Film Review
By the time
Hysteria was
released in the summer of 1965, the psycho-thriller genre had pretty
well run its course and Hammer's association with the genre would end
abruptly with its next film,
The Nanny (1965), allowing the
company to concentrate on its still popular run of Gothic horror films
and similar lurid fantasies. Hammer would make a belated return
to the genre in 1970 with
Crescendo, just as the
company's future was starting to look decidedly uncertain. Not
content with reworking the plot of Hammer's previous psycho-thrillers,
most visibly
Maniac (1963),
Hysteria also includes a shameless
nod to the film that set the genre bandwagon in motion, Hitchcock's
Psycho
(1960), with a shower stabbing scene.
Let down by its formulaic plot,
Hysteria
is the last and least interesting of the three psycho-thrillers
directed for Hammer by Freddie Francis, who had previously
distinguished himself with two of the genre's best entries,
Paranoiac
(1963) and
Nightmare (1964) before lending
his talents to rival company Amicus on the memorable
The Skull (1965) and horror
anthology films such as
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965).
Francis's attempts to capture the spirit of 'Swinging Sixties' London
anticipates Michelangelo Antonioni's
Blow-Up
(1966) and gives the film a stylish modernity that was mostly missing
from Hammer's films of the 1960s. In a desperate attempt to
breathe life into a flagging genre, screenwriter Jimmy Sangster
over-complicates the plot with the help of an extended flashback
sequence that does more to confuse than clarify the muddled
narrative. For all the wilful obfuscation, the ending is almost
entirely predictable, with the result that, despite some creditable
acting and direction,
Hysteria
is the least satisfying of Hammer's thrillers. The first run of
psycho-thrillers ended where it began, with a woman, a shower, a knife
and a maniac.
© James Travers 2015
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Freddie Francis film:
The Deadly Bees (1967)
Film Synopsis
A man wakes up in a London hospital suffering from complete mental
blackout. He has no idea who he is or how he came to end up in
this condition. Named Chris Smith by Dr Keller, the surgeon who
has been treating him for the past few months, he only knows that he
was involved in a car accident and that an anonymous benefactor is
paying for his medical treatment. Leaving the hospital, he moves
into a luxury apartment provided for him by his benefactor, whose
identity he tries to uncover with the help of a private
detective. The only clue to his past is the photograph of an
unidentified woman found in his possession at the time of the car
crash. When he catches a glimpse of the woman around London his
attempts to catch up with her prove futile. When he shows the
photograph to the man who took it he is told that the woman, a model,
has recently been murdered. Chris then begins hearing strange
noises from the partially renovated apartment next-door to his.
On entering the apartment he finds a bloody knife beside a running
shower. He is half-convinced he is going out of his mind when the
woman in the photograph suddenly presents herself to him and reveals
that she is his mysterious benefactor...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.