Night of Fear (1972)

Night of Fear was originally titled 'Fright' and was actually the pilot of a new tv-show. Shocked by the nature of the pilot the series was quickly cancelled. It was later released in Aussie cinemas as a feature film.

A young woman accidentally drives onto a dirt road after nearly crashing with a truck. The woman continues to follow the dirt road, not knowing that it is under construction. It doesn't take long before she drives her car into a big gap in the middle of the road. Not soon after a crazy hillbilly appears and continues to terrorize the trapped woman.

Australia was shocked after the release of this film, and when you watch it you'll get why. It's not necessarily the violence that does it, gore was shown more explicit prior to this movie. It's mostly the sinister, creepy, almost sick atmosphere that this movie has that does the trick. As for the setting, atmosphere and art-direction It's very comparable with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). I wouldn't be surprised if Tobe Hooper got a lot of inspiration out of this Australian shocker when making his own masterpiece. In addition main character Carla Hoogeveen not only looks A LOT like Marilyn Burns, she also acts in the same, almost hysterical, way. It's almost as if Hooper directed Burns to act like Hoogeveen does in Night of Fear.

The movie itself is a little weird to say the least. In the beginning of the movie we see multiple people who you figure are going to be leads in the movie only to disappear seconds later and never to come back. Then we cut to Hoogeveen who crashes on a deserted dirt road. For the remainder of the movie she is chased by an axe wielding mentally disabled madman. oh yeah, the movie doesn't have any dialogue at all, it's just weird music playing. You'd figure that this would get boring after a while but surprisingly enough it doesn't. The movie only lasts about 50 minutes which is perfect for a movie like that. Also I have to say I was kinda glad not to hear any dialogue in order to just experience pure horror.

The movie is VERY frightening but does suffer from some downsides. The editing was often done very amateuristic. But obviously the biggest downside were the insanely dumb mistakes by our leading actress (every now and then you wonder who really is the one who is mentally disabled). I've seen me some idiot moves by hunted victims in slasher movies but this was of a whole other level. Also the abrupt ending and the lack of answers and explanation about the killer and the killings is kinda disappointing.

Overall Night of Fear is a very, very entertaining exploitation movie from down undah. Actually it's more than that. It's sinister, creepy, dark and terrorizing. It's a movie you must have seen as a horror fan. Even if you turn out not to like it, it still is a hell of an experience.

Fun Facts (source: IMDB)

To promote this movie, lead actor Norman Yemm walked down the Pitt and George streets of Sydney wearing a sandwich board advertising this film and with an axe over his should embellished with fake blood. 

This movie's initial theatrical release in November 1972 in Australia was delayed because the film had been banned by the Australian Censorship Board. The film was not released until March 1973 where it was released uncut after appeal.  

This was the first theatrically released horror movie of the new wave of Australian cinema during the 1970s.