Fright

This is a fairly interesting picture with lots of British faces and a gorgeous young Susan George playing the babysitter. Ian Bannen's acting doesn't bear close inspection at the best of times, but here his characterisation seems appropriate. This is a seventies film so flares are much in evidence and Dennis Waterman has some wicked side burns. Also check out the amusing restaurant scene where diners in velvet dinner-wear are grooving and shimmering to a guy playing a jazzy number on a Hammond organ. Overall though, an interesting yarn.

This movie scared the crap out of me when I first saw it as young teenager.

Susan George was really good in as the babysitter (Amanda). She is terrorized by the baby's estranged father. This movie has a really creepy feeling to it. It was filmed in England, and most of the really old houses there just seem to have that eerie look about them. This is a movie worth checking out......

Fright (1971) is directed by Peter Collinson, a largely under-rated film-maker who received his only positive notices for the film The Italian Job, though in reality he made a fair few good films such as Innocent Bystanders and The Earthling.

The story is simple, but fairly engrossing: a young babysitter in a lonely mansion is terrorised by an escaped homicidal lunatic. The babysitter is nicely played by Susan George and the maniac is very convincingly portrayed by Ian Bannen.

The film starts out just fine, with some careful and genuinely suspenseful build up scenes. Every now and then, we are fed another clue that someone unpleasant is hanging around outside the mansion... Dennis Waterman is assaulted whilst walking through the grounds; we see a cloudy figure sneaking past the kitchen door as George boils the kettle, etc. The film is pretty scary early on, and I'm not embarrassed to admit that the hairs on my neck were prickling a bit.

However, it all goes wrong later on. The maniac turns up about a third of the way in and the effective suspense suddenly gives way to sadism and over-the-top hysterics. Bannen, as mentioned earlier, plays the part very well, but the lines he has to speak and his actions are ludicrously and needlessly savage. I know he's meant to be a bad man, but his nastiness just seems too excessive. Collinson forgets to keep the suspense ticking over and lunges for the audiences jugular, dragging down what could have a great little thriller and turning into a mere exploitation shocker.

Susan George seemed to have spent a large part of 1971 being terrorised in rural houses by maniacs; in Straw Dogs she suffered violence at the hands of vicious country yokels and in Fright she is threatened by an escaped lunatic with murder on his mind.

Unfortunately, despite a great cast including George Cole, Honor Blackman and Dennis Waterman, and direction from Peter Collinson (who gave us the classic The Italian Job) this somewhat tedious thriller/horror rarely manages to be anything more than average.

Susan George (looking a lot like Sarah Michelle Gellar to me — only much sexier) is great as Amanda, the babysitter who must protect baby Tara when his homicidal father drops by for a visit; she convincingly portrays the terror of the situation (whilst simultaneously looking great in a very short dress), but even her performance cannot save the film; the histrionics in the latter part of the film undermine all that goes before and the finale, in which Amanda exacts revenge on the killer, is quite ridiculous.

Director Collinson manages a few nice touches (I particularly liked the intercutting between Susan George and Honor Blackman to show how the maniac was unable to discern between the two women), but the tension of the housebound action is dissipated by some dreadfully dull scenes set in a nearby restaurant and the local police station.

With a little more action, a bit less talk and maybe one or two more deaths, this could have been a classic little chiller — as it stands, it is just another so-so horror film which is unlikely to cause anyone sleepless nights.

A young woman goes to a secluded large house to babysit a little boy however once there she is terrorized by her employers ex husband.

The first half of the film is by far the best, the suspense is very good (if a little creeky), there is a couple of good jump scares and tension builds well. Acting is also very strong, George as the film's central character holds everything together well she as always delivers, Bannan as the demented maniac is chilling at times and Honor Blackman is also very good. What holds the film back however is Collinsons direction in the 2nd half, instead of keeping the audience on the edge by staying in the confines of the house we keep leaving and going to nothing scenes at the restaurant or police station. This could have been a really terrifying experience given the story and situation but sadly only occasionally delivers the goods.

One of the first of the babysitter stalker movies made so it does deserve some credit and its definitely not a bad film it just didn't reach the level I was expecting.