Inn of the Frightened People

Joan Collins stars in this well-crafted British suspense-drama about a grieving family who take the law into their own hands and seek revenge on the man who raped and murdered their young daughter. Sidney Hayers' direction is smooth, the cast(particularly Collins and James Booth) is terrific, and there are some effective shock and suspense sequences, but it's all been done before, and it's pretty dreary and unpleasant stuff.

Stalwart British filmmaker, Sidney Hayers relentlessly raises the teeth-grinding tension to a murderously-fevered pitch in his strikingly brutal, emotionally raw, uniquely British 70s suburban revenge classic, 'Terror in The House aka 'Revenge!'. A young girl is abducted and killed by a vile-minded predator, and once the victim's grief-stricken family furiously enact their righteous revenge they descend inexorably into a dismal existential miasma of blinding rage, bloody retribution and crippling emotional despond! Which is mother's milk to the likes of me!

Director, Hayers coaxes tremendously vivid, full-blooded performances from his singularly game cast of film & TV icons, the scintillatingly sleek Glamourpuss, Joan Collins, and James Booth were rarely better, with esteemed character actor, Kenneth Griffith twitchily putting in a career best as the disgustingly seedy sex-fiend, Seely! This is a long-cherished, excitingly mounted, unflinchingly dark British psychodrama that I never once expected to see so gloriously manifested on Blu-ray, and in this delightfully pristine, lovingly restored version,'Revenge!' is thoroughly deserving of an equally brand new, hopefully no less adoring audience! With an exemplary script by 'Saint' screenwriter, John Kruse, sterling performances, an engagingly grim tone, plus a fine score by, Eric Rogers, this gritty, downbeat 70s thriller remains one remarkably tough thrill-spiller that has lost little of its formidable dramatic impact.

Surprisingly, upon watching this, I found that I had never seen it before and that it was most enjoyable, if a little distasteful. The locations, shops and house and pub interiors are most evocative and if some are sets they are very good ones. Joan Collins is also surprisingly good but then she really only has to play at being a barmaid. Gripping from the start, this is a really well paced and intelligently told thriller. Things lurch a little two thirds in but by then we have bought into the rather lurid tale and it was always going to leave something of a bad taste anyway, with little girls being taken on their way to school, so what harm a little incest along the way. Just as the film seems to be loosing pace we have a surprisingly and confrontational ending that leaves you wondering just who the intended audience was for this. Well worth a watch for the open minded.

Being a filmmaker myself, not just a die-hard movie consumer, I know better than anyone that there is no such thing as a perfect film. There are exceptionally good films, true masterpieces, good films, less good films, bad films, very bad films and catastrophically bad films. I would not put this film in any of these categories because it has elements that place it in at least two of the categories, unfortunately not the masterpiece one. Let's call it an almost decent English film, with certain shortcomings. I love the British films of the '50s, '60s, '70s. In those decades, masterpieces were created with the best and most beloved actors and directors. I know them all and others like me know what I mean. Specific about this film: the script is the one with shortcomings, the actors are all very good, excellent I would say, the director Sidney Hayers did a very good job on an imperfect script, the cinematographer supported him with skill, the music is very good. The final product leaves much to be desired, to get something better the entire script should be rewritten, the potential is there. Sidney Hayers has much better films to his credit, I warmly recommend "The Firechasers" (1971), "The Southern Star" (1969) and the absolute masterpiece "The Trap" (1966), with the exceptional Oliver Reed and Rita Tushingham.

This was originally called simply "Revenge" but the title was probably changed to avoid confusing it with other films so named, including an American film released the same year.

There is nothing American about this tale of revenge though, rather this is a typical low budget English drama that was quite common in especially the 1960s, albeit with a slightly unusual theme.

The principal characters are the loved ones of a young girl who has been murdered by a sexual predator, a local man believed to be responsible for at least one similar crime. The film begins with this man being released from police custody, apparently against the weight of the evidence.

Obviously this does not go down too well, so our misguided heroes follow him and their brief, distant interaction convinces them he is indeed the killer, so they decide to kidnap him and beat a confession out of him. What could go wrong?

A lot of things, naturally, and there is not one but two twists in the tale. One warning though - don't try this at home Or anywhere else.