmare" is more "Dullmare".

Classic shocker from exploitation's heyday
One of the great exploitation titles of all time, "Frightmare" (1974) has often been described as the UK's answer to "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974) due to its bleak scenario and uncompromising violence. More importantly, the film established one of horrordom's most distinctive villains, the deceptively fragile Dorothy Yates, an elderly serial killer who was making a meal of her victims long before Thomas Harris brought Hannibal Lecter to mainstream attention. Sentenced to an asylum in 1957 for acts of cannibalism along with her husband Edmund (Rupert Davies), who conspired to hide her crimes from the world, Dorothy (Sheila Keith) is released fifteen years later and soon slips back into her old ways, luring unwary victims to her isolated farmhouse with promises of Tarot readings before stabbing them to death with various household implements. Edmund's daughter from a previous marriage (Deborah Fairfax) suspects Drothy is still insane and is forced to enlist the help of her psychiatrist boyfriend (Paul Greenwood). But the Yates' have another daughter (the aptly named Kim Butcher!), conceived just before their incarceration, and she's already beginning to show disturbing signs of following in her mother's footsteps...

Having infuriated tabloid hacks with his barely-disguised assault on the Festival of Light in "House of Whipcord" (1974), director Pete Walker conceived the notion of cannibalism in the Home Counties (!) and commissioned a script from "Whipcord" scribe David McGillivray, a movie critic-turned-scriptwriter who later became an outspoken opponent of British film censorship (watch for his brief, wordless cameo as a white-coated doctor). The result is one of the best British horror movies of the 1970's. True, there's a little too much chat in drab apartments and some of the fashions have dated badly, but the film's antiquated charm is difficult to resist. Most of the action takes place at night, concealing a multitude of low-budget sins behind a gloomy visual style, though most of the film's Grand Guignol horrors are confined to the Yates' crumbling farm, an Olde Worlde slaughterhouse far removed from the bright lights of the big city. Walker has described his approach as 'modern Gothique', an unsettling antidote to the safe, predictable (but still enjoyable) Hammer formula, and perfectly suited to an era defined by its social and political turmoil.

Production-wise, the film is competent but unexceptional. The young leads are OK, nothing more, though Kim Butcher is suitably unpleasant as the sociopathic daughter, and there are brief, throwaway cameos from British movie stalwarts Leo Genn ("The Wooden Horse", 1950) and Gerald Flood ("Patton", 1970), both cast purely for their marquee value. Veteran character actor Rupert Davies is particularly impressive as the distraught husband who is incapable (and ultimately unwilling) to curtail his beloved wife's monstrous cravings. Immensely popular at the time due to his role on British TV as Inspector Maigret, he was singled out for special attention by outraged critics when the film opened in London, appalled by his involvement in such 'lowbrow' material, though it wasn't the first time this 'respectable' actor had dabbled in the exploitation arena (see also "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" [1968], "Matthew Hopkins Witchfinder General" [1968], "The Oblong Box" [1969], etc.). As it turned out, "Frightmare" was Davies' last film - he died in 1976.

But the true star of the show is Sheila Keith, an unpretentious, supremely gifted acrtress who came late to the film business and stayed just long enough to leave an indelible impression on cult movie fans everywhere. As portrayed here, Dorothy Yates' pathetic frailty conceals a ruthless psychopath, capable of the most horrendous atrocities, and the demonic expression which transforms Keith's face as she stalks her helpless victims is as blood-freezing as anything in the grne. Nowhere is this more evident than in an extraordinary sequence - completely unexpected in a British horror movie at the time - when Keith uses an electric drill to mutilate the head of a corpse which she's hidden in the barn...

Image's region-free DVD is derived from a PAL master at 25fps running 82m 36s (86m 2s at 24fps). Aside from a small amount of print damage and some missing frames - so brief as to be virtually unnoticeable - picture quality is vivid and colorful. Aspect ratio is full-frame 1.33:1 and there's no evidence of cropping, though the theatrical ratio may have been 1.66:1. The 1.0 mono sound is forceful but undistinguished. Sadly, there are no captions and no extras of any kind, and it's a shame Image weren't able to secure the original UK trailer, an exploitation gem which refused to show more than a few brief moments of footage from the film, claiming the rest of it was too shocking for public exhibition!! Ah, those were the days... ... Read more

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With a title like House of Whipcord, you already know this is no Disney movie. British exploitation horror-meister Pete Walker (The Flesh and Blood Show) combines his two shock-in-trade specialties--sex and violence--for this sadistic portrait of a private prison used for the systematic degradation of "loose" women. A perverted prison matron, her dutiful son (named, tellingly, Mark E. DeSade), and a doddering old judge with an Old Testament approach to modern permissiveness collect beautiful young women guilty of the most minor offenses (our heroine is found guilty of public lewdness) and punish them for their sins via a penance that ends in their inevitable death. As our sweet young French model is stripped, whipped, and generally abused by her brutal captors--oddly enough merciless and angry middle-aged women--her roommate takes it upon herself to track her down. It's a sleazy exercise in cinematic sadism perpetrated on beautiful women for the entertainment of the audience, smoothed slightly by surprisingly good performances, a modicum of rough style, a few gripping scenes of tension, and one jaw-dropping twist. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more