Frightmare (1975)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Thanks for the memories!

One of my all time favorites.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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.

Edmund (Rupert Davies) and Dorothy (Sheila Keith) have been released from a mental institution, their home for 18 years. They are cured from killing and eating people...almost. The oldest daughter Jackie (Deborah Fairfax ) cares for her 15 year old half-sister Debbie (Kim Butcher) who is a bit wild like her mother. Jackie tells Debbie their parents are dead, while she sneaks out at night to visit them with an offering from the butcher store.The film was on the slow side. The gore factor is minimal. Some blood splatter and an occasional red meat special effect. I was bored for most of the film.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Fair DVD transfer.

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.

In 1957 Dorothy and Edmund Yates were put in a mental hospital:she for acts of vicious murder and cannibalism and he for covering up her crimes.Fifteen years later they are released.The youngest daughter Debbie begins to explore crimes committed by mother and becomes blood crazy...Delightfully morbid British psycho flick with truly haunting central performance by Sheila Keith.The direction by Pete Walker is solid and there are some shocking moments including the scene of using power drill on the head of a corpse.The pacing is quite uneven and "Frightmare" is not as disturbing as "House of the Mortal Sin",but if you want to see an oppressive shocker give this slice of British butchery a look.8 out of 10.