Inn of the Frightened People (I) (1971) User Reviews (13)

Revenge: Enjoyable little thriller

[Platypuschow · 7/10 · 19 September 2018]

Revenge goes by a lot of names, After Jenny Died, Behind the Cellar Door, Inn of the Frightened People and Terror from Under the House.

Starring Joan Collins and James Booth this neat little thriller really impressed me.

It tells the story of a young girl who is kidnapped, raped and murdered. Her father along with son and best friend conspire to murder him in an act of revenge but things don't go entirely to plan.

Wonderfully written, this tense thriller may go in a couple of silly needless directions but get's to the point and thoroughly delivers including a fantastic finale.

With a title like Inn of the Frightened People I assumed I was in for a dumb horror, instead Revenge is a a great little thriller that I would solidly recommend.

The Good:

Well written

Great ending

The Bad:

A couple of needless additions to the plot

Some parts stretch the imagination a tad

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Small village pubs have rotating lamps

This movie almost made me want to work in a pub

It can happen in the heat of the moment.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 5 September 2007]

After the funeral of their young daughter, the family learns that the man who was suspected for rape and murder is let go because of the lack of evidence. The father, along with his older son and friend whose daughter was also killed by the same man devise a plan to kidnap and hopefully get the confession out of him. However things turn bad, when one slip after another leads to them turning on each other and having second thoughts that maybe they've got the wrong man.

There's potential there, but the compact, stiff script doesn't really tap into it enough and leaves plenty of the looming heavy-handed themes high and dry. Emotionally the film makes a huge dent, but more so in a bleakly intense and serious tone. The film itself is pretty fundamental and scandalously melodramatic as it rears it ugly head into brusque crudeness. Watching the characters lose control of the situation, and going on to tear each other apart as the misguided kidnapping triggers a disastrous domino effect is strangely gripping and at times rather uneasy. One interesting moment sees an unusual state of sexual tension between two characters, which has you thinking, was there something there before it erupted. Maybe it goes too over-the-top, and in doing so loses some creditability. Sidney Hayers' direction is efficiently workman-like, with little in the way of style, but he manages to draw up a tautly knitted atmosphere and milks out a few ample shocks. The violence and sexual context might not be explicit, but it's gritty and in what matters effective. Ken Hodges' sturdy camera-work is intrusively lensed and Eric Rogers' miss-guided musical score comes off daftly staged. The performances fall into the overacting category, but come off committed. Joan Collins who's no stranger to that tag, is gracefully fine and gives it her all. An edgy James Booth scorns about, and delivers a serviceable job with a complicated character trying to overcome his anger, which eventuates to guilt. Ray Barrett, Tom Marshall, Kenneth Griffith and the gorgeously rich Sinéad Cusack also star with tolerable turns.

There's flaws, but it's decently done to make it a passable cliff-hanger thriller.

Sordid, yes, but fairly compelling.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 14 February 2015]

The reasonably entertaining psychological thriller "Revenge" stars Joan Collins and James Booth as Carol and Jim Radford, a couple grieving over the rape & murder of their youngest child. Due to the insistence of his friend Harry (Ray Barrett) and son Lee (Tom Marshall), Jim ends up kidnapping the man, Seely (Kenneth Griffith), who was accused of the crime but ultimately let go due to insufficient evidence. Jim, a pub owner, keeps Seely in his basement, and this development sparks all kinds of dramatic conflicts between the people in the house, including Lees' girlfriend Rose (the lovely Sinead Cusack) and Jims' daughter Jill (Zuleika Robson).

First off, a word of warning that people suckered in by false advertising, which attempted to sell this as a horror film (!), may be disappointed. (Although the horrors that man is capable of do figure into the plot.) The abduction of Seely merely serves as a catalyst for all the melodrama that results. Particularly of interest is the relationship between Lee and his stepmother Carol. It's likely to amuse some of those in the audience. The movie as a whole is nothing special, but its story (by John Kruse) is absorbing enough to carry it for about 90 minutes.

