|
|
Post by noose on Nov 19, 2011 20:42:13 GMT
Sphere (1969)  BLURB: TWISTED NERVE...a tale of terror and violence in the spine-chilling traditions of Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO.
Martin Durnley is a cunning and murderous psychopath, driven to take vengeance on society for his own failings.
The family who give Martin a home know nothing of this. Two brutal killings occur before the girl Martin wants for himself becomes suspicious. Then the story reaches a climax of horror as Martin prepares for his third victim...
Well, found this today for 20p, checked on ABE BOOKS and it's going for a truly ridiculous sum, but then asked a few friends and seemingly this is a bit of a rarity. To my eternal shame, I had never even heard of the film...
|
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Nov 22, 2011 9:26:01 GMT
it's one i remember as a highly unpleasant film, not because it's particularly well-made or horrific, but rather because some of the attitudes in it are a little off, particularly if - and i haven't seen it for years so this is just on memory - you don't subscribe to the theory that having downs syndrome in your family is certain to make you as psychopathic killer. shame, really, as i like hywel bennett as a rule.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 22, 2011 14:18:53 GMT
it's one i remember as a highly unpleasant film, not because it's particularly well-made or horrific, but rather because some of the attitudes in it are a little off, particularly if - and i haven't seen it for years so this is just on memory - you don't subscribe to the theory that having downs syndrome in your family is certain to make you as psychopathic killer. shame, really, as i like hywel bennett as a rule. But it starts with a disclaimer! |
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Nov 22, 2011 20:13:16 GMT
That's one I remember watching as a kid in the mid-70s, around the time a lot of formative horror movies were on TV - there was one called The Norliss Tapes, with Angie Dickinson I think, one that had these nasty gremlin things that lived in the chimney or cellar, Trilogy of Terror of course, The Night Stalker telemovies, another set in the Bermuda triangle where, from memory, a woman is possessed by some thingy at the end and the chopper carrying everyone to safety crashes into the sea, etc etc - good times!
|
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Nov 22, 2011 23:38:40 GMT
blimey, thanks for that jojo - will watch the whole film later, but for now had a look at the beginning. i saw it on itv must be 20-23 years ago (can place the time frame because of where i was living) now, and can't remember that warning for the life of me. did it get cut from some tv prints as part of time saving? itv tended to have some oddly trimmed prints for their slots.
interesting that the producers felt the need to put that on. i wonder if it will still be as distasteful in that regard when i watch it again after all this time?
james - was that bermuda triangle film an american tv movie where they get stranded by boat at the beginning? i remember one when i was about 10 ('74-5, i guess) that is lacking in remembered detail but still manages to haunt the memory.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Nov 23, 2011 7:04:16 GMT
interesting that the producers felt the need to put that on. i wonder if it will still be as distasteful in that regard when i watch it again after all this time? Oh, absolutely! |
|
|
|
Post by jamesdoig on Nov 23, 2011 7:30:45 GMT
james - was that bermuda triangle film an american tv movie where they get stranded by boat at the beginning? i remember one when i was about 10 ('74-5, i guess) that is lacking in remembered detail but still manages to haunt the memory. That's the one - I only saw it the once. We must be about the same vintage. |
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Nov 23, 2011 16:04:54 GMT
and it most certainly is! the boutlings out of their comfort zone and not coping well, and at least twenty minutes too long. what a waste of a great cast and bernard herrman's score.
despite the fact that russel napier (aka that bloke who was always a chief super in those old edgar lustgaren scotland yard movies) makes great play -as the disclaimer says - of saying that mental psychos are NOT the same as 'mongolism' (whoo-ho! what would genghis khan make of that?), they then infer that anyone in the same family is, however, likely to be a nutter. indeed, in a casual throwaway line they also manage to link autism to being a psychopath.
and yet, it's so dumb i can't really take offence as i did back in the day. the discovery in the woodshed is good, but then ending then drags it out too far. nice work by barry foster though. salmaaan peer as the bemused medical student is great: i think that's exactly how i'd feel if lived amongst that household...
apparently billie whitelaw won a bafta for this?! of all things! must be the way she hung about the woodshed in a slinky robe before groping for hywel bennet's hankie... hellfire!
it's so wrong and yet, at times, so right.
|
|
|
|
Post by erebus on Feb 6, 2014 8:57:18 GMT
This little British gem is currently being shown again on the Horror Channel if anybody is interested. Great old film that really drags you in, God old British films were great weren't they. That book cover is deranged by the way.
|
|
