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Let's be realistic.

Lack of good storyline.

From my favorite movies..

Excellent adaptation.

A London couple are imprisoned after committing a string of cannibalistic murders in 1957. Years later, they are freed, but the wife is not quite as reformed as one may think. The couple's now-adult daughters, one of whom was raised without them, come to realize their mother's murderous impulses and hunger for flesh are ever-present.This twisted horror tale is as demented as it is absurd; companions to "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" are inevitable given they were released within weeks of each other, but they share little in common aside from a cannibal subplot; where "Chainsaw" was a venture into a living nightmare, "Frightmare" is more of a macabre family drama with a slasher underpinning; in some ways, it's more of a psycho-family drama than it is a horror film.This is not to say the film is not grotesque or disturbing-there are some great special effects and shockingly violent murder scenes, one of which entails a hot firepoker that is particularly difficult to stomach (no pun intended). For every few minutes of these primal terror sequences though, there is about fifteen minutes of wordy dialogue that floods the film to the point of weighing down the tension. This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that the performances are quite good; Sheila Keith is appropriately unhinged, while Rupert Davies makes a strangely likable counterpart who covers up her crimes. Deborah Fairfax and Kim Butcher also play the couple's adult daughters very nicely.Overall, "Frightmare" is a patently demented horror film with a macabre concept and stand-out performances, but is somewhat weighed down by its own loquaciousness and extended family drama hi jinx. Still, there are moments to be had in the film that are truly immediate and disturbing, which make it worth a watch for genre fan, and its downbeat ending packs a punch. 6/10.

By the 70s, British horror audiences were growing tired of creaky old Gothic horror—bad news for Hammer, whose stock-in-trade was vampires and man-made monsters, but good news for Pete Walker, whose more exploitative brand of horror featured homicidal maniacs that more than satisfied the viewers' blood-lust.Frightmare (1974) is one such film, a demented tale of a crazy married couple, Edmund and Dorothy Yates (Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith), committed to an asylum for murder and cannibalism, but released fifteen years later, supposedly rehabilitated. Of course, doctors are known to get things wrong from time to time, and dotty Dorothy turns out to be not quite as sane as she had led people to believe.Dorothy's stepdaughter Jackie (Deborah Fairfax) is convinced that she has matters under control, feeding her stepmother brains bought from a butcher's shop, but she hasn't counted on the involvement of her delinquent 15-year-old half-sister Debbie (the aptly named Kim Butcher), who turns out to be a chop off the old block.With a drilling, a pitch-forking, a hot poker impalement, and a dead guy with an eye missing from the socket, Frightmare certainly delivers gruesome entertainment by the bucket-load, yet also features stylish direction and some winning performances, particularly from Keith who is genuinely frightening as nutso Dorothy, and jail-bait Butcher, who is equally as scary but also adds a little titillation by prancing around the kitchen in her scanties 7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Frightmare is set in England & starts in 1957 as Edmund (Rupert Davies) & Dorothy Yates (Sheila Keith) are tried & convicted of cannibalism, they are sentenced to be locked up in an asylum until they are 'cured' & ready to return to society. Fourteen years later & Edmund & Dorothy are living in a small cottage near London, their daughter Jackie (Deborah Fairfax) know's the truth while her younger sister Debbie (Kim Butcher) is unaware of her parents notoriety & culinary tastes. Jackie has kept the family secret hidden from Debbie & she doesn't even know her parents are alive let alone living nearby, Jackie visits her parents & gives her mother raw animal brains to try & keep her happy but Dorothy has a taste for human flesh & is soon luring people to her house in order to kill them & feast on their flesh. Jackie finds out & Dorothy convinces Edmund that she must be silenced as she know's too much...This British production was produced & directed by Pete Walker & is maybe his best known film, not that Frightmare is particularly well known but it's probably less obscure more widely remembered than his other work. This is the third Pete Walker film I have seen & is about on par with The Flesh and Blood Show (1972) with The House of Whipcord (1973) the better of the three, while Frightmare isn't terrible & has it's moments I can't say I liked it that much. Walker's often used theme of corrupt or ineffectual system, here the rehabilitation & care services are made to look inadequate, look to have been manipulated & their shortcomings are held responsible for the release of a dangerous cannibal as the men in white coats are convinced she is 'cured' & of no further harm to society. It's a fair point, there have been several real life high profile cases of mental patients released from care who went on to carry out senseless murders but what does Pete expect? Maybe we should just lock these people up & throw away the key, maybe we could just execute them for both their's & our own convenience? Sure, Walker highlights the problem but never suggests any answers or thought provoking alternatives. It's because of this that I felt Frightmare was a little empty, sure there's build-up but it goes nowhere & Frightmare never really satisfied me on any level. At just under 90 minutes Frightmare moves along at a fair pace but takes a while to get going & then never really takes off, the horror aspect isn't that impressive neither are the psychological ones involving family, the system, trust & betrayal. There is one weak twist that is never explained, if Jackie didn't tell her just how did Debbie know about her parents?Filmed in real locations in 70's London this has a certain look & feel that I liked but the film itself isn't so good. The gore is actually quite tame, there's a battered head in a car boot, someone is beaten up, someone is killed with a hot poker off screen, someone is stabbed with a pitchfork while a dead man is seen with a bloody face but generally speaking Frightmare isn't that gory. The film Jackie & Graham are supposed to be seeing is Blow-Out (1973) but while in the cinema the soundtrack heard is from Walker's earlier film House of Whipcord.Filmed mainly in Haselmere in Surrey here in England. Probably shot on a low budget Frightmare looks quite good actually, it's fairly bright & the production values are decent. The acting is pretty good, Sheila Keith gives a demented performance while Jackie is suitably vulnerable.Frightmare is one of those films that I didn't love but didn't hate either, it's just there. Sure it will pass 90 odd minutes but there are better ways to spend that 90 minutes. I just feel a bit impartial & unmoved by it, I doubt I will remember much about it in a few days.

Opening with a shot of the Battersea power station, a site that the Pink Floyd album cover for "Animals" would make world famous three years later, "Frightmare" (1974) tells the story of quite a strange human animal indeed. She is Dorothy Yates, who, along with her more normal husband Edmund, had been institutionalized in 1957 for crimes that the sentencing judge called "sickening" and "disturbing." Fifteen years later, the Yateses are released, but unfortunately, Dorothy suffers what Edmund can only call "a very serious relapse," one requiring her to go after ever increasing quantities of...let's just call it "brain food." As portrayed by Sheila Keith, Dorothy Yates is surely a candidate for the pantheon of all-time-great cinematic nutjobs, right besides such other wackos as Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter and Leatherface. Matronly sweet one moment and icily psychotic the next, she surely does make for one mighty creepy and intimidating customer. It is a memorable performance by Ms. Keith, and she is more than ably abetted by Peter Walker's fine direction and by fellow actors Rupert Davies, Deborah Fairfax and (the appropriately named) Kim Butcher, as members of her nuclear family. "Frightmare" features several mildly gory sequences, although most of the violence is either implied or shown as an aftermath. The picture ends on a suitably downbeat note that is completely devoid of sentiment and should manage to shock most viewers. Had this picture been made in America, rather than the U.K., it surely would have resulted in a sequel, and truth to tell, it almost seems a shame that the fascinating story of the Yateses was a one-shot. There have been many films dealing with devoted husbands and man-hungry wives, but never one quite like this! All fans of intelligent horror should, uh, just eat this one up.