Frightmare is a 1974 British horror film directed by Pete Walker (House of the Long Shadows; The Comeback; Schizo; House of Mortal Sin; House of Whipcord; Die Screaming Marianne) from a screenplay written by David McGillivray (Terror; Satan’s Slave; House of Whipcord) based on Walker’s story. Tony Tenser (Tigon) was the executive producer.
The movie stars Rupert Davies, Sheila Keith. Deborah Fairfax, Paul Greenwood, Kim Butcher, Fiona Curzon, Jon Yule, Tricia Mortimer, Leo Genn (Die Screaming Marianne), Gerald Flood. Andrew Sachs (best known as Manuel in Fawlty Towers), also in Walker’s House of Mortal Sin, has a minor role.
Plot:
In an isolated farmhouse, a woman named Dorothy Yates lives with her husband. She has just been released from a mental institution, apparently cured after she previously killed and partially ate at least six people in 1957.
Dorothy’s husband, Edmund, was convicted as well, but we come to find out that he only faked his dementia to remain with his wife. He was a truly devoted husband who loved his wife dearly but had nothing to do with the actual murders in 1957 and the present.
1974: It seems as if Dorothy has had a severe relapse. She secretly lures lonely young people to her Haslemere, Surrey home, promising tea and a tarot card reading, only for the session ending with a violent murder and “feast”…
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“For the Sake of Cannibalism,” an interview with Pete Walker, by Elijah Drenner
Audio commentary by director Pete Walker and director of photography Peter Jessop, conducted by Steve Chibnall, author of Making Mischief: The Cult Films of Pete Walker
“Sheila Keith: A Nice Old Lady?” a profile of the late actress, featuring interviews with her former collaborators
Original theatrical trailer
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” …an exceptionally nasty and depressing little movie … One of the first British horror films to match the callousness of the American independents, Frightmare may not be Walker’s best movie, but it remains his most upsetting.” Kim Newman, Nightmare Movies
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Choice dialogue:
Debbie [Kim Butcher]: “Nasty, innit?”
Delia [Pamela Farbrother]: “You’re quite mad. I suppose you know that?”
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