Now here's a rarity: a '60s-era slasher movie and the one and only horror film from the Boulting Brothers, a director/producer combo better known for making genteel comedies. And what a joy it turns out to be! Best known today as the film featuring the eerily whistled tune that Tarantino borrowed for KILL BILL (thank you, Bernard Herrmann!), Twisted Nerve is an engaging portrait of a psychopath that turns out to be every bit the film that PSYCHO is. How strange, then, that it seems to be virtually forgotten.
Hywel Bennett stars as Martin Durnley, a baby-faced youth suffering from the titular affliction. This, truly, is the performance of a lifetime; a frightening portrayal of a seemingly normal and friendly young man who adopts a separate personality to get close to the object of his obsession, Hayley Mills (and you can't blame him: all grown up from her days as a child actor, Miss Mills is extremely lovely). The ensuing plot is one of those 'cuckoo in the nest' stories used in the likes of everything from THE GODSEND to ORPHAN; Durnley worms his way into the life of an ordinary household before going on to wreak chaos.
The packaging and advertising for this film makes it look like a slasher film in the vein of Friday the 13th, but it really isn't. Indeed, this film is so subtle as to be sublime. There are few murders on show, and the violence is mostly kept off screen. Instead, the scriptwriters emphasise the deranged personality of his villain so that this becomes nothing less than a character study of a psychopath, both believable and chilling. The film is beautifully shot and laced with fine performances from Barry Foster (brash), Billie Whitelaw (seductive) and Frank Finlay (pompous). I've seen most British horror films but this one always slipped me by; now I've finally got around to watching it, it's gone to the top of my list as one of the best of all time.
Hywel Bennett stars as Martin Durnley, a baby-faced youth suffering from the titular affliction. This, truly, is the performance of a lifetime; a frightening portrayal of a seemingly normal and friendly young man who adopts a separate personality to get close to the object of his obsession, Hayley Mills (and you can't blame him: all grown up from her days as a child actor, Miss Mills is extremely lovely). The ensuing plot is one of those 'cuckoo in the nest' stories used in the likes of everything from THE GODSEND to ORPHAN; Durnley worms his way into the life of an ordinary household before going on to wreak chaos.
The packaging and advertising for this film makes it look like a slasher film in the vein of Friday the 13th, but it really isn't. Indeed, this film is so subtle as to be sublime. There are few murders on show, and the violence is mostly kept off screen. Instead, the scriptwriters emphasise the deranged personality of his villain so that this becomes nothing less than a character study of a psychopath, both believable and chilling. The film is beautifully shot and laced with fine performances from Barry Foster (brash), Billie Whitelaw (seductive) and Frank Finlay (pompous). I've seen most British horror films but this one always slipped me by; now I've finally got around to watching it, it's gone to the top of my list as one of the best of all time.