IslandGuru
Who payed the critics
Softwing
Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??
Raymond Sierra
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Mr_Ectoplasma
Mentally fragile Peggy (Judy Geeson) is attacked by a one-armed man the night before she is to move with her new husband Robert (Ralph Bates) to the remote boys' boarding school where he now works. At the mysteriously empty school, Peggy meets the headmaster Michael (Peter Cushing) and is ill-received by his uncongenial wife (Joan Collins). It is not long before Peggy finds herself again pursued by her attacker, who seems to have followed her there.Probably the most little-seen Hammer film of its era, "Fear in the Night" is, dare I say, quite underrated. Perhaps this is because it's one of the company's later and more obscure pictures, but regardless, this is a solid and surprisingly eerie film that has all the trappings and twists of a modernist suspense film, supplemented with an English Gothic atmosphere and shades of giallo.Director, producer, and co-writer (as well as Hammer head honcho) Jimmy Sangster handles the material here with an understated flair and does a fantastic job at establishing the film's ominous mood; atmosphere is what this film does best, and atmosphere, to me, is one of the most important components of any effective horror film. The photography of the autumnal boarding school campus and the chalet-style buildings weaves a languid and chilly disposition, and there are some truly nightmarish sequences with Geeson running through the empty halls of the school in the middle of the night. The mentally-unstable woman motif is used to its full extent here, and while it's not exactly original, it is well done in this case. Unusual editing choices really put the viewer in the midst of Peggy's struggle and work to disorient our perception of what is happening around the old boarding school; in many ways, the film reminded of a more restrained version of Robert Altman's "Images," which was released the same year. Both films boast similar plots, jarring and manipulative editing choices, unnerving scores, and both feature a blonde, mentally fragile woman tormented in the ghostly English countryside.Judy Geeson is fantastic as the doe-eyed and innocent Peggy, while Ralph Bates plays her new beau with an appropriate mysteriousness. Peter Cushing takes the cake here as the towering and bizarre headmaster, with Joan Collins effectively playing his icy and cunning wife— oddly enough, Collins and Cushing have no scenes together, but this works to form an almost necessary disconnect between the characters. The film's twist finale, as tense as it may be, is still somewhat predictable but so stylishly handled that I can't knock it a bit. There is phenomenal use of intercom omniscience at the end, and the final scene is sickly satisfying.Overall, "Fear in the Night" is a stellar, understated thriller that boasts a great cast, solid plot twists, and truly unnerving sequences set against the backdrop of a rundown boarding school hidden away in the depths of English back country. The setting is phenomenal and Sangster makes full use of it, recalling "Diabolique" and later giallo thrillers which, in 1972, were in vogue. Some have said the film is too slow, but I found it rather infectious in its exposition; the further you are into it, the stranger things become. Definitely one of my favorite British horrors of this era. Recommended viewing in a similar vein is the Agatha Christie adaptation "Endless Night," also made the same year. 9/10.
tomgillespie2002
Peggy (Judy Geeson), a recently married young woman, plans to move with her new beau Robert (Ralph Bates) to a secluded boy's school near London where he is set to teach. The night before they travel, she is attacked from behind by a man with a prosthetic arm, who strangles her but leaves her alive. Awakening in a panic, the attack is put down to her recent mental health issues and they later arrive at the deserted school. There she meets the ghoulish headteacher Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing), a one-armed man with a shadowy demeanour, and his bitch wife Molly (Joan Collins).Directed and co-written by one of Hammer's driving forces, Jimmy Sangster, Fear in the Night sees Hammer at the very end of their life (before their recent resurgence), when they were struggling at the box-office and failing to bring in their young target audience. Interestingly, the film favours the slow-build, creeping atmosphere of their early thrillers, and not the blood and guts approach they adopted during their most prolific years. Sadly, Fear in the Night's ponderous narrative is not saved by it's more European approach, and the film is a pretty dull affair for the most part.The notable lack of red-herrings means that it doesn't take long for the audience to figure it all out, and there's plenty of time to piece it together given the length of time dedicated to Peggy plodding around investigating her strange experiences. The performances are as solid as you would expect however, with Cushing managing to steal the film with a relatively small amount of screen time, and Geeson is perfectly charming as the unassuming lead, which makes it all the more tragic that the ensemble weren't handed more to run with. Notably lacking in the Gothic atmosphere that audiences used to flock to experience, or any atmosphere at all really, this was one of Hammer's final whimpers before tragically folding.
fidelio74
No matter how bad the film, the august presence of the wonderful horror character actor Peter Cushing always lifts the proceedings considerably. Which is not to say that 'Fear in the Night' is a bad film, because it is quite well-constructed and enjoyable.Recovering from a traumatic experience, the fragile Peggy Heller (Judy Geeson) moves with her new husband Robert (Ralph Bates) to a boys' school, the headmaster of which is Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing). Peggy makes the acquaintance of Michael's wife, Molly (Joan Collins), and soon begins to believe that she - Peggy - is being stalked by a one-armed man.I really liked the twist in this film and did not see it coming, which of course made it all the more enjoyable. 'Fear in the Night' is well-made and the performances are naturalistic and convincing. Judy Geeson is a sympathetic heroine and you do feel for her plight. From the ever-reliable British horror film studio Hammer, this is a film worth watching at least once.
BA_Harrison
Pretty, neurotic newlywed Peggy (Judy Geeson) survives an attack by a leather-gloved, one-armed assailant the day before she is due to leave London to live with her husband Robert (Ralph Bates) who teaches at a posh boys school in the country owned by sinister headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing) and his bitchy young wife (the lovely Joan Collins).Once there, though, poor Peggy soon realises that, even though she is now miles from the city, she still isn't safe: the one-armed maniac appears to have followed her to her new home...It shouldn't take seasoned fans of psychological thrillers very long to suss that the mysterious goings on in Hammer's Fear In the Night are intended to turn the protagonist completely insane, drive her to murder, or both. But although the film's plot doesn't earn many points for originality, being heavily reminiscent of the French thriller Les Diaboliques, director Jimmy Sangster delivers enough startling imagery (Cushing's shattered glasses; a gloved prosthetic arm) and well-handled scenes of suspense to ensure that the film is certainly never dull: from its wonderful opening credits sequence, in which the camera pans across the school to eventually reveal the legs of a man hanging from a tree, to its tense denouement, Fear in the Night is a solid slice of macabre entertainment.
