Fear in the Night (1972) – Film Review

Director: Jimmy Sangster
Cast: Judy Geeson, Joan Collins, Peter Cushing
Certificate: 15

By Sarah Morgan

Think Hammer Films and what immediately springs to mind? Horror movies, right? And you can be forgiven for that because adaptations of Dracula and Frankenstein, not to mention numerous sequels and other gothic chillers, did make their name. However, the studio also produced movies in many other genres, before, during and after it began its horror cycle.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, for instance, it produced a variety of Hitchcock-style psychological thrillers, including Taste of Fear, Paranoiac and Maniac. All three were written by Jimmy Sangster, who by 1961 had grown tired of penning gothics and wanted to do something different.

“Mentally Fragile”

He was also a longstanding stalwart of the studio before leaving to work in America. Hammer tempted him back over the years, and it seems he was keen to work on Fear in the Night, which he wrote and directed, casting his best mate, Ralph Bates (with whom he’d previously collaborated on his directorial debut, The Horror of Frankenstein), alongside Judy Geeson, Joan Collins and Hammer legend Peter Cushing.

Geeson plays Peggy, a mentally fragile young woman who, while recovering from a nervous breakdown, has met and fallen in love with teacher Robert (Bates). The beginning of the story sees her packing up her belongings and heading to the boys’ boarding school where he works and has a cottage in the grounds.

He’s employed by the intriguingly named Michael Carmichael (Cushing), an odd, enigmatic character, who is married to sculptress Molly (Collins), a rather callous person who, it turns out, is having an affair with Robert.

To say much more would give away the plot’s numerous twists and turns, in which people and places are never quite what they seem.

“Underlying menace”

Some years ago, when he was publicising his autobiography, I was lucky enough to interview Sangster. He was genuinely surprised when I told him how much I admired Fear in the Night – he thought it was terrible!

I’ve got to admit, it’s not perfect and it’s probably not his greatest screenplay, but to my mind at least, it’s by far the best film Sangster directed. It’s full of underlying menace and disquiet, with red herrings popping up all over the place. And if you’re of a certain age, you’ll probably feel a pang of nostalgia at the sight of a Granada service station in one scene – surely the only appearance of such a place in a Hammer film, where Victorian, cobwebbed corridors were far more likely to pop up.

Geeson makes a convincing damsel in distress, while Collins appears to be warming up for the nasty bitch roles that would become her stock in trade over the next couple of decades. Bates is somewhat bland, while Cushing is, as usual, the real reason for watching – is he kindly or deadly? Or both? Well, you’ll have to watch to find out…

The special features include what now appears to be the obligatory interview on such releases with critic and author Kim Newman.

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

You do not have any posts.