The acting is generally solid, with Collins cast against type and doing a fine job. Griffith does illicit some sympathy for his character for a while; we're given doubts as to whether the man is actually guilty of such heinous crimes. Cusack is appealing in one of her earliest big screen appearances. Cult director Sidney Hayers ("Burn Witch Burn", "Circus of Horrors") guides things with efficiency if not style; the filmmaking overall is adequate. Effective pacing helps - the opening credits are over very quickly and Hayers wastes no time in getting things started.

Towards the end, you DO start to sense where all of this is going.

Seven out of 10.

Well done, but pretty unpleasant.

[verna55 · 5 November 2000]

Joan Collins stars in this well-crafted British suspense-drama about a grieving family who take the law into their own hands and seek revenge on the man who raped and murdered their young daughter. Sidney Hayers' direction is smooth, the cast(particularly Collins and James Booth) is terrific, and there are some effective shock and suspense sequences, but it's all been done before, and it's pretty dreary and unpleasant stuff.

He is kept in the basement.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 7 May 2011]

The premise of Sidney Hayers underrated "Revenge" is fairly simple:a bereaved family seek brutal revenge on the man who attacked,raped and murdered their daughter.He is kept in the basement,beaten and humiliated.Pretty dreary and somewhat upsetting revenge drama which deals with the themes of child molestation and grief.The acting is believable and there is some suspense.The violence is kept to minimum as is the sleaze,so if you want explicit exploitation flick you will be sorely disappointed.Personally I found this forgotten revenge drama to be intriguing and strangely compelling.Like it or not,you won't forget it.7 basements out of 10.

I'll think of something I'll think of something

[Coventry · 6/10 · 15 January 2017]

When it comes to horror/cult cinema, yours truly is a sucker for two things, namely long & lurid sounding titles and grisly looking vintage film posters! Half of my watch-list exists of films that are purely selected based on these two criteria, and in many cases I never really bothered to properly read what the actual plot is about. Thanks to the title and the poster, this particular movie stood extremely high on my must-see list. Admittedly the official title is the colorless and dull-sounding "Revenge", but there are the two awesome alternate titles "Terror from under the House" and "Inn of the Frightened People", and who could resist the filthy green movie poster with the image of a guy with glasses screaming and plenty of catch words and phrases like "be ready to scream!" or "you may never dare go in the basement again!" Of course I assumed this was a full-blooded horror movie, also because director Sidney Hayers already made a few great ones like "Night of the Eagle" and "Circus of Horrors", but actually this is a stern melodrama dealing with some harrowing themes like pedophilia, grieving over lost children, the hunger for justice but the lack of courage to actually kill, etc.… The film opens dramatically with the Radford family mourning at the funeral of their young teenage daughter. We learn she was killed by a child molester, but the police had to let him go due to lack of evidence. Together with another grieving father and his furious son, Jim Radford kidnaps the slimy and eerie SOB after having observed how he lives like a hermit and stops at the local elementary school to peep at the children. They beat him – Seely – up beyond recognition and keep him stashed in the basement underneath Jim's pub. The situation puts a lot of pressure on the entire family. They don't dare to release him, but neither do they dare to dispose of him for good. Meanwhile, the impact of hiding a pervert in the basement begins to have strange effects on the family relationships, notably between Jim's second wife and her stepson, and then suddenly it's not even sure anymore if Seely is really culpable. This may not have been the horror movie I expected, but it was definitely an uncomfortable and very confronting film to watch. The scenes at the beginning of the film, when the men are stalking the suspect and observing his bizarre behaviors from within the car, are eerily suspenseful and make you wonder (especially if you're a parent as well) how you would react. There are a couple of more powerful sequences, like when Seely awakens from his beating while the pub is full of customers or when Mrs. Radford has to prevent a scheduled beer delivery from happening. The acting performances are astoundingly good as well. Although one of the least flattering roles of her entire career, Joan Collins gives away a stellar performance as Carol Radford; - Jim's second wife. James Booth and Ray Barrett are terrific too, as the vengeful but petrified fathers, but Kenneth Griffith also definitely deserves to get mentioned here. Not only is his role as child molester suspect a very courageous one, he also manages to come across as simultaneously pathetic and weak and yet menacing and dangerous! Unfortunately "Terror from under the House" doesn't remain compelling throughout. The script loses a lot of its pace and impact in the second half, since the story doesn't develop. The lead characters don't make any decisions; in fact, the only thing they keep repeating when asked how to deal with their problem is: "I'll think of something". If you do manage to struggle through the disappointing second half, you'll be rewarded with a more or less strong climax but still you are left behind with the feeling that the film could have been a lot better overall.

