31 Night of Halloween Horror - Night 16 - Symptoms
Symptoms
92 mins.
Dir. Jose Ramon Larraz
UK/1974
We made it through the half way point of the month. So far we have encountered killer fish, mad scientists, crazy killers, crazier cults, zombies, clowns, witches, ghosts, giant alligators and Count Dracula himself. We still have a lot more ground to cover. Of the last 15 films, four of them I have previously seen, (Re-Animator, Burial Ground, Nightmare Castle and Count Dracula.) Of the 11 I haven't seen Pyewacket was my favorite one so far. For tonight's feature we are going to slow things down and take a breather with a simple little UK gothic thriller called Symptoms.
Poor Helen (played by Angela Pleasance, Donald Pleasance's daughter), she has issues. She has a giant mansion in the english countryside that she lives in all alone. A groundskeeper lives out back in the stables and Hannah checks in now and then to see that Helen is doing ok. One day Helen connects with an old friend named Anne. She convinced Anne to come stay with her for a few days in the lonely mansion. For whatever reason Anne agrees and heads to the secluded mansion on the english country side. In the beginning things seems to be going well, but it is slowly becoming obvious Helen has a few bats loose in the belfry. She despises the ground keeper and won't talk or look at him, she has some jealously issues over Anne as well as just being an overall odd woman. And then there are the pictures around the house of Cora that everyone seems be asking where she is. An old friend of Helen's we are told who could not make the trip.
Helen seems to be plagued by nightmares or a haunted past while she sleeps. Soon Anne begins to hear voices and sounds in the attic, she thinks someone is in the house with them, but Helen tells her she is imagining things. One day Anne finds the attic door open and goes to investigate. As she snoops around it is apparent that there is someone else up in the attic with her, but who is it? Is it screw loose in the head Anne? Is it the mysterious Cora? Is it someone else entirely? Soon the bodies start piling up and the gardener finds a body dumped in the lake. He catches on that there is some more to Helen than meets the eye and accuses her of murder. But by this point Helen seems to be so off her rocker she has little grip on what is left of reality.
Another simple tale of love gone wrong and revenge, this film though directed by a Spaniard, meets the requirements of the stereotypical drawn out movies that were coming out of England at the time. Filmed at Pinewood Studios like all UK horrors seemed to be during the 60s/70s, the movie features breathtaking sets, British acting and not too gratuitous violence, though a little excessive. Despite its gruesome subject matter, this movie totally feels like something you would watch during the day on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Directed by the guy who gave us the overly erotic lesbian vampire flick Vampryes, Symptoms made the same year was a film lost for decades until recently. It features much less nudity and a lot less blood then Vamnpyres, but you can see a few similarities between the two. Symptoms delves much more into the psychological downward spiral of the human mind that drives someone to kill.
Tomorrow we will be back to pick the pace a little as we head downhill hands in the air screaming our way to Halloween. Stick around there is much more insanity to come.
Symptoms
92 mins.
Dir. Jose Ramon Larraz
UK/1974
We made it through the half way point of the month. So far we have encountered killer fish, mad scientists, crazy killers, crazier cults, zombies, clowns, witches, ghosts, giant alligators and Count Dracula himself. We still have a lot more ground to cover. Of the last 15 films, four of them I have previously seen, (Re-Animator, Burial Ground, Nightmare Castle and Count Dracula.) Of the 11 I haven't seen Pyewacket was my favorite one so far. For tonight's feature we are going to slow things down and take a breather with a simple little UK gothic thriller called Symptoms.
Poor Helen (played by Angela Pleasance, Donald Pleasance's daughter), she has issues. She has a giant mansion in the english countryside that she lives in all alone. A groundskeeper lives out back in the stables and Hannah checks in now and then to see that Helen is doing ok. One day Helen connects with an old friend named Anne. She convinced Anne to come stay with her for a few days in the lonely mansion. For whatever reason Anne agrees and heads to the secluded mansion on the english country side. In the beginning things seems to be going well, but it is slowly becoming obvious Helen has a few bats loose in the belfry. She despises the ground keeper and won't talk or look at him, she has some jealously issues over Anne as well as just being an overall odd woman. And then there are the pictures around the house of Cora that everyone seems be asking where she is. An old friend of Helen's we are told who could not make the trip.
Helen seems to be plagued by nightmares or a haunted past while she sleeps. Soon Anne begins to hear voices and sounds in the attic, she thinks someone is in the house with them, but Helen tells her she is imagining things. One day Anne finds the attic door open and goes to investigate. As she snoops around it is apparent that there is someone else up in the attic with her, but who is it? Is it screw loose in the head Anne? Is it the mysterious Cora? Is it someone else entirely? Soon the bodies start piling up and the gardener finds a body dumped in the lake. He catches on that there is some more to Helen than meets the eye and accuses her of murder. But by this point Helen seems to be so off her rocker she has little grip on what is left of reality.
Another simple tale of love gone wrong and revenge, this film though directed by a Spaniard, meets the requirements of the stereotypical drawn out movies that were coming out of England at the time. Filmed at Pinewood Studios like all UK horrors seemed to be during the 60s/70s, the movie features breathtaking sets, British acting and not too gratuitous violence, though a little excessive. Despite its gruesome subject matter, this movie totally feels like something you would watch during the day on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Directed by the guy who gave us the overly erotic lesbian vampire flick Vampryes, Symptoms made the same year was a film lost for decades until recently. It features much less nudity and a lot less blood then Vamnpyres, but you can see a few similarities between the two. Symptoms delves much more into the psychological downward spiral of the human mind that drives someone to kill.
Tomorrow we will be back to pick the pace a little as we head downhill hands in the air screaming our way to Halloween. Stick around there is much more insanity to come.
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