Wednesday 25 April 2012

Voices (aka Nightmare) 1973



If you can watch a very old, cut down for TV version that was uploaded from VHS, you might enjoy this. It betrays its origin as a stage play, and is very much a two-hander, with good performances from Hemmings and Hunnicut. But while most of the movie is okay, the last ten minutes or so take it to a new level and make it a genuinely effective ghost story. And yes, perhaps it was intended to cash in on Don't Look Now, but it takes a very different direction.

3 comments:

Sam said...

This seems to be a remake of the 1970 ITV Armchair Theatre play The Others, which I saw as a child and never forgot - and hence will forever see the twist in films like The Sixth Sense in the first minutes - not to mention Alejandro Almenabar's The Others, which I think lifted the story wholesale and which makes me hope that somewhere he has admitted the debt he owes to that earlier production.

valdemar said...

It certainly betrays its 'stagey' origins. I didn't think of The Others, but you're right, of course. It would be interesting to find an earlier example of that particular twist.

Astronomer's Wife said...

I watched the original Armchair Theatre version as a kid too -it was so scary I can still remember it - the ending was scripted slightly differently I recall! I'd love to track down the 1970 version.

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