Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971)

Pretty Good

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This is an absolute gem, and why this masterful chiller remains so obscure is beyond me! 'Unmann Wittering & Zigo' is masterfully directed by John Mackenzie, with truly chilling performances from a sublime young cast and yet another stand-out performance from the ever-genius David Hemmings. This profoundly disturbing film can sit quite uncomfortably alongside 'village of the damned' & 'the wicker man' as one of British cinema's all-time great horror films. A razor-edged shocker with a palpably disturbing atmosphere; as this genuinely creepy film unfolds, director, Mackenzie ratchets up the penetrating unease with consummate skill; including a number of genuinely terrifying sequences (The ICA or NFT really should give this masterpiece a screening) Highly recommended.

Replacing a teacher who was killed in a tragic accident John Ebony and his wife arrive at an English public school . Teaching 5B a class of truculent boys they insinuate that they killed the previous teacher . Ebony disbelieves them but when they state that they did in fact murder the previous teacher and threaten that he will be next Ebony starts to worry for the safety of him and his wife An early cinematic effort from John Mackenzie UNMAN WITTERING AND ZIGO is one of these films you vaguely remember watching years ago and despite having an instinctive memory of it as not being very good something about it sticks in your mind . This was the case with me and thought perhaps being 15 years old Carolyn Seymour's Silvia Ebony who sizzles repressed sexuality might have had everything to do with that but there's more to it than mere teenage hormones . What it is that the premise is very persuasive and what might have been an outrageous idea does become somewhat credibleThe problem is that it doesn't seem developed all that well . Watching it after a gap of decades I was constantly reminded of how stagey some parts of the film were and wasn't in the least surprised that coming to this page I found out it was originally a play by Giles Cooper . Mackenzie probably tries his best to make it a cinematic film but this isn't really the sort of premise that can be all that cinematic since it's a small type of thriller and the screenplay isn't all that special

Brooks?"Blackboard Jungle" in which Glenn Ford's wife is assaulted by the young guys.Anderson?"If" with its strict school and religion and sport as vectors of alienation.Vigo? (Check the name;it cannot be a coincidence;besides Zigo is always away during the whole movie)"Zero de conduite" the granddaddy of all these students rebellions.With such references,the miracle is that "Unman,Wittering and Zigo" is a thoroughly original movie,what we usually call a sleeper.Extremely suspenseful,frightening without any special effect,it sustains interest till its last pictures.David Hemmings gives a good performance of this nice teacher ,literally under his students'thumb.What is really fascinating is the way they subdue him,the very polite way they speak;the story is implausible,but its implacable logic makes our blood run cold."We have killed your predecessor" they say to a first bemused teacher "It's a perfect crime".Hemmings 's character is completely lonely in his chic school where nobody wants to believe him ,not even his wife."We took you in hand" his students keep on repeating him.SPOILERS:Once again,the punching bag subject comes to the fore;it makes sense that such a character should be the instigator of the crime .Being an outcast is ,to some,unbearable,and out of despair,he'd do anything to become part of the group.But what's bred in the bone comes out in the flesh:during the terrifying scene at the gym,this boy is once again humiliated .Although ,they treated their pal like a dog,they have lost their strange leader and they become children again,crying children in the last sequence."Unman ,Wittering and Zigo" is a disturbing movie;to the art teacher who tells him he ultimately solves the mystery,Hemmings answers :"but what can explain their behavior?"And as they carry their dead companion,the students walk hostilely towards the headmaster and his old fossils:the true rebellion has only begun.

Ok, it's not a big picture, but for me it was a once in a five years kind of thing. Air loaded with anxiety without the the ease of deeply understanding the motives or reasons of the characters. These psychological thrillers of 70's and early 80's are all about the feel - the poetical anxiety of not being safe or being able to find reasons for evil behavior. For me this genre is pure gold and nowadays rarely approached. Unman... is a nice find for a friend of this shivering era.