Fright (1971)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1971
Running Time	83:43
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Peter Collinson
Studio Distributor	British Lion Films Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Honor Blackman Susan George Ian Bannen John Gregson George Cole Dennis Waterman Tara Collinson Maurice Kaufmann Roger Lloyd-Pack Michael Brennan
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Harry Robertson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is one of those 1970s British genre films that has eluded me until now, though I thought I had seen just about everything released by Hammer, Amicus and Anglo-EMI. This film was released by none of these, but could easily have been a Hammer film judging by the cast and crew. Reviews of this film tend to be mixed, and mine will be no different.

    The story concerns young babysitter Amanda (Susan George in one of her better performances), who is substituting for the usual sitter of Tara (Tara Collinson), the oddly-named son of Jim and Helen (George Cole and Honor Blackman). Perhaps the director, whose own son plays this role, was a fan of Gone With the Wind. Amanda is a college student whose response to everything seems to be "super". The family house is an old, creaky affair with lots of locks on the doors (the front door has four). Helen seems quite worried and distracted.

    Jim and Helen set off for their meal in the local restaurant, where they meet up with Doctor Cordell (John Gregson), a doctor of sorts. Meanwhile, Chris (Dennis Waterman) turns up, to meet his girlfriend Amanda. When he cheerfully proposes that they consummate their relationship, Amanda chucks him out. While loitering around the house he is beaten to a bloody pulp by a mostly unseen assailant, and is brought in unconscious by neighbour Brian (Ian Bannen). But is Brian what he seems?

    This is one of those frightened-babysitter-harassed-by-homicidal-maniac movies that seem to crop up every so often, like When a Stranger Calls to give one example. You can see a lot of elements that feature in later films, and also some from earlier ones, like the dripping tap from Mario Bava's Black Sabbath which makes a brief cameo appearance. It has some quite effective moments, especially involving creepy sounds, but it also has some significant flaws such as Ian Bannen's over-the-top performance and the implausible ending. The timing of the shocks is a little off as well, as they do not have the impact they should. Short-lived director Peter Collinson appears to have had some talent, but he also seems to been blessed with a cruel streak (perhaps triggered by an apparently difficult childhood) that found its outlet in some quite violent films. The film looks stylish but does not quite gel together as a whole. I must say I was amused to read the opening credit Also starring George Cole and Dennis Waterman, which perversely made me expect Arthur and Terry to crop up at some point.

    There is a companion film of similar quality on this double-feature disc, Demons of the Mind, which is reviewed separately.

Video

    Like the other film on this disc, Fright gets a fine transfer. Presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video is very sharp, and despite the entire film taking place at night, there is a fine level of detail available. Shadow detail is also present to the desired level. Contrast is good as well.

    Colour is very lifelike, and while there are no especially vibrant colours apart from those in the restaurant scenes, the film looks very good. Flesh tones are accurately rendered. Blacks are nicely solid, though occasionally they seemed to have a whitish tinge to them. Whites are quite pure.

    There are almost no artefacts present in this transfer. Occasionally there was a faint shimmer of aliasing or a tiny white spot or two to distract from the film experience, but really this is probably as good a transfer of this film as you would get for DVD.

    No subtitles are provided. This is a dual-layered disc with the entire film contained on one layer, and the companion film on the other, so there is no layer change during either feature.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is, like the video transfer, very good. This is the sort of audio track I like to listen to, but not always to review, as there is generally very little to say.

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, which reflects the original cinema release.

    Dialogue, which consists mainly of shrieks, screams, sobs, mindless gibbering and exclamations of "super", is very clear and easy to understand. There is no noticeable hiss or distortion even in the loudest screams. Sound is used to good effect in this film, though the drip, drip, dripping of the tap sounds more like a tap, tap, tapping.

    The music score is by Harry Robinson, who scored a number of genre films of the era, and is quite effective even though I did not find myself whistling any of the tunes after the film.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    No extras are provided.

    As you would expect, the US Region 1 release is from Anchor Bay. This time they do not provide an audio commentary, just an original trailer, director biography and replica theatrical poster as an insert card. The transfer sounds like it is the same one released in Region 4, so because of the somewhat meagre extras I will recommend the Region 1 by the slimmest of margins. If you don't need the extras, you will be well served by the local release.

    An average chiller.

    The video transfer is excellent.

    The audio transfer is likewise excellent.

    No extras, though with a second complete film on the disc this is not such a big problem.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall