6. Straight On Till Morning (1972)
Straight on Till Morning is a little seen and little remembered Hammer Horror film that was very different to all of its supernatural brethren, mainly because it was firmly rooted in real life. Rita Tushingham plays the usual kitchen sink drama role of Brenda, a young and dopey girl from up North who has got herself pregnant. She decides to move to London to find a father for her baby. Cue lots of shots of hip, swinging London. Brenda moves in with Caroline, but is lonely. She finds a dog roaming the street one day and returns it to Peter, its owner. He asks her to move in with him and the silly girl agrees. Now she has a babydaddy. Little does she know Peter is a murderous psychopath... Straight on Till Morning is a very hectic film - there is motion and action a go go every minute of the film, almost like director Peter Collinson was on an amphetamine binge whenever he edited it. There are no characters we can identify with - not even Brenda, as she is just far too dumb. There are not buckets of blood thrown at the screen, the shocks are few and they are all the more effective and disturbing for it. The main reason why the film is disturbing is the realism of the ending and the refusal to make things happy and cheery. It is very depressing but if the story played out like that in real life, that is probably what would happen. The downbeat ending probably contributed to the film's obscurity.