Frightmare (1974)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1974
Running Times: 86 mins
Length: 7753 ft     2364 metres
Format: Eastmancolor     35mm
Ratio: 1.37:1 (negative ratio)     1.85:1 (intended ratio)
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd
Executive Producer: Tony Tenser
Producer: Pete Walker
Production Manager: Robert Fennell
Production Supervisor: Matt McCarthy

SCRIPT
Script: David McGillivray
Story: Pete Walker

DIRECTION
Director: Pete Walker
1st Assistant Director: Brian Lawrence
2nd Assistant Director: James Hamilton

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Peter Jessop
Camera Operator: Peter Sinclair
Follow Focus: John Metcalfe
Gaffer: Jim Davis
Lab: Technicolor, London, UK

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Robert C. Dearberg

MUSIC
Music: Stanley Myers

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Peter O'Connor
Boom Operator: Robert Edwards
Dubbing Mixer: Tony Anscombe

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up: George Partleton

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Chris Burke

OTHER CREW
Production Secretary: Leigh Taylor

CAST
Rupert Davies (Edmund Yates)
Sheila Keith (Dorothy Yates)
Deborah Fairfax (Jackie)
Paul Greenwood (Graham)
Kim Butcher (Debbie)
Fiona Curzon (Merle)
Jon Yule (Robin)
Tricia Mortimer (Lillian)
Pamela Fairbrother (Delia)
Edward Kalinski (Alec)
Victor Winding (Detective Inspector)
Anthony Hennessey (Detective Sergeant)
Noel Johnson (the judge)
Michael Sharvell-Martin (barman)
Tommy Wright (nightclub manager)
Andrew Sachs (Barry Nichols)
Nicholas John (Peter)
Jack Dagmar (old man)
Martin Taylor (male guest)
Sue Shaper (female guest)
Bill Barnsley, L.W. Clarke (patrolmen)
Donald Stratford (actor)
Beryl Nesbit (actress)
Jim Bowdell (bike youth)
Veronica Griffiths (1st bike girl)
Deena Martyn (2nd bike girl)
David McGillivray (uncredited)
Pete Walker (voice of Mr Brunskill - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

Fifteen years after being imprisoned for committing the most horrific crimes of violence, Edmund and Dorothy Yates are freed back into the community. But despite Edmund's best efforts, Dorothy's cannibalistic tendencies start to return and she's soon committing horrendous murders again. Meanwhile, their daughter Debbie and stepdaughter Jackie are starting to be drawn into their strange and violent world and one of both of them may have inherited Dorothy's taste for human flesh...

The second of Pete Walker's collaborations with writer David McGillivray was an altogether more ferocious affair than its predecessor, House of Whipcord (1974) as Walker sought to distance himself still further from the Hammer tradition. Again benefiting from the rawness of Walker's technique, Frightmare is a stripped down, back-to-basics gore movie, more in the tradition of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) than the then fading glories of Hammer gothic and it retains its power to shock even now.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Ellman Enterprises
Video Distributor: Prism Pictures

Australia
Rating: R

UK
Rating: 18

USA
Rating: R

TIMELINE

1975
January
Day Unknown: UK - theatrical release

POSTER TAGS

Worse than your most shocking nightmare!

Dare you see the film that shocked the critics?

Cover Up - US title
Frightmare II - US video title
Nero criminale - le belve sono tra noi - Italian title
Once Upon a Frightmare
Smak på människokött - Swedish title
Terror sin habla - Spanish title

PERIODICALS

CinemaTV Today no.10113 (14 December 1974) p.21 (UK)
review

Films and Filming vol.21 no.6 (March 1975) p.38 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.42 no.492 (January 1975) p.8 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

BOOKS

Horror and Science Fiction Films Volume II pp.143-144
credits

asylums, cannibalism, cannibals, families, farmers, gore, maniacs, power drills, pitchforks, psychiatric hospitals, slasher

Last Updated: 2 February, 2010