Night of Fear | |
---|---|
Directed by | Terry Bourke |
Written by | Terry Bourke |
Produced by | Rod Hay |
Starring | Norman Yemm Carla Hoogeveen |
Cinematography | Peter Hendry |
Edited by | Ray Alchin |
Production company | Terryrod |
Distributed by | Umbrella Entertainment (2005 DVD & 2022 Blu-ray) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 50 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Night of Fear is a 1972 Australian horror film, directed by Terry Bourke. It was written by Bourke and produced by Rod Hay. Its theme and style bears a resemblance to the horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , released two years later. The film is notable for having no dialogue or character names. It has been called "the first Australian horror movie of the renaissance". [1]
This article needs an improved plot summary.(June 2018) |
The film opens with a short vignette featuring a woman riding a horse through the countryside. She dismounts and ties the horse to a tree. A bedraggled man appears and unties the horse, startling it to make it run. Not seeing the man, the woman sets after her horse, but encounters the man’s cabin in her pursuit. As she enters, the man attacks her from behind and locks her in a room. The man then goes outside, pulls a secret handle hidden in the power box, then shoots and dismembers the horse.
The opening credits roll previewing some of the more shocking moments from the film to come.
Following a near-miss with a removal van, a woman's car runs off the road through a barrier sign and goes down a hill. Unable to reverse back up the hill and to the highway, she instead drives forward along the dirt backroad. The driver of removal van driver stops to help, only to see her drive away. He then looks down to see the broken sign marked “dead end no way through”.
The woman drives along the back road for a while before crashing in a large ditch and being knocked unconscious. She regains consciousness to see the bedraggled man walking toward her carrying a white rat on his shoulder. She takes shelter in the car as the deranged man attacks her eventually smashing the windscreen with a shovel. The woman manages to escape, but the man chases her. Losing him in the dense bushland, she returns to the car after dark and sounds the horn for help. Nearby, the man responds to the sound of the horn by musically ringing his shovel against the foliage.
Again, the woman flees and again the man chases her. As she runs in the night, she encounters the impaled head of a horse (presumably, the horse from the opening scene) before arriving at a cabin. She enters and explores the cabin before falling unconscious and into a nightmare in which the man appears before her holding a human skull over his genitals.
She wakens to find the deranged man trying to enter the cabin. As with the beginning of the film, we again witness the man pull a secret handle hidden in the power box, but now we see its effect. A wall panel in the cabin opens and rats pour in to devour her. We see close-up of cats looking on at the gore of the rats feasting while the man sits outside and appears to masturbate.
The film ends with a police search closing in on the cabin. Suspicious, but without proof, the Police question the man as he feeds his chickens. As they leave, we see a cage high in the bamboo containing a cat and a human skull.
The film was shot over twelve days in mid 1972. It was originally intended to be a pilot for TV series called Fright. The Australian Broadcasting Commission provided a crew and 35mm production facilities in exchange for television rights. [2]
The film was initially banned in Australia by the OFLC. [3] [4] The makers of Night of Fear appealed to the review board and it was released in November 1972 with an 'R' (18+) rating. [3] It has since been re-classified 'M' (15+). [5]
The film enjoyed a profitable run in independent cinemas and drive ins. [2]
The film was released on DVD alongside fellow Australian horror film Inn of the Damned (also directed by Bourke) by Umbrella Entertainment on 16 March 2005. [5] This combo was re-released for Blu-ray on 9 November 2022 as volume 20 of Umbrella's Ozploitation collection. [6]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2018) |
AllMovie wrote, "Night of Fear is a potent, no-frills little shocker that is likely to delight fans of vintage horror", complimenting its "excellent use of whiplash-speed editing, bizarre camera angles and a densely layered soundtrack to create a consistently unnerving atmosphere." [7]
Dead End is a 2003 English-language French horror film written and directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, and starring Alexandra Holden, Ray Wise, Lin Shaye, Mick Cain, Billy Asher, and Amber Smith. It tells the story of a dysfunctional family who find themselves on a never-ending road in the middle of a forest during a routine drive on Christmas Eve, while under pursuit of a mysterious hearse and a woman dressed in white.
Pamela Franklin is a British former actress. She is best known for her role as Sandy in the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), for which she won a NBR Award and received a BAFTA Award nomination.
Katrina Bowden is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Cerie on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock (2006–2013) and as Flo Fulton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (2019–2021). She has also appeared in the films Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Sex Drive, Piranha 3DD, American Reunion, and Scary Movie 5.
Spyforce is an Australian television series that aired from 1971 to 1973 on Nine Network. The series was based upon the adventures of Australian Military Intelligence operatives in the South West Pacific during World War II. It was produced by Nine Network in conjunction with Paramount Pictures.
