10 Vintage British Horror Films You Can't Afford To Miss

6. Frightmare (1974)

Frightmare Dorothy Yates has just been released from a mental institution where she was held for killing and cannibalising people. Her devoted husband Edmund was convicted too, but he just pretended to be mad so he could look after her. Dorothy has relapsed in spectacular fashion. She invites people to her isolated farm house for a tarot reading and a cup of tea and soon she is chomping down on their brains. Jackie (Edmund's daughter from a previous marriage) suspects what is going on, but she is trying to control Debbie (Dorothy and Edmund's daughter) who is running wild with biker gangs. Debbie wants to know where Jackie keeps disappearing to. When she finds out it is her parents, Debbie flees to their house with her boyfriend Alex. Dorothy, ecstatic to be reunited with Debbie - who is a chip off the old cannibal block - schemes with her daughter on how to punish Jackie for keeping them apart. I was very well behaved in this article because I only included one Pete Walker movie in the list, when I could have crammed the list to the gills with his films. He exemplifies British exploitation horror in the 1970s and managed to crack out several pieces of genius like House of Whipcord and Schizo. Walker is greatly helped in making Frightmare so awesome by David McGillivray, a veteran exploitation scriptwriter whose work was a distinct cut above the average. It is a genuinely creepy and disturbing film with Sheila Keith giving a complex portrayal of Dorothy's character - not just playing her as a mad old biddie, but adding genuine pathos to her role - she makes her cannibalising look like a legitimate past time! Rupert Davies also turns in an excellent performance as Edmund, Dorothy's soft hearted, devoted husband who is incapable of stopping her cannibalistic antics. The fashion may be a little dated in the film, but the movie itself, is one of the finest horror films made in Britain.
Contributor
Contributor

My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!