source: Symptoms

Tonight I am watching "Symptoms." What symptoms we're looking for exactly - madness, Covid, or starvation - I don't know? I'm guessing this'll be some artsy slowburner? Two lesbians drive on a secluded Evil Dead road to some vomit colored house, out in the middle of northern England, to set the timer on a father clock and frolic around like the little free spirits that they are. The 2 birds sit around sipping tea, smoking cigs, and pretty much just talking about everyday mundane crap as the camera keeps focusing on some arm wrestler woman in a photo frame, who looks like an ice road trucker. Rowing up the Thames river some ships first mate charts a course to nowhere as Squeaky Fromme enters a chemist in Bristol and looks frightened. She's full of indecision and self doubt, just like this movie's direction. Lost in the wilderness the 2 sisters of the ya ya hood venture off into the woods in search of mushrooms and other hidden wonders but they steal a boat and are preyed upon by popeye's first mate. Hmm. The 2 birds sit around making origami while the deckhand prowls around in search of more cadavers to add to his dead animal collection. First thing next morning he rows upstream again to nowhere. (Row row row your boat.) Squeaky Fromme hears voices and frightens herself some more. She proves to the viewer that she's not the full quid as she clings to a doll and stares into space while rocking back and forth. A Lady Tenor moment sees the 2 birds go bicycle riding around the exclusive English countryside until one of them is stabbed in the dark leaving the one with mental issues in charge. She stores Annie Lennox' corpse upstairs as an offering which induces the ice road trucker to appear? (Your guess is as good as mine.) Hyacinth, from "Keeping up Appearances," shows up being a nosey parker sleuth Rendell wannabe, while elsewhere the deckhand rows downstream again to fill in time, then Clark Kent appears out of a phone booth, lost without his costume and no cause to fight, so he goes in search of Annie Lennox, who's rotting upstairs waiting to be discovered. Squeaky Fromme goes all 187 on Clark Kent for trespassing as the deckhand rows his boat some more and discovers a Green River killer victim in shallow murky water. He keeps his new find in the basement as a prized trophy as Annie Lennox mummifies elsewhere. Squeaky Fromme inherits Jack The Rippers genes fleetingly and slashes the deckhand to pieces leaving four bodies to rot in the vomit colored manor. Movie's conclusion sees Mr. Magoo, and the chemist crew, do a welfare check on the vomit house and they discover Squeaky Fromme staring into space and bawling her eyes out as the deckhand and ice road trucker makeout down below even though they're both dead? And the movie just ends. And you've just wasted an hour and a half of your life.

A young woman (Heilbron) goes to stay with eccentric Pleasence in her vast English manor. Grumpy Peter Vaughn is the estate handyman who, like Heilbron is aware that all is not as it should be, driven by the existence or not of the mysterious character - Cora. Very slow, atmospheric and Turn of the Screw influenced mystery that is possibly a little too slow and atmospheric, but a noble effort worth catching as it does have a few surprises and Rita Tushingham is ideally cast as the bizarre Helen.

This film relies very much upon its tiny cast, so the importance of its casting cannot be underestimated. Spanish Director José Ramón Larraz, the often volatile personality who went on to direct cult classic 'Vampyres' the same year, selected an ensemble that could hardly have been bettered. Considered a lost film since its last showing on television in 1983, this carefully paced, deeply atmospheric tale is only beginning to find a new level of appreciation since its rediscovery. Peter Vaughn, often cast as 'heavies' at the time, is quietly menacing as Brady, the 'odd job man'. Lorna Leilbron, who was so good in 'The Creeping Flesh' plays Anne, eminently sensible and unflappable. And, providing her usual extraordinary performance, Angel Pleasance plays Helen, who lives in her huge inherited estate in the middle of secluded English countryside, convalescing from some undisclosed breakdown and yet still clearly suffering. Whilst not quite as other-worldly as she was in 'From Beyond the Grave' earlier in the year, her more subtle playing of quiet madness reveals itself as the story plays on. The direction is sedate and restrained by Larraz's standards, yet drenched in doomy, sinister atmosphere. Even a scene as seemingly innocent as Helen sitting alone in the spacious living room, darkened by the heavy clouds outside, the windows buffeted by the storm, is oppressive and unnerving. The story-line is thin and it comes as a huge non-surprise to find the deranged killer on Anne and other sundry characters is Helen. And yet the fact that Brady is too obviously a red herring (although hardly unimpeachable) doesn't disappoint because Pleasance plays it so fascinatingly well.

'Symptoms' is an awkward and obtusely constructed film on emotional isolation and sexual disharmony between people which uses forms of psychological horror to build an uneasy tonality from many small narrative deviations and pockets of suggestive information. Needless to say mad, insane, rabid and dissolute homicidal violence eventually manifests, and it manifests upon plenty of assembled characters. 'Symptoms' is certainly a film to enjoy and savour the taste of and not one to eat in and feel hearty, heavy nourishment. Form and style take precedence over function and substance; however in its mood and tonality, so carefully achieved there is a great value. In the dirty and dingy world of mouldy and autumnal decay and decline, in the offset and isolated characters and in the always heavily suggested mental illness and sexual dissonance of the lead character played by Angela Pleasance this film builds an insane and unsanitary tonal mood piece. I rate a high 6/10 and I'd recommend this film to fans of morbidity and psychological slashers in their films. Also to fans of 70's British horror in general.