Cabin by the Lake is a horror TV movie released in 2000. It tells the story of Stanley, played by Judd Nelson, a script writer who begins killing girls for research for a movie he is writing, where the villain does the same thing. A 2001 sequel titled Return to Cabin by the Lake follows Stanley's attempts to make a film based on his previous murders by posing as the film's director.
Ozploitation films are exploitation films – a category of low-budget horror, comedy, sexploitation and action films – made in Australia after the introduction of the R rating in 1971. The year also marked the beginnings of the Australian New Wave movement, and the Ozploitation style peaked within the same time frame.
Turkey Shoot is a 1982 Australian dystopian action film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith. Its ensemble cast — an eclectic mix of international stars, Australian soap opera veterans and character actors — is led by Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Michael Craig, Noel Ferrier, Carmen Duncan, Roger Ward and Lynda Stoner. The film marks the first of three directorial collaborations between Trenchard-Smith and producer Antony I. Ginnane — the others being The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989) and Arctic Blast (2010) — although the director had previously made promotional reels and trailers for Ginnane's earlier films.
Antichrist is a 2009 horror art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a married couple who experience the accidental death of their infant son, after which they retreat to a cabin in the woods to grieve, where the man experiences strange visions and the woman manifests increasingly violent sexual behavior and sadomasochism. The narrative is divided into a prologue, four chapters, and an epilogue.
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! is a 2008 documentary film about the Australian New Wave of 1970s and 1980s low-budget cinema. The film was written and directed by Mark Hartley, who interviewed over eighty Australian, American and British actors, directors, screenwriters and producers, including Quentin Tarantino, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Hopper, George Lazenby, George Miller, Barry Humphries, Stacy Keach, John Seale and Roger Ward.
The Man from Hong Kong, originally released in the US as The Dragon Flies, is a 1975 action film written and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith in his directorial debut and starring Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby, with Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Rosalind Speirs, Rebecca Gilling, Sammo Hung, Grant Page and Frank Thring in supporting roles. The first film to be made as an international coproduction between Australia and Hong Kong, it serves as a satire of the James Bond and Dirty Harry franchises, combined with tropes of the concurrent chopsocky craze. Its plot follows Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Wang) of the RHKPF's Special Branch, who travels to Sydney to perform an extradition, only to find himself locked in battle with Jack Wilton (Lazenby), the city's most powerful crime lord.
A Taste of Evil is a 1971 American made-for-television horror-thriller film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barbara Parkins and Roddy McDowall. It premiered as the ABC Movie of the Week on October 12, 1971.
Fear in the Night is a 1972 British psychological horror film directed, produced, and co-written by Jimmy Sangster and produced by Hammer Film Productions. The film stars Judy Geeson as a psychologically-fragile woman who, upon relocating to a rural boarding school where her husband has taken a job, finds herself being tormented by a mysterious figure with a prosthetic arm. Peter Cushing and Joan Collins, respectively, also star as the school's mysterious headmaster and his wife.
Inn of the Damned is a 1975 Australian western horror film, directed by Terry Bourke. It has been called Australia's first "horror Western".
Terry Christopher Bourke was an Australian journalist, screenwriter, producer and director.
Roadgames is a 1981 Australian thriller film directed by Richard Franklin and starring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis. The film follows a truck driver travelling across Australia who, along with the help of a hitchhiker, seeks to track down a serial killer who is butchering women and dumping their dismembered bodies along desolate highways.
The Blackcoat's Daughter is a 2015 supernatural psychological horror film written and directed by Osgood Perkins. The film stars Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton, Lauren Holly, and James Remar.
Campfire Tales is a 1997 American anthology horror film directed by Matt Cooper, Martin Kunert, and David Semel. The film is made up of three individual short segments that are presented in an overarching narrative, told by a group of friends around a fire after they crash their car in the woods. It stars James Marsden, Christine Taylor, Amy Smart, and Ron Livingston.
Rachel Keller is a fictional character in The Ring film series. The character, created by writer-producer Ehren Kruger and portrayed by Naomi Watts, serves as the protagonist of The Ring and The Ring Two, sharing similarities with Reiko Asakawa from the original Japanese films.
Terror at Red Wolf Inn is a 1972 American horror film directed by Bud Townsend, and starring Linda Gillen, John Neilson, and Arthur Space. The plot follows a young college student who wins a vacation to a rural resort run by an elderly couple who serve meals of human flesh. Though it contains prominent horror elements, critics and scholars have noted the film as being an early example of comedy horror due to its "tongue-in-cheek" humor.
The Cabining is a 2014 horror comedy directed by Steve Kopera. The story centers on two failing screenwriters who travel to a remote artists’ retreat, seeking inspiration. The retreat proves anything but serene, as the artists die off one-by-one.
Release Date: 09 Nov 2022