To me, this movie is perfection.

Must See Movie...

Better Late Then Never

Absolutely the worst movie.

Frightmare is directed by Pete Walker who also co-writes the screenplay with David McGillivray. It stars Rupert Davies, Shelia Keith, Deborah Fairfax, Paul Greenwood and Kim Butcher. Music is by Stanley Myers and cinematography by Peter Jessop.Edmund and Dorothy Yates are freed after fifteen years in an asylum, committed for despicable crimes, but is Dorothy cured? And what of their daughters? Frightmare is what it is, a British exploitation horror made at a time when it was out to get the best rise out of the audience. As much as Pete Walker's fans don't want to believe it, there is no social comment being made, no hidden agenda or attempts to push the boundaries of British horror in visual or thematic achievements. Walker, a very likable and honest man, even says his films are not for deep cranial pondering, he couldn't believe his luck that he got to throw blood and guts about and got paid for it.Frightmare is a thinly plotted and written picture that serves only to bask in some shock and awe scenes. The ineptitude of the mental health authorities is given a cursory glance, but really the picture plods from one scene to the next waiting for Dorothy to get busy with her tool kit. It's there, with the wonderfully scary Keith doing her stuff, where Walker excels. Though in today's desensitised age it's more fun than frightening, while there's actually not as much gore on show as you would think. It's all very basic in truth, but Walker achieved his aims back then, and kudos to him for serving up a truly bleak finale. 5/10

Considering it's subject matter of unreformed mother cannibal, played again such incredible menace by British horror icon, Sheila Keith, this is what half makes it a disturbingly real horror. Hubby who covers up for her again, after they both did a 15 year stint in prison mother, brings the older daughter into the picture with dad, confessing to her that mummy's up to her old tricks again. What's chillingly good about Frightmare is how it pans out, out in the end. The younger sister, a rebellious uncontrollable sort, who hangs out with bikers, is partied not just to a serious incident, where her and her mates bash a guy half to death, that brings the attention of the police, who she fears not, but her families despicable acts which provides another shocking element to this well made British thriller. Keith's performance is enough to send chills down anyone's spine, for starters in this chiller. The film opens surprisingly in a black and white shot, in a fairground, where in her little caravan, Keith is seen reading fortunes, a creepy fortune teller at that. The older sister despises her. She's the total opposite of her younger Sis. Her boyfriend, who's in the field of psychiatry or psychology, even recommends himself, as the one to go over and have a chat with the young one. This horror has suspense at many corners, you so fear for the innocent ones, who you so not want to get caught up in the atrocity. A dark deeply disturbed horror, you may find it hard to contain yourselves, in part.

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.

I see it quite often tagged to British filmmaker Pete Walker. Controversial, shocking and gory… and "Frightmare" copped that shtick. From what I have seen of Walker's work, "Frightmare" would be right up there as one of his best, if not his best. Although I don't get its notorious reputation, as it's not as explicit as I though it might be (despite the vicious pitchfork to face sequence), but the material's context is much more disturbing with its constant manipulation than just focusing on the lustful imagery. It's an unusually ghastly, but truly intense and frightening tale of cannibalism, secrets and family. It's all in the blood. And no this isn't Britain's answer to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". This family is much crazier in their questionable appetites! Sheila Keith is perfectly demented and impulsively uneasy in the role of Dorothy Yates who's craving for human brains sees her along with her well-meaning husband (a solid Rupert Davis) spending 18 years in a mental hospital, until recently being released because the doctors believed she was cured. However she's back to her old ways, luring unsuspecting victims to her home for tarot readings, unknown to her husband and her adult step-daughter who comes by every now and then to see her parents. Deborah Fairfax is hospitably charming as the step-daughter Jackie who must deal with this strenuous ordeal, while also looking after her tear-away delinquent 15 year old sister Debbie which is played with plenty of ticker by Kim Butcher. She knows nothing about her parents, and Jackie tends to keep it that way. Paul Greenwood also shows up in the cast to add to the pathology side of the story. Walker's direction is competently crisp and gets by with a slow tempo before unleashing its unbearably nightmarish macabre. Some instances can be queasy despite the predictability, but Walker's darkly grim signatures are evident to the very final frame. A well-told horror tale that's resourcefully written, measurably directed and exemplary performed. It's one you won't forget soon, because of how convincing and believable these people could be."They said she was well!"