The symptoms: Fatigue - sufferers will experience prolonged periods of drowsiness and lethargy due to a plodding pace and an emphasis on atmosphere over action. Irritability - as the uneventful plot drags on, expect to feel ill-tempered with a low mood. Confusion - the meandering story may lead to bewilderment and disorientation; this will clear about a minute from the end of the film, to be replaced by shock (at the realisation that you've wasted an hour-and-a-half of your time on this rubbish). Symptoms, from director José Ramón Larraz, is a Repulsion-style study of descent into madness, but with none of Polanski's film-making acumen. Angela Pleasence (Donald's daughter) plays the Catherine Deneuve role, a young woman called Helen who is recovering from a mental breakdown. She invites her friend Anne (Lorna Heilbron) to spend some time with her at her sprawling country estate. While there, Helen begins to relapse, and Anne becomes concerned that there might be someone else in the house. Can creepy odd job man Brady (Peter Vaughan) shed some light on events? Larraz's plot introduces some mystery around the disappearance of another of Helen's friends, Cora, but it really isn't all that engaging, and after the brutal murder of Anne (in a Psycho-style twist), it's pretty obvious what has happened. The abrupt ending will come as little surprise. 3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for Pleasence, who is wonderfully creepy and convincingly crazy.

the plot is paper thin but what it lacks in story it makes up for in good acting, excellent cinema photography like visual poetry, and a creepy moody atmosphere. I watched it in black and white and it looked beautiful.. I may watch again in color just to compare. This is the kind of movie that needs to be remade.. fix some of the clunky dialog and establish a more cohesive story arc.. but then again the feeling of being lost as to what exactly was happening on screen is part of this movie's charm.

Symptoms (1974) *** (out of 4) After spending time away from home, Helen (Angela Pleasence) decides to return to her country estate and she brings along her friend Anne (Lorna Heilbron). It doesn't take too long for Anne to realize that there's some secret that Helen is hiding. As the film moves along we start to realize that there's something supernatural or psychological going on. Director Joseph Larraz's SYMPTOMS is a film that was released to Cannes and got a few positive reviews but the film pretty much disappeared outside of that. Over the decades people spoke highly of the film but it was nearly impossible to actually find it. In truth, the majority of people had never even heard of it. With that in mind, it's rather shocking to see that the picture actually lives up to the hype. This film contains elements of Polanski's REPULSION as well as Hitchcock's PSYCHO. The lead character is quite an interesting one because she's just so strange and has such a blank look to her eyes that you can just feel that something is haunting her. What makes the film work so well is that we don't know if she's really being haunted by something supernatural or if it is all in her mind. The director perfectly builds up a very strange atmosphere and the back and forth elements of what's really going on perfectly plays out. The film also benefits to some shocking violence. Not shocking as in gory or over-the-top but instead it usually comes out of nowhere and catches you off guard. As I said, some of these seem influenced by the "shock" murders in PSYCHO but it plays out very well here. The performances are also quite good with Pleasence, the daughter of Donald, really shining in a very laid back and quiet role. I really thought she did a fabulous job at showing that damage this character has had done to her. Heilbron is also good in her supporting part as is Peter Vaughn. SYMPTOMS isn't a shock fest or in-your-face and fast-paced horror movie. It takes its slow, sweet time building up the character, the atmosphere and the outcome. It's certainly not going to be a film to appeals to everyone but it's certainly well-made and entertaining.

Jose Larraz's Symptoms has atmosphere to spare: shot in a decaying manor house in the fecund British countryside, there's nary a set-up that doesn't feature dust, rising damp, shadows, or rain. It also features a truly excellent performance by Angela Pleasence as Helen Ramsay, the flower frail owner-occupier of the manor, as well as solid support from gorgeous Lorna Heilbron as her friend Anne. Unfortunately, the story itself is as predictable as can be, confirming all the worst suspicions you probably conjured up during the first reel. That said, this is a film in dire need of a DVD release: the only available source material is a wretched Belgian VHS tape with colours that drop in and out at random, hideous reel change markers, and poor image resolution that blurs much of the action and makes the interior sequences a chore to sit through. I'm giving it a 5 for now, but I suspect a nice pin-sharp digital restoration would reveal a film more worthy of a 6 or 7.

Helen (Angela Pleasance) is a flakey sort of woman and she invites her friend Anne (Lorna Heilbron) to stay with her on her estate. The atmosphere is quite dreary and weird....and for so much of the movie, absolutely NOTHING happens apart from Helen staring off into space and acting kooky. Then, out of the blue, she murders Anne. Well, it's about time, as the movie already was about half over before ANY action occurred! What's next? Well, it all depends on whether you have the patience to finish the picture! "Symptoms" has the ability to convey horror and dread well...much like "Suspiria". But it also drags so much that when action does occur, it's simply too late....you're bored and the film hasn't gained any sort of momentum. Simply put, there are MANY horror films out there that will give you frights and not bore you to tears, like this one. You could easily do better.