A Canadian film starring Margot (Lois Lane) Kidder and Olivia (Juliet)Hussey.
All I knew before watching was that this film pre-dates Halloween and Friday 13th and is sometimes referred to as the first slasher.
Set in a sorority house and based on an archetypal horror story the film hangs together quite well. It's not as gory as its later counterparts and the body count is lower but there are plenty of creeps provided by the 'prank' phonecalls being made to the girls at the house.
These phonecalls include mumbling, squealing, screaming, panting and schizoid voice changes with an unnatural urgency. If I was getting these calls? I would be sleeping with on eye open.
The tension in the house escalates when one of the girls goes missing and another is found dead in a local park. Pretty young Jess (Hussey) seems to be bearing the brunt of the calls and after she upsets her boyfriend he begins to behave erratically causing the finger of suspicion to point his way.
The film takes its time. It's not just a sequence of murders strung together. Despite the patchy acting, some of the characters are quite interesting and Hussey is oddly watchable. As we approach the climax I do actually care - who is the killer? What's the twist? Did the boyfriend do it??
We see the inevitable call from the police. Having traced the prank calls they tell Jess that they've been coming from...inside the house! Shock! Horror! Jess knows she should leave the house but her friends are still upstairs, what to do? She narrowly escapes and hides from the monster awaiting the final showdown. In the whole film to this point we have yet to see this psychotic maniac killer.
The close is perfect, some will disagree, but I liked it. Beautifully subdued and quiet. Open ended in the way of a good scary story (before the franchise era made us groan at the end of every sequel).
I enjoyed it but it didn't move me so it's getting a 6/10.
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