I may not agree with it, but I can certainly understand why they did it.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 20 February 2022]

This is a difficult film to like, but it's also a difficult to turn your eyes away from because as reprehensible as what James Booth and his sons due to the alleged rapist and killer of his daughter, if he is indeed guilty, you can't help but feel that he deserves that, or worse. At the beginning of the film, you see Booth and his second wife, Joan Collins, coming out of a funeral, and it turns to be for their only child together. He has children from his first marriage, and her stepdaughter resents her. When you first see the alleged rapist (Kenneth Griffith), he is standing in front of a girl school, obviously looking at them, and that is just creepy. Booth, another friend whose daughter was also killed after being raped and his son track Griffith down and chase him through a tunnel, tossing him in the trunk, beating him up and leaving him dead in their basement. When Collins and the other daughter find out (on separate occasions), they have completely different reactions, and when it comes time to kill Griffith, nobody can make the final move, leaving them open to being discovered.

This is very direct and to the point, with mostly no unnecessary violence outside of what is done to Griffith initially, and a bit later on, just a family in mourning and in crisis, and that second sequence of violence does go a bit too far, resulting in a bizarre twist concerning Collins and stepson Tom Marshall. But the emotional anxiety that this family is feeling could cause any family to go off the deep end, and there is also the wondering if Griffith who doesn't get much to say could indeed not be guilty. It's a thriller about the publuc taking the law into their own hands, filled with a lot of tension and realistic performances by Booth and Collins. It's a hard film to watch, but it's also a plotline that could be ripped off the front headlines. While the title of the American release does indicate elements of horror, it's a different kind of horror, one every family hopes that it never has to go through.

Revenge is best left to smarter people!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 26 September 2018]

"Revenge" (also called "Inn of the Frightened People") is a rather limp thriller. It had the makings of a very good film but muddled writing and irrational characters made this one tough going.

The story begins with a young lady being raped and murdered. Despite the family being pretty certain who it was, the police release the man for a lack of enough evidence. So, a group of friends decide to take the law into their own hands....though these are bumblers who really don't have a plan...especially when it comes to what to do with the guy after they kidnap him. Once he was taken into the basement of a local inn, one of the kidnappers beats the snot out of the guy...but doesn't quite kill him. In fact, here's a problem...no one has the stomach to finish the job....so they leave him locked up down there and hope he just dies on his own. They did NOT tie him up nor gag him....because, after all, they are all idiots.

A few days pass...and during that time the kidnappers all are emotional wrecks. Now this leads to a completely inexplicable portion...the wife of the man who beat the alleged killer/sex offender is raped by one of the gang....and she apparently likes it. And, they do it in front of the injured man in the basement. Why? I have no idea...and that brings me to the biggest problem with the film. They never seemed to have a clear idea where it was all headed...both the cast AND the screenwriter. The ending was very good....but it came way too late and seeing the captors being this stupid and disorganized just didn't make a lot of sense. A miss...and a film that should have been a lot better.

This oft-neglected, emotionally brutalizing British revenge-thriller is ripe for re-discovery!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 30 August 2020]

Stalwart British filmmaker, Sidney Hayers relentlessly raises the teeth-grinding tension to a murderously-fevered pitch in his strikingly brutal, emotionally raw, uniquely British 70s suburban revenge classic, 'Terror in The House aka 'Revenge!'. A young girl is abducted and killed by a vile-minded predator, and once the victim's grief-stricken family furiously enact their righteous revenge they descend inexorably into a dismal existential miasma of blinding rage, bloody retribution and crippling emotional despond! Which is mother's milk to the likes of me!

