JP Nunez
I grew up watching old-school horror the way normal kids watch Disney movies. In fact, I’ve still never seen The Lion King, Pocahontas, or Beauty and the Beast in their entirety, but I recite the plots of films like Frankenstein, Psycho, and Creature from the Black Lagoon in my sleep. I just adore those black-and-white genre classics, so when I heard about Fright, it immediately became one of my most anticipated films at this year’s FrightFest. It was billed as a loving homage to ‘50s and ‘60s horror, and my inner child couldn’t wait to check it out.
Fright was written and directed by Warren Dudley, and it stars Gwyneth Evans, Jill Priest, and Daniel Tuite. The movie centers around Emily, a young woman who’s about to turn 18, but unlike most of her peers, she’s not going to celebrate her passage into womanhood. Emily suffers from extreme agoraphobia, so she’s psychologically unable to step foot outside her house or even open the front door.
Her condition makes her feel like she’s spent her entire life in a sprawling prison, and she thinks an evil presence looks on and stalks her from outside the house. On top of all that, her mother is extremely domineering, so this poor woman simply can’t catch a break. Everywhere she turns, she finds something to make her life a living hell, and it seems like she’s doomed to spend the rest of her days this way.
Fright had me hooked from the very first frame, and I mean that pretty literally. The opening credits look and sound like they come right out of the ‘40s or ‘50s, so they instantly brought me back to my days as a little kid watching the Universal Monster movies with my grandpa. Then, when the film finally began in earnest, the nostalgic hits just kept coming.
For example, this story takes place in the late ‘30s, and if I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought these performers actually came from that era. The two lead stars, Gwyneth Evans and Jill Priest, play their roles with a hint of stiffness that’s very reminiscent of movies like Frankenstein and The Wolf Man, so while viewers unfamiliar with those early classics might be turned off by their acting style, I greatly appreciated it.
Along similar lines, Fright also has a few very obvious callbacks to some of my favorite old-school genre flicks. Emily’s gothic mansion clearly calls to mind Hill House from The Haunting and Bly Manor from The Innocents, and the second act features an unmistakable allusion to Psycho.
I also caught what I thought were audio nods to the ‘70s made-for-TV gem Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and a visual reference to Carnival of Souls, but I’m not sure if those were intentional. They’re common enough that they could just be coincidences, but even if they are, the more overt homages are enough to make this film a ton of fun for any fan of classic horror.
That being said, I don’t want you to think Fright is just a hodgepodge of random references. It’s also an awesome piece of filmmaking in its own right, and for my money, the best thing about it is the horror. This entire film is dripping with an atmosphere of dread and uncertainty, so even when nothing particularly scary is happening, there’s an ever-present undercurrent of tension that makes you feel Emily’s pain at being trapped in her own house. There are also a number of scenes where Emily comes close to opening the front door or even stepping foot outside, and every time she does, the movie immediately cranks the tension up to 11.
On top of all that, when this young woman starts to feel the evil presence lurking just outside the safety of her walls, the scares are fantastic. For most of the movie’s runtime, we don’t actually see anything out of the ordinary. Instead, Fright creeps you out primarily with its score, Gwyneth Evans’ acting as Emily, and the sounds this thing makes. It’s a lot like the horror in The Haunting, and while it’s not quite as effective as that all-time classic, it’s still genuinely chilling.
Then, when we finally do see something, Warren Dudley wisely chooses not to go all-out on the visual scares. Instead, he keeps to more subtle frights, and they’re just as effective as anything in the film. I don’t want to give away too much about these scenes, but suffice it to say that they use shadows in a way that’s eerily evocative of Nosferatu.
All of those great elements come together to create a fantastic experience, but I can’t quite say that Fright is a perfect movie. While I loved about 90% of it, the final 10 minutes or so were a bit of a letdown. Again, I can’t go into specifics without spoiling the film’s surprises, but I can say that the finale is a somewhat jarring change of pace that doesn’t quite fit with what came before it. Granted, it’s not bad in its own right, but it just doesn’t feel like a natural conclusion to this story.
Thankfully though, that’s not nearly enough to ruin the entire experience. Sure, coming at the very end of the movie, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but it’s still more of a glorified nitpick than anything else. On the whole, the throwback feel and the awesome horror make Fright one of the best films I’ve seen at FrightFest this year, and I absolutely can’t wait for more people to check it out.
Fright had its world premiere at FrightFest on August 26, and you can learn about future screenings on the movie’s website.
