Fear in the Night 4K (1972)

 

Studio Canal are releasing the last of Hammer’s B-movie psycho thrillers (most of which were originally made to form the bottom half of a double bill) on 4K. The collector’s edition will include the film on both UHD and Blu-ray, as well as a 64 page booklet with new writing and a couple of posters.

Peggy (Judy Geeson) believes she has been attacked by an unseen assailant with one arm. She goes with her teacher husband Robert (Ralph Bates) to his new job at a remote public school. It’s out of term time so the only other people there, aside from a groundsman we see in a couple of shots, are the one-armed (aha!) headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing) and his wife Molly (Joan Collins busy developing the persona that would do well for her in 1980s soaps). 

Peggy is attacked again. She believes it’s the headmaster, whom she shoots with a shotgun conveniently left by Robert when he goes to a convention. But when Robert returns Peggy’s in a daze and there’s no sign of a body. What’s going on?

With only four principal cast members, two of whom have very little screen time, it’s not too difficult to work out what must be happening, as we’re in ‘are they mad or are they being driven mad’ territory once again here. While FEAR IN THE NIGHT isn’t one of Hammer's best, it does boast a terrific setting of an empty boys’ school where the classrooms and corridors have been rigged up with the sound of the pupils so the headmaster can wander around and feel it’s still term-time. It’s a concept that makes the film worth watching and pretty much saves this from being nothing but the most routine of Hammer’s psycho-thriller output.

Studio Canal’s disc has a new extra of Kim Newman talking about the film for 26 minutes. Other extras are archival, including Studio Canal’s own making of from 2017 made to accompany the original Blu-ray release. There are also two commentary tracks, one with producer, director and co-writer Jimmy Sangster moderated by Marcus Hearn, and another with Troy Howarth, plus the usual trailer and stills galleries.

FEAR IN THE NIGHT is out in 4K in a two disc (UHD and Blu-ray) collector’s set from Studio Canal on Monday 23rd March 2026

Kaleidoscope (2017)

"Excellent Grim & Squalid Psycho Thriller Worth Watching Twice"

Toby Jones excels in the unnerving, enigmatic, downbeat beast that is his brother Rupert Jones' KALEIDOSCOPE, coming out on VOD and DVD from Sparky Films.

Carl (Toby Jones) lives in a squalid apartment in a block of flats. He meets a girl, Abby (Sinead Matthews) online and brings her back to the flat after a night out. The morning after there's a broken chair and bloodstains and Carl has only vague memories of what (might have) happened. 

Newspapers report a girl as having been murdered. Abby has disappeared. What has happened to that suitcase Carl used to own? That you could fit body parts neatly into? The arrival of Carl's hated mother, Aileen (Anne Reid) further complicates issues, and what's so important about the kaleidoscope he keeps in a drawer, the one where he hears his father's voice every time he looks through it?

A project that feels like a 1970s British film noir by way of David Lynch (some of the sound design, weird camera angles and 'slips' in reality reminded me of LOST HIGHWAY amongst others) by the time you get to the end of KALEIDOSCOPE you'll be wondering which bits you've seen actually happened, which are hallucination, and how the whole story fits together. 

It's also a pretty grim movie. We hardly leave Carl's horrible flat (and therefore presumably his mind). The interior design and front door don't match what we can see exteriorly, and as the movie progresses things inside the flat change. As to what exactly has happened is left to the viewer to work out. I'll admit that while Rupert Jones is an excellent director stylistically, he probably needs to tighten up his storytelling skills as certainly things could have been made clearer here and there.

Nevertheless, KALEIDOSCOPE is very good. Ambitious, stylish, and with excellent performances all round (and especially Toby Jones), if it's your kind of date movie you'll be talking about it for hours afterwards. Recommended. 

Rupert Jones' KALEIDOSCOPE is out on VOD from Sparky Films on Monday 12th August 2019 and on DVD on Monday September 23rd 2019

Shut In (2017)

        It’s early days but SHUT IN might just win the House of Mortal Cinema 2017 'THE BOY award for Film Most Like One Of Those Old Hammer Psycho Thrillers'. It’s also quite possible that star Naomi Watts will win the 'Sexiest Actress to Perform a Vomiting Into a Toilet Scene While Naked' award, but like I said, it’s only April and there’s plenty of time for others to try for this coveted accolade that I have just made up. Are you listening Scarlett Johansson? After GHOST IN THE SHELL this could be just the thing to get your career back on track. 

         But back to SHUT IN, which is getting a UK DVD and Blu-ray release from Arrow. It’s a French-Canadian co-production in which Naomi plays child psychologist Mary who loses her husband Richard (Peter SAW VI Outerbridge, although he probably prefers not to be called that) in a car accident that paralyses her teenaged stepson Stephen (Charlie Heaton).

         Flash forward the necessary amount of time for Stephen to be back at home and in a wheelchair, spending his days watching the same very fat weatherman on the television for what seems like days on end in his and Mary’s isolated New England home.

         There’s a storm coming that’s going to knock out the power! One of Mary’s patients is a little deaf boy who somehow comes knocking on her door one night, then disappears. Mary starts to hear weird noises. Is she hallucinating? Is there a ghost? Or is there an explanation the likes of which will have fans of Brian Clemens’ THRILLER and old William Castle psycho shockers chuckling with delight? 

         If you’re a fan of the latter then keep watching, because SHUT IN takes a bit of time to get going, but rest assured the climax is satisfyingly barmy. Watts is great, and Oliver Platt (last seen creating those weird bowel monsters in THE MASTER CLEANSE) pops in and out to help progress the plot.
         Arrow’s DVD is bare bones, with no extras. SHUT IN is definitely worth a look if you fancy a suspense thriller to while away a quiet evening. 

SHUT IN is out on PVOD from 24th February 2017 and Blu-ray and DVD from 10th April 2017