Fear in the Night (1972)

Plot

Peggy, a young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown, is attacked by a one-armed man in her house but no evidence is found and no one believes her story, merely blaming it on her state of mind. When her new husband is offered a job at a rural boarding school, she moves with him to the country for a fresh start. There they meet the rather eccentric headmaster and his wife. However, things soon take a turn for the worse when she believes that the one-armed man has followed her.

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Hammer was more famous for their classic Gothic horrors but they did dabble in other genres such as the fantasy genre with the likes of The Lost Continent and One Million Years B.C. What are usually forgotten or glossed over are there numerous forays into the Hitchcockian-style thriller that they did in the early 70s. None of which are particularly memorable but are at least curious companions to their more lavish horror counterparts. Fear in the Night was thus another attempt by the studio to head in a new direction in the 1970s to see if they could diversify from their waning horror output. Ironically enough this ‘new direction’ was to hark back to its golden era where atmosphere and suspense were the name of the game, not blood and boobs. It was around this decade that Hammer had begun to emphasize gore and nudity a lot more in an attempt to keep their films fresh and get back some of their lost popularity - Fear in the Night strips all of this gloss away to get back to basics and it does it reasonably effectively, albeit not very memorable.

Unfortunately, Fear in the Night relies a little too much on creating the atmosphere and suspense and forgets to do anything with it. Director Jimmy Sangster was responsible for two of Hammer's worst horror films but redeems himself somewhat with a solid effort which keeps it's cards close to it's chest for as long as it can. This can be a little distracting for the viewer - each character is seemingly hiding some secret which would reveal more about the plot twist but they are kept hidden for as long as possible. Whilst this allows for an interesting pay-off, the route leading to it seems plodding and rather distant from the viewer. Usually thrillers keep you hooked with little tit-bits of information but Fear in the Night refuses to play by the rules. You're either going to switch off in confusion (or boredom) before the finale or stick with it in the hope that the script will play its ace at some point. Sadly, the finale isn't overly thrilling although there's a prolonged ten-minute stalking sequence through the creepy, desolate school. Hammer was always great at setting their films in eerie locations and this remote schoolhouse is one of their best complete with empty classrooms and huge white sheets covering over furniture in others. Tape recorders play the noise of children yet there are no pupils to be seen anywhere. And the opening shot of a slow pan across the school grounds to reveal the legs of a man hanging from a tree is a rather startling image.

Can you go wrong with Peter Cushing as a rather nutty headmaster? I don't think so. This was Cushing's first film after the death of his wife and he looks rather detached from proceedings but this works in his favour as the character has a lot of sinister secrets to keep hidden. The fact that his character only has one arm isn't kept in the dark and one of the first encounters he has with Peggy where he stands behind her to help her untie her scarf is excellent - we see that he has a prosthetic arm but she does not. He's not in the film anywhere near enough but such is his gravitas that his character lingers over the entire narrative right from the first moment he's introduced.

Joan Collins has made a career out of playing bitchy women in film and television and her role here is no exception. She plays, well a bitch, and is one of the stronger performers on display and it's a shame she's not in the film more than she is. Judy Geeson is attractive and likeable in the lead role as the long-suffering woman who no one believes. She's not the best actress I've seen but the role requires more sympathy and support from the audience than it does anything else and she fits this bill; you'll wish her character was written with slightly more common sense and being a bit sharper. Ralph Bates, the man Hammer tried to groom as their next leading man, is as weak as he was in the other Hammer films he starred in (ironically, Sangster's other two directorial efforts The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire). Bates isn't a bad actor and delivers his lines well, it's just that he has little screen presence or charisma to really get into any of the roles he plays, particularly those of leading characters. It's no wonder Hammer's flirtation with him becoming the next Lee or Cushing was so short-lived.

Whilst the cast are all very well-equipped in their roles, this is arguably the film's weakness – there are just too few people around! Like the Scooby Doo cartoons where the ghoul/ghost/monster was always the only other person introduced in the episode apart from the gang, Fear in the Night attempts to keep us guessing with the murder-mystery story but it's blatantly obvious who it's going to be from the start. It's the only possible outcome to the film as there are so few suspects lurking around the school grounds. Sangster conceived Fear in the Night back in 1963 but seemingly forgot to jazz it up for the 70s which is why it appears very quaint and low-key.

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Final Verdict

Fear in the Night was a brave attempt by Hammer to go in a new direction but ultimately failed because, even in 1972, the plot twists weren't new or original in the slightest and the whole narrative lacked energy. It's entertaining enough if you want to stick it out and the cast are generally game but it will never be regarded as one of Hammer's better films.

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Fear in the Night Director(s): Jimmy Sangster Writer(s): Jimmy Sangster (screenplay), Michael Syson (screenplay) Actor(s): Judy Geeson, Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing, James Cossins, Gillian Lind, Brian Grellis, John Bown Duration: 94 mins