Review of Fanatic (1965) by Kate S — 19 Oct 2007

This movie about a woman paying a visit to her dead fiance's mother tries so, so hard to be a suspenseful thriller. It succeeds part way, and nicely ups the skin-crawling creepiness factor with a dark, gloomy house and a sexually predatory handyman preying on Stefanie Powers.

By the end, when Tallulah Bankhead's frail old Mrs. Trefoile is left alone to hold Stefanie Powers' young, headstrong Patricia captive, it's beyond any possible reason why Patricia doesn't simply overpower the old woman.

I can't stretch suspension of disbelief quite that far. But you can't really expect much more from a Hammer film. This belongs to a sort of subgenre of psychological thrillers with hostage themes.

Within this theme, I much prefer The Collector with Terence Stamp, also from 1965. Bonus points for Donald Sutherland in one of his first film appearances in a seriously campy performance as a slow witted groundskeeper, though!