And Soon the Darkness

Writers Brian Clemens & Terry Nation and director Robert Fuest prove that this kind of movie need not take place at night in order to be scary. This is about as good as a daytime suspense flick could be.

Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice play young nurses on vacation in France who are riding their bicycles through the country. Things go very bad when, after a fight, Franklin pedals off and leaves Dotrice on her own, after which Dotrice disappears from sight. A stranger (Sandor Eles) offers to help Franklin, but she'll have her doubts about him, just as she will about most other characters.

It's a bold move for the filmmakers to have no subtitles for the French dialogue, and it works in important ways: it stresses Franklin's vulnerability and frustration, and ensures that we in the audience are *not* two steps ahead of her the entire time. The desolate rural locations, while beautiful in their way, also help to create that sense of helplessness. There are long distances between towns, and the fields seem to go on forever. Laurie Johnson's music is used sparingly, and other than a bouncy main title theme that doesn't seem appropriate for a film of this type, it helps to set the mood. That said, Fuest, Clemens, and company know when the movie is in no need for music, as a key suspense sequence takes place largely in silence.

The tension here is palpable; in fact, after something of a slow start, things just get creepier and creepier and poor Franklin, who's absolutely winning in the role of the desperate young protagonist, comes to feel that she may not be able to trust anyone. One particularly great moment has Franklin conversing with a roadside café proprietress (Hana Maria Pravda), who manages to find the two correct English words for what she means to say, "bad road", and when she utters these words it sends chills up the spine; we then know that this area is fraught with danger. We find out that there'd already been a murder some years ago.

Good supporting performances by John Nettleton as the Gendarme, Clare Kelly as the schoolmistress, and Pravda greatly aid in the telling of this story, which delivers a nail biting climax and which in the end has a cyclical quality. It's good stuff, and worthy of discovery or rediscovery.

Seven out of 10.

"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

"And Soon the Darkness" – which takes entirely place during the daytime – is a fairly creepy but sadly neglected 70's Brit-chiller directed by Robert Fuest, who would later focus on horror movies that have slightly more extravagant story lines, like "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" and "The Devil's Rain". This movie exclusively revolves on moody atmosphere and eerie setting, as there are no nasty bits or gratuitous sleaze. The film starts out rather slow but gradually gets tenser, and particularly the last half hour is terrific and nail-biting. Two young British nurses spend their holiday bicycling through rural France, unaware that another tourist girl was brutally slain in the same region two years earlier and unaware that they're being targeted by the same fiendish rape-killer who's still at large in the area. Following a banal quarrel, Jane becomes separated from her friend Cathy. The latter then mysteriously vanishes and during the search for her friend, Jane only encounters suspiciously behaving locals. Robert Fuest maintains a continuously high tension-level using only very basic tricks, most notably the inability to communicate. Jane doesn't speak French and therefore she cannot understand the warnings of people or explain what happened to her friend. There aren't any subtitles for the French dialogs, so even the viewers are unaware of what's going on most of the time in case they don't speak the language. Pamela Franklin's acting performance is very convincing and the music as well as the photography is extremely uncanny. Definitely on of the most efficient women-in-peril horror/thrillers of the early 70's.

I first saw this film in the mid 70's one night when I was babysitting.I found it thrilling and deliciously scary.There's something very natural about the girls performances.A shame Pamela Franklin retired from acting some years ago. Great to see it on DVD.Have to get a copy!.It pops up now and then on late night tv.Well worth a look.