Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd., 1974

starring: Rupert Davies, Sheila Keith, Deborah Fairfax and Kim Butcher
directed by: Pete Walker

the plot: In London, Jackie (Fairfax) struggles to raise her kid sister, Debbie (Butcher), a rebellious teen who hangs with the wrong crowd and can’t control her impulses. Complicating matters are Jackie’s parents, Edmund (Davies) and Dorothy (Keith), who live in the countryside and demand constant attention from their daughter. That’s because Dorothy has recently been released from an insane asylum, where she was committed for nearly a decade after authorities discovered her penchant for murder and cannibalism. Debbie doesn’t know of her parents’ murderous past, and Jackie wants to keep it that way. But Debbie has secrets of her own, and soon the police are showing up at Jackie’s flat and asking questions about Debbie’s involvement in a potential murder. Meanwhile, Jackie’s new boyfriend, an idealistic psychiatrist, believes he can reach out to Debbie. But what neither Jackie nor her sister realize is that mom is up to her old tricks, luring hapless travelers out to her country home with the promise of tarot readings. A family reunion follows, but as Jackie and her beau learn, familial bonding and power drills don’t go together well at all.

why it’s good: An answer to the more traditional gothic horrors coming out of Hammer Studios in the U.K. in the 1960s and ’70s, “Frightmare” is a decent neo-gothic thriller with some fine acting from Sheila Keith and Rupert Davies. Released the same year as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Frightmare” approaches the same basic plot—cannibal families—from a decidedly English perspective. There’s a little bit of class commentary (Edmund works as a driver for an aristocrat, while Jackie works in the makeup department at the BBC), along with a healthy dose of anxiety about youthful hooligans on dirt bikes. But even with all the brain-eating and head drilling, everyone is exceedingly polite and profoundly repressed, which is a requirement if you’re bringing your deranged mother packages of animal brains from the butcher every other night.  “Frightmare” continued director Pete Walker’s trend of shocking British filmgoers—the film followed his equally controversial exploitation flick “House of Whipcord,” a gritty, women-in-prison shocker with plenty of sex and violence. There’s no sex in “Frightmare” and little gore, but the movie works thanks largely to Davies and Keith. Davies starts out the film a harried yet devoted husband, struggling to rein in his wife’s brain-chewing impulses but never considering for a moment tossing her back in the nuthouse. Meanwhile, Keith shifts between doddering old woman and a canny lunatic and she’s pretty frightening, though she’s not in the movie nearly enough. It all builds to a bleak but logical ending, proving that the family that slays together stays together … at least until mom gets hungry again.

why you should own it: Euro-horror fans should check out “Frightmare,” though it’s not quite classic enough to warrant a place in your home. Media Blasters’ DVD features commentary by Walker, a still gallery and a trailer.