The Fiend

The Fiend (1972) Dir. Robert Hartford-Davies. Written by Brian Comport. Starring Ann Todd, Patrick Magee, Tony Beckley,

Could it be that I'm finally losing interest in early seventies horrors; that the "Kensington Gore" has finally reached saturation point? "The Fiend" should be a favourite of mine; there are murders a plenty, Patrick MaGee in full-on weirdo-priest mode, seventies dolly-birds, choice dialogue: "Get off your fat arse!" "Charming! Not so much of the fat arse!". And Camp Freddie from The Italian Job as a mother-fixated, religious-zealot, swimming instructor. There are a few knocked-off references to "Peeping Tom" and the soundtrack is surprisingly funky.

So why did I find it so...meh? Well, the story didn't really go anywhere. Freddie is a nutter for no obvious reason; some bits of business about his mum and dad. Well I'm sorry but you don't see Bruce Wayne carrying on like that! There are extended and tedious parallel scenes between the swimming pool and the baptismal font. The police, personified by always delightful David Hodge, show up and do nothing. The two sisters at the centre of the plot, a nurse and an investigative journalist, are poorly sketched at best and the resolution seems to be a bit self consciously "controversial".

And of course every girl who dies in the film, and they're all girls, dies with her tits out. I think maybe I'm just getting tired of the casual despatching of blameless women, that seems to have no consequence other than a newspaper headline or a radio report. A blonde girl in a short skirt in a 1970's film is a juicy big-eyed cow wandering blithely into an abattoir. One of the victims actually ends up on a hook in a meat-locker; discovered by a courting butcher* and his fancy-piece. No wonder they had a three day weeks in the seventies - who wants to empty the bins or bury the dead when you could be having a squalid fumble by a side of pork?

Still the music is very good. Music to kill girls by.


*the most un-erotic words in the English language are "Courting Butcher"