Inn of the Frightened People

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.

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.

When it comes to horror/cult cinema, yours truly is a sucker for two things, namely long & lurid sounding titles and grisly looking vintage film posters! Half of my watch-list exists of films that are purely selected based on these two criteria, and in many cases I never really bothered to properly read what the actual plot is about. Thanks to the title and the poster, this particular movie stood extremely high on my must-see list. Admittedly the official title is the colorless and dull-sounding "Revenge", but there are the two awesome alternate titles "Terror from under the House" and "Inn of the Frightened People", and who could resist the filthy green movie poster with the image of a guy with glasses screaming and plenty of catch words and phrases like "be ready to scream!" or "you may never dare go in the basement again!" Of course I assumed this was a full-blooded horror movie, also because director Sidney Hayers already made a few great ones like "Night of the Eagle" and "Circus of Horrors", but actually this is a stern melodrama dealing with some harrowing themes like pedophilia, grieving over lost children, the hunger for justice but the lack of courage to actually kill, etc.… The film opens dramatically with the Radford family mourning at the funeral of their young teenage daughter. We learn she was killed by a child molester, but the police had to let him go due to lack of evidence. Together with another grieving father and his furious son, Jim Radford kidnaps the slimy and eerie SOB after having observed how he lives like a hermit and stops at the local elementary school to peep at the children. They beat him – Seely – up beyond recognition and keep him stashed in the basement underneath Jim's pub. The situation puts a lot of pressure on the entire family. They don't dare to release him, but neither do they dare to dispose of him for good. Meanwhile, the impact of hiding a pervert in the basement begins to have strange effects on the family relationships, notably between Jim's second wife and her stepson, and then suddenly it's not even sure anymore if Seely is really culpable. This may not have been the horror movie I expected, but it was definitely an uncomfortable and very confronting film to watch. The scenes at the beginning of the film, when the men are stalking the suspect and observing his bizarre behaviors from within the car, are eerily suspenseful and make you wonder (especially if you're a parent as well) how you would react. There are a couple of more powerful sequences, like when Seely awakens from his beating while the pub is full of customers or when Mrs. Radford has to prevent a scheduled beer delivery from happening. The acting performances are astoundingly good as well. Although one of the least flattering roles of her entire career, Joan Collins gives away a stellar performance as Carol Radford; - Jim's second wife. James Booth and Ray Barrett are terrific too, as the vengeful but petrified fathers, but Kenneth Griffith also definitely deserves to get mentioned here. Not only is his role as child molester suspect a very courageous one, he also manages to come across as simultaneously pathetic and weak and yet menacing and dangerous! Unfortunately "Terror from under the House" doesn't remain compelling throughout. The script loses a lot of its pace and impact in the second half, since the story doesn't develop. The lead characters don't make any decisions; in fact, the only thing they keep repeating when asked how to deal with their problem is: "I'll think of something". If you do manage to struggle through the disappointing second half, you'll be rewarded with a more or less strong climax but still you are left behind with the feeling that the film could have been a lot better overall.

This film starts out at a fair pace,but then the writer must have run out of fresh ideas and cobbled together the rest of the lcklustre plot.What is very strange is that top starred Joan Collins disappears well before the end.

After the funeral of their young daughter, the family learns that the man who was suspected for rape and murder is let go because of the lack of evidence. The father, along with his older son and friend whose daughter was also killed by the same man devise a plan to kidnap and hopefully get the confession out of him. However things turn bad, when one slip after another leads to them turning on each other and having second thoughts that maybe they've got the wrong man.

There's potential there, but the compact, stiff script doesn't really tap into it enough and leaves plenty of the looming heavy-handed themes high and dry. Emotionally the film makes a huge dent, but more so in a bleakly intense and serious tone. The film itself is pretty fundamental and scandalously melodramatic as it rears it ugly head into brusque crudeness. Watching the characters lose control of the situation, and going on to tear each other apart as the misguided kidnapping triggers a disastrous domino effect is strangely gripping and at times rather uneasy. One interesting moment sees an unusual state of sexual tension between two characters, which has you thinking, was there something there before it erupted. Maybe it goes too over-the-top, and in doing so loses some creditability. Sidney Hayers' direction is efficiently workman-like, with little in the way of style, but he manages to draw up a tautly knitted atmosphere and milks out a few ample shocks. The violence and sexual context might not be explicit, but it's gritty and in what matters effective. Ken Hodges' sturdy camera-work is intrusively lensed and Eric Rogers' miss-guided musical score comes off daftly staged. The performances fall into the overacting category, but come off committed. Joan Collins who's no stranger to that tag, is gracefully fine and gives it her all. An edgy James Booth scorns about, and delivers a serviceable job with a complicated character trying to overcome his anger, which eventuates to guilt. Ray Barrett, Tom Marshall, Kenneth Griffith and the gorgeously rich Sinéad Cusack also star with tolerable turns.

There's flaws, but it's decently done to make it a passable cliff-hanger thriller.