Peter Collinson (2) (1936–1980)

It is difficult to fathom why "Fright" is such a sadly forgotten film as it is full of atmosphere, has a number of highly chilling sequences and works very much as a slasher precursor, with a pretty babysitter terrorised in a creepy old house. The film stars Susan George as Amanda, who is hired by Helen (Honor Blackman) and Jim Lloyd (George Cole) to look their infant son Tara while they head out to celebrate some unspecified anniversary. Amanda settles in for the night and isn't too happy when her boyfriend Chris (Dennis Waterman) turns up and scares her out of her wits. She demands that Chris leaves and he does so, but not before regaling her with a story about Helen's real husband, who he claims has been locked up in a secure mental institution for attempting to murder Helen. According to Chris, the husband, Brian (Ian Bannen) has very recently escaped and is most likely headed to the house to reunite himself with Helen and Tara. With Amanda alone in the creepy old house, it isn't long until the demented Brian puts in an appearance. "Fright" carries many of the elements that would become the staples of the 'stalk and slash’, sub-genre – the beautiful babysitter, the creepy old house and the revenge motivated escaped lunatic are all present and correct. In that sense it has a very close resemblance to John Carpenter's slasher classic "Halloween" (1979) and carries many of the same stylish motifs, only some eight years earlier. Directed by Peter Collinson and written by the delightfully named Tudor Gates, the film doesn't miss any time in building the atmosphere. From the very opening scene Collinson wastes no time in making it clear that something is amiss and building a sense of oppressive dread. He makes the simplicity of the plot work in his favour – we know that something is going to happen to Amanda, but we're never sure when and Collinson builds up this sense of tension and impending doom with real skill. He achieves the frights in the film through sly implication and strange sounds and manages to keep the audience completely unnerved until the insane Brian eventually turns up in a psychotic burst of violence. The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Ian Wilson who cleverly captures the old dark house look and manages to give everything in the house a truly creepy feel. Susan George delivers an excellent performance as the babysitter and demonstrates a fine line in mounting hysteria. Ian Bannen is also very good as the unhinged Brian, with the rest of the cast possibly best described as serviceable. On the whole "Fright" is an excellent little movie that is much better than its half forgotten status would suggest. It has a good script, excellent direction, is visually clever and to top it all, it has great sense of ominous atmosphere and mounting unease – a film very much worth rediscovering.… (more)