And Soon the Darkness

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.

"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.

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.

"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.

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.