AND SOON THE DARKNESS (1970) ...lost in France

AND SOON THE DARKNESS

(1970, UK)

Tense thriller from a 'dream team' of cast and crew

Region 1 NTSC DVD (Anchor Bay)

An unusual title for thriller in an unsual setting. Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice play two friends on a cycling holiday in the French countryside. The girls cross paths with a mysterious stranger, and soon afterwards get seperated. Michele thinks she's being watched. But when Pamela tries to find her again, she can't... either they keep missing each other, or there is a mystery here, and the local people (those who talk English) talk about other local disappearances...

Well, I've just rewatched Blind Terror (reviewed here), so this is a good companion film, also written by Brian Clemens. Like Blind Terror, there's a long set-up, letting the atmosphere build, and never telegraphing to the audience where the story will go next.

Again, I was first frightened by this film as a teenager. But while the shocks no longer have the same effect, it's still intriguing, capturing the atmosphere of a hot continental summer. There's a hundred films where people are stranded in the unwelcoming wilderness of middle America, but how many are set in rural France?

With Brian Clemens writing and producing, Robert Fuest directing, and Laurie Johnson composing, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was from The Avengers TV production team, (the series had just been cancelled). Together, they successfully make a Hitchockian thriller, inverting the setting of a psycho-thriller from a cliched storm-drenched, haunted house into sunlit open fields, like the famous cropduster scene in North by Northwest.

Talking on the DVD commentary track, Clemens must have had a lousy holiday in France to inspire the menace of the deserted roads and the unfriendly locals. All the French spoken in the film remains untranslated (by subtitles), siding us with the English holidaymaker. We are as much in the dark as she is.

TV transmission screengrab - 4:3 aspect,

before it gets cropped, top and bottom, for the widescreen DVD

Perfectly cast, Michele Dotrice and Pamela Franklin both look great in hotpants (extremely short shorts). Franklin was already a horror veteran, starring first in The Innocents (1960) and The Nanny (1965) as a child star, and was soon to appear in the classic The Legend of Hell House (1973) as a sensitive psychic. Oh and let's not forget she was later in the fairly awful The Food of the Gods (1976), a sign that her film career was slowing down - what a terrible waste. I'll even watch her in non-horror roles - she's such an interesting actress.

Michele Dotrice (daughter of actor Roy), is better known in the UK as a sitcom star, but had also done horror, in Hammer's The Witches (1966) and would soon appear in Blood on Satan's Claw (1971).

Screengrab from DVD - 16:9 aspect
(from Movie Title Screens)

The late Sandor Eles plays one of the many suspicious characters roaming around the countryside, appearing here between his two famous Hammer horror roles, The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Countess Dracula (1971). Like most of the main cast, British actors at this time couldn't afford to turn their noses up at TV work or horror films. Sandor's Hungarian accent restricting him to playing villains and 'foreign' types.

Director Robert Fuest is always interesting, pushing for unusual but effective cinematography, set design and story ideas. Here there aren't many sets, but he uses the locations marvellously, constantly achieving dramatic effects with subtle lighting and framing. He was the perfect choice as a director for many episodes of The Avengers, and his next few films are among my favourite ever - The Abominable Dr Phibes, Dr Phibes Rises Again, The Final Programme and The Devil's Rain - all currently available on DVD.

I'm sure that the music is supposed to remind us of Hitchcock, but for most of the film it kept reminding me of The Avengers, until the movie builds up to the intense climax, and Laurie Johnson complements the action with unique and eerie sounds.

The film still looks good and has barely dated at all. A psycho-thriller made before the genre depended on too many cliches.

Screengrab of a 4:3 TV transmission -
Michele Dotrice before she got her bike cropped off!

The region 1 DVD is framed 16:9, but the 1.33 aspect I'm used to seeing on British TV looks better (unmatted). For example, some scenes of the girls cycling are so tight that you sometimes can't see they're on a bike - surely not intended. But the DVD has a great bonus commentary track with both Clemens and Fuest. Clemens' 'necrophiliac' comment is a classic! There's a good trailer too.

At the moment, you can watch the trailer here on YouTube..., or click on the above image to watch it right here.

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