Night of Fear, what a film. It excels with a simple plot involving a luckless lady run off the road in a car accident. Pulling herself together and getting out of the wreck, she comes across a malevolent backwoods creep who pursues her deep into the backwoods in a relentless and frightening chase. This film appears to be the first Australian horror of note, or at least it would have been were it not banned almost immediately as "obscene". By today's standards it may be relatively tame, but back in 1972, before the backwoods nightmare template had been really established, this must have been quite something. Also it was made as a pilot for a TV series, perhaps an ill advised move (after this was banned, the rest of the series was sadly never made). Director Terry Bourke puts together a real winner here, the pace is unrelenting after a bit of an introduction to our protagonist in her ordinary setting, an introduction that stays for just the right length to paint her as an everywoman, a bright, pleasant looking individual and easy to root for. Carla Hoogeveen really throws herself into the role, convincing harried and nervous she carries well the physical and mental strain of the character, if perhaps a shade too stoically (no Marilyn Burns style screaming here). Norman Yemm plays the antagonist, very well too, a genuinely muchos shifty and unnerving freakazoid his turn epitomises the sort of individual one doesn't want to meet out in the unknown. The film eschews dialogue, practically the only words heard are on a car radio, music and sound effects carry this one in an almost arty fashion, though the editing of Ray Alchin is what truly sets this one above its grind-house trappings. Things roll along looking normal for deceptive stretches, before breaking into rapid fire frenzies, the images leaping out in speedy cuts sometimes to enhance the intensity of action, but also to strafe the audience with jagged flash-forwards and nightmare fantasy, glimpses perhaps of how far the film might have gone if it hadn't been intended for television. Some will no doubt find the approach off-putting but its undeniably skilled and ambitious work for an early 70's low budgeter. The production design and camera-work is pretty impressive too (some nifty close ups if memory serves), combining to create quite a fraught and verging on delirious feel it comes across very much reminiscent at times of a certain better known horror of the 70's that came out a couple of years after
Nothing to add really, save that this is a must see for Australian horror fans, backwoods horror fans, grind-house horror fans, in fact pretty well anyone who can dig a simple, single minded freaker. Its only 50 odd minutes long too, so what are you waiting for?
