Fear in the Night ** (1972, Judy Geeson, Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing, Joan Collins, James Cossins) – Classic Movie Review 2895

A strong cast bolsters co-writer/ director Jimmy Sangster’s sporadically frightening and sometimes inventive 1972 Hammer Films shocker.

Judy Geeson stars as a nervy young woman recovering from a nervous breakdown who is terrorised by strange occurrences when she marries a prep school master (Ralph Bates) and moves with her husband to a boys’ school. When she finds herself being terrorised by a mysterious one-armed man, nobody believes her.

There are perhaps no surprises for those who have seen and remember The Fiends [Les diaboliques] (1955), but Sangster’s and Michael Syson‘s screenplay plays new riffs on the old themes and the horror thriller movie grips anyway. Certainly, Geeson, Bates, Peter Cushing (as the Headmaster, Michael Carmichael) and Joan Collins (as Molly Carmichael) all go to it with a vengeance.

This is Ralph Bates’s fifth and final Hammer film after Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2895

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/