Necromancy (1972)

Necromancy. A look at the darkest corners of humanity. Necromancy. A terrifying journey through the history of witchcraft and sorcery. Necromancy. Orson Welles! Necromancy. You won't believe what sights are shown in this horrifying feature. Necromancy. Unlike anything you could ever imagine. And so on.

Necromancy is a film that I built up in my own mind for decades, having seen the trailer for it on so many VHS rentals back in the 1980s. I "knew" two things about it. It was a horror movie. It featured Orson Welles. Only now, an entire four decades later, can I categorically state that it's also really bad.

Pamela Franklin plays Lori Brandon, a sensitive and troubled woman who has to move across the country with her husband, Frank (Michael Ontkean), when he's given a great new job offer. Lori has good reason to be sensitive and troubled, having very recently lost a child who was stillborn, and everything that happens throughout the rest of the movie seems designed to play on her maternal instincts, especially when it comes to the eccentric Cato (Welles) detailing his pursuit of necromancy in the hope of one day resurrecting his dead son, Timothy.

Directed by Bert I. Gordon (who made his name with much more outlandish, and entertaining, movies that earned him the nickname Mr. BIG), and co-written with Gail March (her first feature, and one of only two she is credited for), Necromancy is a bit silly and, worst of all, a bit dull. It's one of those movies trying to impress by showing the dark arts juxtaposed with modern life in America, although these things often still take place in the more isolated communities, but makes the mistake of going for hallucinatory moments and paranoia ahead of paranoia and suffocation. The third act is particularly weak, and that's surely when things should have been building up to something as dark and memorable as we were promised by that foreboding and chilling trailer (well, it seemed foreboding and chilling to the child version of me, but now it actually looks pretty much in line with the film, and I know why we didn't rush to rent it).

Franklin tries her best in a role that requires her to be on edge and wide-eyed throughout, but she's not helped by the fact that the movie cannot be carried by anyone else. Ontkean doesn't have a lot to do once he's set off the main chain of events, Teddy Quinn has to walk around and look a bit dazed as the spirit of Timothy, and Welles acts as if he will give his all for one take of every line he has to utter before then sitting down to snort with derision at the schlock he's agreed to star in for the sake of a (hopefully) decent pay packet. 

Necromancy is not good. It's probably already forgotten, if it was known at all, by the majority of film fans. It held a special place in my heart for years though, and I can't say that I fully regret finally tracking it down to give it a watch. It feels as if I managed to revisit a childhood home and find some long-lost favourite toy that I can now see was just a dirt-covered and mangled Boglin I found in a field. Nobody, including myself, can pretend it is great, but nostalgia means that I cannot completely dismiss the effect it had on me.

4/10

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The Nanny (1965)

The Nanny is a great film, one of the very best to ever come from Hammer Studios, in my opinion. It deserves to be up there with Peeping Tom and The Innocents, it's such a fine psychological horror/drama.

Bette Davis gives the greatest performance of her career without any of the eye-rolling or razor-sharp dialogue that we've become accustomed to (and that is always thoroughly enjoyable) as she plays the titular character, an elderly woman locked in a battle of wills with a small boy named Joey (William Dix). Joey has been away from home for two years, after his younger sister tragically died in the household bathtub, and returns with the same bad attitude he went away with. He blames everything on the nanny and sets out to remove her power at every turn.

What is the reality of the situation? An evil young lad forcing an elderly woman to squirm under his fist or a manipulative old woman doing her best to silence her young charge? The movie is impressively ambiguous for the first hour or so until we get to a finale that manages to shock, disturb and churn a stomach more effectively than many of the most modern releases.

An incredibly brave, complex psychological horror, this movie unsettles in almost every scene, whether it's due to the behaviour of an unruly child or watching a sad mother (played by Wendy Craig) revert to a state more childish than her own son. The supporting cast - including Jill Bennett, James Villiers and Pamela Franklin - are solid but this really boils down to an amazing two-hander between a petulant child and . . . for the love of God . . . BETTE DAVIS! Hard to believe that this movie was released by "the studio that dripped blood" and even harder to believe that many people may be unfamiliar with it.

Director Seth Holt treats the material well, but he's given a flying start by the fantastic script from Jimmy Sangster (adapting the novel by Marryam Modell). What starts off as a look at a stiff, unsympathetic family unit with a brat at its core slowly but surely turns into something mesmerising, tense and also quite sad. See this film as soon as you can, it's an absolute classic.

NB - the ONLY reason I don't give the movie a perfect 10/10 score is because of my gut instinct to Joey's brattish behaviour in the first half of the movie.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Nanny-DVD-Bette-Davis/dp/B000KRMZPG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369042213&sr=8-1&keywords=the+nanny

And Soon The Darkness (1970)

Directed by Robert Fuest, and written by Brian Clemens and Terry Nation (familiar to fans of some classic UK TV shows), And Soon The Darkness stars Pamela Franklin and Michele Dotrice as, respectively, Jane and Cathy. The two young girls are enjoying a cycling holiday in France and taking in the sights around them, with Jane enjoying the countryside while Cathy eyes up the men. The two girls argue, however, and Jane heads off to spend some time on her own. When she returns it seems that Cathy is missing. But where is she, who is she with and is she safe? Perhaps Paul (Sandor Eles) can be of help, though he is acting slightly suspicious. Maybe the gendarme (John Nettleton) would be the better option.

Far from a perfect thriller, And Soon The Darkness will be viewed by fans of the genre more as a curio piece than a wholly satisfying piece of work. It certainly starts off feeling like many of the groovy Britflicks that came from the preceding decade but then quickly starts to build up some nice tension and a great evocation of being a stranger in a strange land.

In fact, I'd argue that few films have really nailed that feeling of utter helplessness in a foreign country as this one has. A holiday is about taking in the sights, having fun and using what little language you may know to get by. When an emergency occurs it's made ten times worse by realising just how out of your depth you may be.

The script by Clemens and Nation is okay, the performances aren't bad (Franklin does better than Dotrice while Eles and Nettleton are both very good) and the direction is solid but everything comes together somehow to lift the film from average to pretty damn good. As Pamela Franklin grows more and more panicked and vulnerable, the film really takes hold and it becomes easier and easier to empathise with someone in such a horrible situation.

Of course, the movie is quite dated nowadays (though it was given a decent update with a 2010 remake) and has lost some power but when watching it do try to remember that, even in 1970, travelling abroad was a much bigger deal and a much riskier venture than it is these days. Journeys took a lot longer, there weren't any translation or map apps to help and even just hopping over to France was a big deal and an adventure. The film captures all of that perfectly, and that makes it well worth checking out.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/And-Soon-The-Darkness-DVD/dp/B000N3T2NU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345762326&sr=8-1