And Soon the Darkness

And soon the darkness... is above all an affective film. it mixes one fear : the fear of being in an unknown place with the fear of being alone and helpless. and exploits them well because we can feel the fear in the main character. due to the lack of knowledge of french, through the landscapes with no end, through the music and mostly because she doesn't know who can trust.

usually in movies with few characters you can ditch the suspects one by one and reach a conclusion that, if not right, at least can be close to the original culprit. here is harder because you don't have access to the backstories of this characters - you're watching this through the eyes of a foreigner, of someone that's knowing them for the first time. that makes also harder for the movie to give clues because you never know if they are honest or just tricking her. so, doesn't matter how many clues can give you because you can't distinguish lie from truth.

the movie doesn't uses a lot of locations: one road, two coffees, a pinch of the woods, the small police station where the police lives. but mixes cleverly those environments and doesn't make you comfortable on any of them. you're living the film as a foreigner, through the eyes of the outsiders. the music also helps creating that ambiance.

i wouldn't say i loved the movie because now a days some stories like this are better told, but for a movie from 1970 with a low budget and few characters...this does show you don't need a lot of resources to make a clever film. you just need a nice script and know how to create an environment where the script works. and actors that can do the part too. i really enjoyed it and it did keep me engaged because wel.. you don't know what really happened and who did it.

it's a very interesting gem that should be rediscovered. and also easier to access. deserves full attention as the very good thriller that it is.

Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice are British nurses on a cycling holiday in France. The two women have a disagreement and Franklin splits, while Dotrice stays behind. When Franklin returns a few minutes later to the spot where she left her friend, she discovers that the woman has mysteriously vanished. As if that weren't distressing enough, she learns from the local people that the site where her friend disappeared from is the same place where a lady tourist was found murdered a few years before. Moody, suspenseful British thriller with good performances, particularly by Franklin as the worried heroine.

"And Soon the Darkness" is a slow-moving,but still surprisingly spooky horror film about a pair of women bicycling through rural France who run into a vicious rape-killer.Most of the movie is set on a sunny road,but the settings provide a claustrophobic atmosphere.The acting is okay,and Robert Fuest("The Abominable Dr.Phibes")directs with a sure hand.It's nice to see also horror regular Sandor Eles in the cast.8 out of 10.Recommended.

Very menacing atmosphere throughout. The two girls, Franklin and Dotrice look wonderfully vulnerable and add a sexual frisson to the film. The pace is leisurely and the lack of subtitles deliberately enhances the confusion and sheer terror that is building up in Jane's mind. Sadly unavailable on this side of the world but thank God for Region 1 DVDs.

7/10

I remember seeing this on late night television years ago, and had very fond memories of it. Recently i caught up with it on dvd, and found that my memory had not let me down. Every aspect of this film demonstrates film making talent of the very highest order. The script is superb, keeping you guessing right up to the end. The acting of the leads is faultless, but the icing on the cake is the amazing direction by Fuest. He manages to turn the open, sunny, French countryside into a nightmare landscape. Gradually cranking up the tension, alienation, and paranoia with the skill of a master. He really should have been a massively successful director. Pure craftsmanship, with a very creepy edge.