Watch Fear in the Night For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

I found Arthur Grant's lighting the principal annoying element of this motion picture. While Jack Asher photographed almost all of Hammer Film classics, Grant was usually in charge of the less ambitious projects of the company. By the end of the 1960s he contributed to little gems like "The Reptile" and "Plague of the Zombies", but even these were much brighter than the average horror film and --in cases as "Frankenstein Created Women" and this production-- the lighting was more akin to a television drama or sitcom, having too much light on sets of dark tales, making the images (and the tales) look flat. Then the almost absence of surprise and subtlety in the dosage of information, does not help the fact that the story is not very original, and that you have seen it many times before, and a couple of times with more flair. Judy Geeson, Ralph Bates, Joan Collins and Peter Cushing do quite well, considering they are dealing with stereotypes (frightened girl, suspicious husband, bitchy headmaster's wife, and mean crippled headmaster, respectively) and that they were under the direction of Jimmy Sangster, who was foremost a very good scriptwriter. But do not expect too much.

Mentally fragile Peggy (Judy Geeson) is attacked by a one-armed man the night before she is to move with her new husband Robert (Ralph Bates) to the remote boys' boarding school where he now works. At the mysteriously empty school, Peggy meets the headmaster Michael (Peter Cushing) and is ill-received by his uncongenial wife (Joan Collins). It is not long before Peggy finds herself again pursued by her attacker, who seems to have followed her there.Probably the most little-seen Hammer film of its era, "Fear in the Night" is, dare I say, quite underrated. Perhaps this is because it's one of the company's later and more obscure pictures, but regardless, this is a solid and surprisingly eerie film that has all the trappings and twists of a modernist suspense film, supplemented with an English Gothic atmosphere and shades of giallo.Director, producer, and co-writer (as well as Hammer head honcho) Jimmy Sangster handles the material here with an understated flair and does a fantastic job at establishing the film's ominous mood; atmosphere is what this film does best, and atmosphere, to me, is one of the most important components of any effective horror film. The photography of the autumnal boarding school campus and the chalet-style buildings weaves a languid and chilly disposition, and there are some truly nightmarish sequences with Geeson running through the empty halls of the school in the middle of the night. The mentally-unstable woman motif is used to its full extent here, and while it's not exactly original, it is well done in this case. Unusual editing choices really put the viewer in the midst of Peggy's struggle and work to disorient our perception of what is happening around the old boarding school; in many ways, the film reminded of a more restrained version of Robert Altman's "Images," which was released the same year. Both films boast similar plots, jarring and manipulative editing choices, unnerving scores, and both feature a blonde, mentally fragile woman tormented in the ghostly English countryside.Judy Geeson is fantastic as the doe-eyed and innocent Peggy, while Ralph Bates plays her new beau with an appropriate mysteriousness. Peter Cushing takes the cake here as the towering and bizarre headmaster, with Joan Collins effectively playing his icy and cunning wife— oddly enough, Collins and Cushing have no scenes together, but this works to form an almost necessary disconnect between the characters. The film's twist finale, as tense as it may be, is still somewhat predictable but so stylishly handled that I can't knock it a bit. There is phenomenal use of intercom omniscience at the end, and the final scene is sickly satisfying.Overall, "Fear in the Night" is a stellar, understated thriller that boasts a great cast, solid plot twists, and truly unnerving sequences set against the backdrop of a rundown boarding school hidden away in the depths of English back country. The setting is phenomenal and Sangster makes full use of it, recalling "Diabolique" and later giallo thrillers which, in 1972, were in vogue. Some have said the film is too slow, but I found it rather infectious in its exposition; the further you are into it, the stranger things become. Definitely one of my favorite British horrors of this era. Recommended viewing in a similar vein is the Agatha Christie adaptation "Endless Night," also made the same year. 9/10.

This Hammer film has remained in the wilderness for years, but thanks to Optimum Releasing, it now has its long awaited DVD release. The back of the box proclaims this film to be the last of Hammer Horror's suspense films, and one of the best - and both of those statements are true! Many of the suspense films that Hammer produced are among the best that the studio had to offer - Taste of Fear and Paranoiac being among the finest of them. This film isn't your usual Hammer film or your usual Hammer suspense film and plays out a lot like a Hammer version of Italy's popular Giallo sub-genre. Hammer Horror would go on to make a lot of films that took influence from the more lurid Eurohorror imports in the seventies, and while this shift in focus didn't always serve them well - it certainly does here! The plot focuses on a boy's school. Peggy Heller is recovering from a nervous breakdown, and she goes to stay at the school with her teacher husband Robert. Upon arrival, she discovers that the school is run by headmaster Michael Carmichael, and she soon becomes the victim of murderous attacks by a one-armed man. However, nobody believes her...It has to be said that the plot runs rather slowly for the first hour, with the hapless victim being attacked a couple of times and facing disbelief from both her husband and the wife of the headmaster. It's always interesting, however, and this slow burning first half soon gives way to a more furious final third, where revelations about the school and its headmaster become the forefront of the story and give way to a delicious double twist. The film features performances from three big stars of British horror - the sinister Ralph Bates is perfect as the husband, while the beautiful and deadly Joan Collins provides an extra dimension and things are topped off in style courtesy of a great performance from Hammer's main man Peter Cushing. Judy Geeson holds her own in the lead role also, and the film certainly doesn't come a cropper on the acting front. It has to be said that the final twist is somewhat predictable considering the film's genre, but it's carried off well and the way that the tale concludes is both clever and exciting. Overall, Fear in the Night might not have gained the same amount of praise as Hammer's more popular offerings - but it's a damn good film and I'm glad I saw it!

A Hammer film from the latter part of the studio's days. A woman with a history of mental illness is beset by visitations of a person in trench-coat & gloves who repeatedly acosts her, but is she just suffering from delusions again? very VERY slow moving.My Grade: C-Extras: just a commentary & the theatrical trailer