Alicia I love this movie so much

Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Red-Barracuda The plot-line of Fright is very similar to the idea used by John Carpenter for his box-office smash Halloween (1978) several years later. After all its story can be boiled down to one sentence - a baby-sitter is terrorised by a psychopath who has escaped from an asylum. Consequently, Fright could be considered alongside the likes of Black Christmas (1974) as a proto-slasher of sorts. It's definitely quite a nasty movie for its era. It starts out as a psychological thriller and turns into a house invasion movie. And like most from the latter sub-genre it gets somewhat disturbing and exploitative in the process. Unfortunately, this transition also marks the point in which the film loses a bit of quality. The first half in which an unknown ominous person is stalking around outside the house is very strong and actually tense and scary. But once the action moves to within the house things do go a bit flat. The unknown quality that elevated the earlier scares is replaced with less interesting shock material. It also bothered me a bit that the babysitter acted a little too stupidly to be entirely believable. Her boyfriend staggers into the house bloodied and half-dead and a mysterious man follows a few seconds later and she never considers that he may be the lunatic responsible! And then later on the film finishes with an abrupt ending that doesn't entirely work unfortunately.But, criticisms aside, this is still a pretty fine psychological thriller. Its director Peter Collinson would go on to direct another film from that genre the following year, namely Straight on Till Morning. He made that one for the famous British studio Hammer and it was one of the most pleasingly atypical offerings they ever turned out. Both films certainly show Collinson had a handle on generating suspense. Fright benefits additionally from a very good cast. Susan George is ridiculously cute and puts in an impressive performance. Like her work in the same year's Straw Dogs, this is another tough role where she has to go through some pretty nasty scenes. Ian Bannen plays her maniac tormentor and Honor Blackman of The Avengers fame is his ex-wife. We also have Dennis Waterman and George Cole star together for the first time; they would of course go on to be a TV double act in the 80's series Minder.The film is quite notable too for featuring enacted terror scenes involving a child which would simply never be allowed to be filmed now. Amongst others, at one point Bannen holds him aggressively with a shard of glass against his neck. Okay, it was a prop and not actually glass but nevertheless I'm pretty sure that sort of scene would not be permitted to be filmed nowadays. So like many older genre pictures, this one is a window into another time where different rules applied. I would ultimately recommend this film with some reservations. It has a few problem areas but it more than makes up for those with some genuine chills, the delectable Susan George and a pleasing early 70's vibe.

Spikeopath Fright is directed by Peter Collinson and written by Tudor gates. It stars Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, George Cole, Dennis Waterman and John Gregson. Music is by Harry Robinson and cinematography by Ian Wilson.A young babysitter is terrorised by an escaped mental patient.It plays as stock fair now, but Fright is undoubtedly influential in the line of "maniac stalks girl alone" movies. But! That is no gauge of quality because in spite of some good initial ground work in the first half, the pic fails to deliver on its promise. Susan George as Amanda, in fetching mini-dress, falls prey to an unhinged Ian Bannen as Brian who literally has come home. The build up consists of Amanda turning up for her babysitting assignment and finding the lady of the house (Blackman over acting big time) on tender hooks. Once Amanda is alone in the house noises are used as scare tactics, Waterman turns up as a horny boyfriend and soon gets sent packing with a flea in his ear, and then the lights go out and Brian turns up thinking that Amanda is his wife (Blackman who is out doing some awful dancing with Cole).General hysterics ensue as Amanda becomes a simpering wreck whilst trying to hold it together long enough to keep the baby safe from harm. Bannen goes into over drive convincing us he's mad, which leads to some very unsettling scenes as Amanda is put through a nightmare (1971 really saw George at the mercy of film makers!) until the conclusion which comes with the inevitable outcome.Horror really wasn't Collinson's forte, and his choices in the genre tended to revolve around a woman in peril, and that's kind of the problem with Fright, it just comes off as unsavoury (do I smell misogyny?). Collinson shows some nice touches, such as a pendulum sequence, while the sense of dread in that first half is well marshalled, but most of the time he's using the picture as an excuse to leer at George's skirt, legs and ripped blouse! Don't get me wrong, as a red blooded male I find George sexy in the extreme, but I don't need it as an excuse to cover up a scripts failings.It proves to be a most interesting viewing experience now, where armed with the knowledge of the sub-genre offerings that followed, you can't help but acknowledge that it's a film only of its time; yet still important on its basic formula terms. However, and casting aside that we are in a world where George Cole can net Honor Blackman, it really is distinctly average at best. 5/10

tequila101 OK, I know a lot of people like this and that's fine. I don't find this earlier slasher to be a misunderstood or beyond bad flick but I still think it is punctured in many weak spots. I'm not sure why but I think it was because of these things.1. They revealed the killer way too soon and I found that to be heavily weak. I liked this killer but at the same time he's not as memorable as Billy from Black Christmas or even the popular culture icon, Michael Myers from Halloween.Yeah that was my only really major issue but there were also little bits and pieces which didn't work. More kills could have been better and the kills here sucked. The atmosphere of the house was scary but the death scenes, the killer or not even the music scared me. This film's called Fright and it didn't frighten me.The good was that even if the music wasn't creepy, I liked it, the acting was excellent, the house was scary to my satisfaction and the angle shots of things was done well.Overall it is an average flick. I was hoping I would have given it more than a 7 and I was really excited for this film since it was way way before Halloween and other slashers but it wasn't what it turned out to be. Oh well. I just wish it has the sheer power like Halloween, Black Christmas and even others like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Spit on your Grave and the early comers of Psycho.It's a 5.4/10 on this one.

GroovyDoom Interesting early slasher film has loads of atmosphere, and I might have rated it higher if it had a more exciting script. Honor Blackman is a young babysitter taking care of a small child in a very remote house. The parents are unusually paranoid, but Blackman doesn't catch on until the wife's psychotic ex-husband, who has just escaped from the asylum, shows up to terrorize her and the baby.I can imagine that this was considered pretty brutal in 1971, particularly in one scene where the murderer beats somebody within an inch of his life. Now that time has dulled a lot of our sensibilities about horror movies, this will probably not seem very shocking at all to the average viewer. The best reason to watch it now is because of the interesting way the film is photographed, as well as the effective location. The house itself is very creepy, and a brilliantly conceived credit sequence shows Blackman walking all alone through a darkened rural area to get to where she's going. It's actually one of the best moments of the film. The dark interiors of the house do a lot to further the tension--as does the horrifying 70s decor.Finally, Ian Bannen is great as the crazy ex-husband. Do yourself a favor and watch this if you're a fan of 70s horror films. It's not "Texas Chainsaw" by any means, but it's worth seeing just the same.