Assault (1973)

Pretty Good

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film, looks, sounds, 'feels' exactly typical of its period. The colour, camera angles, use of music, are similar to other films, particularly The Strange Affair, All neat in black stockings, Fright and, as biggee writes, in another review, the brilliant, almost forgotten, I start counting.Similarly the portrayal of young girls as provocative 'sex objects' without any hint of embarrassment, discernment or question, and that's not a criticism, that's what life was like - at least certainly at my school.Reasonable acting, I do like the period fashions and behaviours and cars and would watch it just for that. There are plenty of red herrings but, slight spoiler coming, if you look with care when Suzy Kendall sees the murderer in her car's rear view mirror - you only get a split second glimpse, you can see who the murderer is.

And I have to change my score from 7 to 6. It's been quite some time since I saw this film under the same title on an old VHS from my local video library. That was some 20 odd years ago.Some scenes seem different to me now. The rapes are vivid and quite alarming, and they don't look like they have changed those scenes at all since last viewing this. Leslie Anne Down did a marvelous job of playing Tessa the first victim who can not speak or, do much else after being attacked. Understandable of course.There is one scene I remember, even from my first viewing of this of a girl in the school library and the headmistress' sleazy husband. She asks him to, and I quote "could you steady me?" I'm thinking this translates to helping her stand on the chair. But he holds her with both hands on her waist, and as she stands then proceeds to move his hands along the curve of her hips and then push her skirt up... You see that in the scene then as his hand gets high they cut to her face with her looking down with a puzzling expression. It looks like a half smile on her face, as if she either doesn't care what is going on or might even like it. Anyway the scene is gross...Overall the movie tries to be serious, the only serious part is what happens to poor Tessaa played by Lesley Ann Down.... In the end the rapist finds her again right before the film ends but he is dispatched in the most silly manner that I can recall ever seeing.So after watching this today I don't think I'd give it another go. Pass and put this DVD in the bin.

A hideous rape to a lovely young teen girl heading home through the woods after exiting her all-girls-school opens this adult British mystery thriller. Soon, the one responsible for the rape will strike again, this time killing the second victim. Although this time the man gets sloppy as an Art teacher, Julie West(the beautiful Suzy Kendall)drives her car, with other students inside the back seat, into the forest on the main road finding him hovering over the dead student's body. Her description is hazy because of the light reflecting on his face. She still poses a threat, but not as so as the first victim, Tessa(Lesley-Anne Down)whose so traumatized she's borderline catatonic. Several possible suspects are served to us such as Dr. Greg Lomax(James Laurenson)who is trying to mentally assist Tessa back to health, Dr. Bartell(Anthony Ainley), and the headmistresses husband(Leslie Sanford;who is often shown peering at girls' legs, up their skirts and carries a lustful gaze). Det Chief Velyan(Frank Finlay)will reluctantly agree to allow Julie to make artistic renditions of a possible murderer, placed in the newspaper of a dogged reporter(Freddie Jones, underneath a large hat and sunshades)to flush the killer out of hiding. Here is when the danger towards Julie..and Tessa..increases as someone will obviously attempt to silence the voices that can put him away.I watched this film under a low-quality VHS print under the title, "The Creepers" and must say I liked it. I've noticed many label this a British giallo and that's a pretty good assessment I must say. It shows poor Tessa get her shirt and bra viciously torn off, nude photos of naked girls found by the headmistress possibly implicating her vile husband who will not hide his lust for young nubile flesh. The music was a bit loud, often melodramatically overlapping key moments of dialogue like when Julie was being interviewed by Lomax in the police car. I liked Kendall as Julie, quite a strong female heroine performance as she must contend with the fact that this killer is at large and could be just about anyone. The opening chase scenes through the woods as a killer stalked his two victims is dazzling and frightening at the same time. Tense final revelation where the killer reveals himself to be quite an important man in society while chasing poor Tessa, who has trouble even speaking or responding to anything, is a fine conclusion as Julie tries to save her as she is being raped yet again.

In 1977 ITV had a " Late night adult movie season " on Monday nights . There's two things you have to consider 1 ) Late night in British TV terms in those days meant 10.30 pm . Up until the mid 1980s TV stations would close about 12.30 am 2 ) Adult movies shown on television were a world removed from the gore and exploitation seen in video nasties of the early 1980s !!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!! Seeing as these movies were on too late for me I never got to see any of the movies scheduled in this slot with the exception of ASSUALT , though I did read up on what movie was being shown via the TV Times . With the exception of NO BLADE OF GRASS every movie shown seemed to be about a serial killer and this movie is little different , which is a pity since the opening gives the impression that it's going to be a supernatural horror where schoolgirls are being murdered by a demon stalking the woods near the local school . The first third fools the audience into thinking that this indeed is a horror film featuring a demon but then it settles down into a whodunnit as to who the sexual predator is I saw the movie again in the early 1980s and was bitterly disappointed with it . It's not a movie that holds up to repeated viewing if memory serves me right , it has several red herrings like a woman thinks she's being stalked but it turns out to be a police bodyguard and contrived where the villain is caught because he stands beside a red light and justice is dispersed because he chose a bloody stupid escape route To sum up I have to agree with the person who said this is typical of British movies of the late 60s / early 70s . It's very similar to THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR . Once you know what the plot is it's a very flat movie