[May Monster Madness]-Night of Fear (1972)

Now THIS is a weird little film! Night of Fear is probably the very first Aussie horror film, and it has no dialogue, and is only fifty minutes long!

Night of Fear is about a woman who crashes her car in a forest where a mentally deranged serial killer is on the loose...

As some people say, this film is partly like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The plots aren't similar at all, other than both involving a manchild serial killer, but just like TCM, Night of Fear has a grittily realism to it. This film, however, is lacking a certain something, and it's nowhere near as creepy as TCM. Probably because The Texas Chainsaw Massacre wasn't just forty minutes of Sally Hardesty running from Leatherface. Night of Fear does have one really creepy part though, involving a skull, and what it used to look like before rats got involved.

As there's no dialogue (minus a few words on a radio) beside grunts and screams, the soundtrack does all the talking, which is a good thing sometimes, and an awful thing at other times, as the soundtrack can get pretty goofy in how over the top it is. Also, just when I thought that the movie was lacking opening credits (which would have made the film creepier), some really over the top opening credits started up, seven minutes in.

There's little to no gore/violence, but what there is is very good!

Norman Yemm is good as the deranged killer, and Carla Hoogeveen is good at acting scared, albeit a bit over the top.

There's one REALLY stupid moment at the start of the film, when Briony Behets' character, who's lost in the woods, arrives at the killer's house. She knocks on the door, and doesn't hear the killer clomping up behind her in thick boots with huge metal straps on them!

Also, the ending is pretty stupid. Carla Hoogeveen's character faints when she just sees a load of rats. Considering what that leads to, she was a very dumb character. There's also a stupid moment at the end, when the police look over the killer's huse, see mops soaked in blood, and leave, thinking that nothing's wrong! MORONS!

There's also one nonsensical bit when Carla Hoogeveen's character crashes her car. When she gets out, she sees the killer approaching, and she's scared as hell and bolts back into her car...even though she has zero reason to believe the guy is a killer! Lucky for her that he was!

There is one scene that made me laugh. Carla Hoogeveen's character is in her car being attacked by the killer, who's got his arm through the open window. She's having trouble with him because windows needed to be wound up back then! Thinking of the very convenient buttons we use for car windows nowadays, the scene amused me.

Another goofy scene is when the car crash breaks through a dead end sign, and the camera 'subtly' cuts to the the broken part of the sign now reading 'dead'!

So, to finish, this is a fun little oddity short film. It's not perfect at all, and probably would have worked better if it was a proper movie, but I still recommend it.

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