Frightmare (1974)

This one may very well be the best little cannibal flick next to “TCM”. After fifteen years in the nuthouse for committing acts of murder and cannibalism, an elderly couple, Eddie and Dorothy, are declared sane and released back into society. Now, as we all know in the realm of the horror film, no nutcase is ever truly “cured” from his/her time in the looney bin, and wouldn’t ya know it...the couple is soon up to their old shenanigans. What’s interesting here is that Dorothy is the actual killer while devoted hubby Eddie is merely the “clean up guy” who’ll do anything to keep his nutty wife from going back to “that place”. Heck, Eddie’s so devoted to his wife that he had himself committed to the institution just to be with her! Now, Eddie and Dorothy have a stepdaughter named Jackie, a foxy twenty-something brunette who’s quite aware of mum and pops past, as well as a real daughter named Kim. Kim is clueless as to who her real parents are as she was thrown into an orphanage from birth when her parents were committed. Jackie is the apparent guardian of the bratty Kim who’s a real little delinquent and a real piece of ass as well. God I love women with British accents. Anyway, Jackie’s been having a tough go of it lately what with trying to manage her love life and keeping her sister out of jail, along with sneaking out in the middle of the night to deliver some rather bloody packages to her father. Seems there be cow brains in them thar packages, which is Jackie and Eddie’s attempt at sating the unnatural appetite of Dorothy. Guess what partners...it doesn’t work. Soon Dorothy, who used to lure victims into her home by reading their fortunes with tarot cards, has broken out the deck once again and wouldn’t you know it, the “death” card seems to be popping up rather frequently as of late.

“Frightmare” is often called the “British TCM”, but that’s not really a fair statement. It does feature an isolated farmhouse with a family of killer’s inside, but that’s really the end of any similarity. At the time of it’s release, many were calling it all manner of things from vile to disgusting and back again, since it did feature for the time some rather gruesome moments with power drills, pitchforks and the like. The violence is still very upfront and bloody, though one can’t truly call it a “gore” film because it’s not. What it is however, is a clever little flick that only stalls thanks to some overly talky segments and an at times nearly impossible to decipher British accent. A highlight for me was watching the characters of Eddie and Dorothy interact, or should I say how Eddie interacts with his wife’s madness. While he’s not a killer himself and seems outraged at what she does, he still is able to turn the other cheek and look away from all the mayhem simply because he loves her, cannibalistic tendencies or not. Touching huh? All in all, “Frightmare” was way better than what I was expecting and worth a look if you ever stumble across it.