Rude Awakening

The real state agent Norman Shenley (Denholm Elliott) hates his old wife Emily Shenley (Pat Heywood) and wants to divorce her to marry his secretary Lolly (Lucy Gutteridge). When a new client wants to sell an old and isolated mansion, Norman begins to have odd nightmares, and he becomes confused between reality and dream. When Norman awakes, a surprise waits for him.

This intriguing episode has good screenplay, mixing reality with dream, but unfortunately a deceptive conclusion. Anyway this film entertains and I liked it. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Despertar Repentino" ("Sudden Awakening")

Note: On 02 Aug 2020, I saw this film again.

I really like where the Hammer House of Horror series is going, as the quality level increases with every episode I watch! The first one – "Witching Time" was nothing spectacular but still fun to watch, number two – "The Thirteenth Reunion" – already featured the more typically Hammer trademarks and suspense and this third installment "Rude Awakening" is actually very good! The plot may not be entirely original and plausible, but it's incredibly fast-paced and rich on atmosphere as well as tension. Denholm Elliot, the cool bloke from "Raiders of the Lost Ark", stars as a middle-aged estate agent haunted by a series of hallucinating nightmares… Or perhaps it's just one giant nightmare? Or maybe he's not even asleep to begin with! On Friday the 13th, Norman Shenley is lured to a remote and supposedly abandoned mansion where an uncanny voice tells him that he shouldn't have killed his wife. Suddenly the idea of murdering his wife and run off with his attractive secretary Lolly becomes very tempting, but Norman can't tell anymore whether his thoughts are real or all just dreamed. Peter Sasdy's directing is as surefooted as ever, as he creates confusion even among the viewers by implementing a bizarre dream/reality structure. The secretary's looks and attitude, for example, change in every dream and you never get to know the real her until the short movie's climax. "Rude Awakening" is low on explicit violence and bloodshed, but it oozes a dark atmosphere and most of the characters – especially the supportive ones – are pretty disturbing. It's a fantastic little film that'll keep you glued to the TV-screen for a good fifty minutes.

Estate Agent Norman Shenley receives a visit from a man called Rayburn, who's inherited a property known as Lower Moat Manor, when Shenley visits he enters into a nightmarish sequence, he wakes the following morning, but the lines between Reality and dreams are blurred.

This is exactly what happens when the balance of comedy and horror fusses together perfectly. Rude Awakening is one of the best, most memorable episodes of the series. Nightmarish, fun and very atmospheric, this one's a real winner.

You are made to question reality itself, you never feel settled into believing that the events before your eyes are real, you never know whether Norman is awake or sleeping, until the end that is, where he really does get a rude awakening.

There are some genuinely great horror sequences, I loved the scene where Norman visited Lady Studwick, that was so surreal, as was the survey of the block of flats.

Lolly's costume changes were attention grabbing, and helped to drive the story, her flair was such a contrast to Norman's dry demeanour.

A great performance from Denholm Elliott, he put in a memorable performance, James Laurenson and Lucy Gutteridge were both impressive.

9/10.

A real estate agent has a series of inter-connected dreams where mysterious events happen. The only constants are him having an affair with his secretary, being informed from various sources that he should not have killed his wife, which he insists he hasn't and the presence of a mysterious stranger called Mr Rayburn.

Rude Awakening is the third episode of the 'Hammer House of Horror' TV series and it's the best so far. What really works most in its favour is its imaginatively told storyline. Its dreams within dreams framework allows for an agreeably surreal approach to the material where strange events can happen and nothing ever needs to entirely make 100% sense. In this way its dreamlike nature ensures that it has quite a nicely off-kilter atmosphere. It begins very oddly with a series of clips showing a montage of events yet to come not unlike a trailer for the episode and then it kicks into its strange plot-line.

There are several interesting vignettes in this one including scenes in a remote mansion, a telephone box and in a block of flats about to be destroyed by a wrecking ball. The really impressive thing is that unlike some much bigger budgeted movies it actually quite often successfully captures the weird abrupt absurdity of dreams. Director Peter Sasdy definitely needs to be given a fair bit of credit here, he was quite experienced in genre film-making at he shows a sure hand with this material. Also of note is Denholm Elliot who starred in a few other Hammer and Amicus productions in the 70's. He's very good here as the central character and the whole film revolves around him really, seeing as it's a psychological horror film in essence. He is also ably supported by Lucy Gutteridge who has fun playing an array of character types in her role as the secretary. She appears in various costumes and haircuts and is a constantly surreal presence. Anyway, events are eventually resolved in a somewhat satisfying manner, with a prologue that neatly ties everything together rather well.

After the morbid second "Hammer House of Horror" episode, "The Thirteenth Reunion" already delivered a generous dose of dark comedy, this third episode "Rude Awakening" is yet another creepy tale with a delightfully macabre sense of humor. Out of all the H.H.H. episodes I've seen thus far (the first five), all of which I enjoyed, this one is probably the one with the wittiest and most original storyline. Denholm Elliot plays estate broker Norman Shenley, who finds himself caught in what seems to be a never-ending nightmare. On a Friday the 13th, Norman, who is having an affair with his sex secretary Lolly (Lucy Guttenridge), gets a call from an eerie voice telling him that he shouldn't have killed his wife (who is alive). This is when his nightmare begins... The episode has moments of genuine creepiness, but, predominantly, it is a bizarre dark comedy. The episode's ingenuity is, to a large part, due to Denholm Elliott, who is, as always, eccentric and great in his role. New Zealand actor James Laurenson is sinister in the role of the mysterious Mr Rayburn, and Pat Heywood fits well in her role as Norman's somewhat annoying wife, as does beautiful Lucy Gutteridge, who plays the foxy secretary/mistress. As the foregoing episode, "Rude Awakening" was directed by Peter Sasdy, who is known to Hammer fans for directing "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1970), "Countess Dracula" (1971) and "Hands of The Ripper" (1971). Sasdy once again succeeds here, delivering an atmospheric, eerie and witty tale that Hammer fans should enjoy. Out of the first five episodes of "Hammer House of Horror", none has really delivered the chilling Gothic atmosphere that I love about Hammer's Horror films that they made between the mid 50s and late 70s. The episodes all had a certain charm of their own right, though, and they all were highly enjoyable to watch. Having seen the first five episodes, I have a feeling that the best of "Hammer House of Horror" is yet to come. I am especially looking forward to Episode 7, "The Silent Scream", both because it is reported to be the best episode, and (mainly) because it stars the immortal Peter Cushing, one of the very main reasons to love Hammer. This third episode is funny, bizarre and original and highly recommendable for Hammer fans.