Director, Hayers coaxes tremendously vivid, full-blooded performances from his singularly game cast of film & TV icons, the scintillatingly sleek Glamourpuss, Joan Collins, and James Booth were rarely better, with esteemed character actor, Kenneth Griffith twitchily putting in a career best as the disgustingly seedy sex-fiend, Seely! This is a long-cherished, excitingly mounted, unflinchingly dark British psychodrama that I never once expected to see so gloriously manifested on Blu-ray, and in this delightfully pristine, lovingly restored version,'Revenge!' is thoroughly deserving of an equally brand new, hopefully no less adoring audience! With an exemplary script by 'Saint' screenwriter, John Kruse, sterling performances, an engagingly grim tone, plus a fine score by, Eric Rogers, this gritty, downbeat 70s thriller remains one remarkably tough thrill-spiller that has lost little of its formidable dramatic impact.

Call for street justice.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 21 August 2022]

Suspected paedophile child-killer Seely (Kenneth Griffith) is released by the police due to insufficient evidence. Pub landlord Jim (James Booth) and Harry (Ray Barrett), the fathers of two of the murdered children, decide to abduct Seely and force a confession from him. Together with Jim's son Lee (Tom Marshall), they bundle the man into their car and take him to the pub, where they push him into the cellar. Things get out of hand, however, and Seely is beaten up by Jim, Harry and Lee, and then strangled by the publican. The men presume Seely to be dead and try to figure out how to dispose of the body, but it later turns out that their victim is still alive, leaving the abductors with the problem of what to do next. Meanwhile, Jim's wife Carol (Joan Collins) discovers the man in the cellar, as does Jim's young daughter Jilly (Zuleika Robson), the situation spiralling more and more out of control.

Revenge starts off in great style, with the tense abduction, brutal beating and apparent killing of Seely, but once this part of is over, the film rapidly runs out of steam, as though the writers didn't know where to go next (at least until the conclusion). The script treads water for a long time, with the characters arguing amongst themselves about how they should handle the problem, whilst trying to keep a couple of pesky policemen at arms length, all of which gets rather repetitive. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is the question of Seely's guillt: is the man in the cellar really a child-killer, or have they got the wrong man? This eventually comes into play in the final act, when Jim comes to believe that Seely is innocent and tries to make amends... at least until he leaves the man in the pub alone, and Jilly's pretty friend Lucy comes a-calling...

Moderately violent, with some cheap titillation from Collins (the actress appearing in her underwear), Revenge is a passable piece of British sensationalism/exploitation, but I couldn't help but feel that director Sidney Hayers could have pushed the boat out further with the overall grittiness.

Derivative and predictable

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 8 December 2019]

This film starts out at a fair pace,but then the writer must have run out of fresh ideas and cobbled together the rest of the lcklustre plot.What is very strange is that top starred Joan Collins disappears well before the end.

rather lurid tale and it was always going to leave something of a bad taste anyway

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 30 June 2019]

Surprisingly, upon watching this, I found that I had never seen it before and that it was most enjoyable, if a little distasteful. The locations, shops and house and pub interiors are most evocative and if some are sets they are very good ones. Joan Collins is also surprisingly good but then she really only has to play at being a barmaid. Gripping from the start, this is a really well paced and intelligently told thriller. Things lurch a little two thirds in but by then we have bought into the rather lurid tale and it was always going to leave something of a bad taste anyway, with little girls being taken on their way to school, so what harm a little incest along the way. Just as the film seems to be loosing pace we have a surprisingly and confrontational ending that leaves you wondering just who the intended audience was for this. Well worth a watch for the open minded.

Only the smart ones find the truth, fools seek Revenge!

[GOWBTW-5STARreviewer · 9/10 · 18 December 2022]

No one can heal after the death of a loved one. A family are trying to move on after the rape and murder of a daughter.

When the man arrested for the crime is released, the father and son, along with a companion stalk and captured the suspected killer. They beat him to a pulp, and lock him in the cellar of the pub.

While the family aren't sure what to do with him. They are too angry and too scared at the same time. They did torture him, but too scared to kill him.

I like this movie. It's like "Psycho", only tamer.

The question is, "Who is the youngest daughter's killer?" When the newspaper says that the real killer was caught, the family realized that it wasn't the one they thought they tortured. But was he really an innocent man?

It's a story of who is the killer.

A mystery to one who wants to know.

Watch the movie and you decide.

5 stars.