Usually when I see a movie that’s only fifty-three minutes long on Tubi, it means it’s either a skin flick that’s had all the skin cut out of it, or a low budget Shot on Video horror movie. As it turns out, Fright: Night of Fear is actually a pilot for an Australian horror anthology TV show that was deemed too violent by the censors. It was then released to theaters where it became a big hit, inadvertently kicking off the Australian “Ozploitation” craze.
Most times when a failed pilot is turned into a movie, they pad it out to a feature-length running time. That’s not the case with Fright: Night of Fear. They kept the hour-long time slot format, which is a blessing. Not only does the shortened running time make for a lean, mean little horror flick, but when you’re trying to watch 365 movies on Tubi in 365 days and you’re a few weeks behind with posting your reviews, you appreciate these short and sweet movies.
A woman is out riding her horse when she gets kidnapped by a greasy degenerate. Later, another woman has a car accident and is stranded on the side of the road when the same madman chases after her with his pet rat in tow. Make that pet RATS.
You know, I wasn’t even gonna bring up the gimmick because I wanted you to discover it for yourself, but it’s definitely worth mentioning. So, if you don’t want the flick spoiled for you, stop reading this and go watch the movie. OK? Can I continue? The cool thing about Fright: Night of Fear is that there is NO dialogue! Other than a brief snippet from a radio announcer, nobody talks throughout the whole thing! That is, if you don’t count whimpering, screaming, and blubbering as “dialogue”. Not only that, but it’s also effective as hell too. In fact, I’d think it’s safe to say that this is the best no-dialogue horror movie since Daughter of Horror.
What makes it all work so well is that it never once looks like a TV movie that’s been released to theaters. (Except for the short running time and maybe the opening credit that says, “Created By”, you’d be hard pressed to say this was supposed to be an episode of a TV show.) There are lots of unique camera angles (including inside a rotary phone) and interesting editing (like during a tennis match that turns into a game of hanky-panky) that are hella cinematic. Although there’s nothing exactly explicit on display, the flick is definitely more hardcore than the shit you’d see on American TV at the time, that’s for damned sure.
In fact, it’s almost a shame this didn’t become a series (either on the big screen or small). Then again, this installment would be hard to top. So, if you’re on Tubi and have (less than) an hour to kill, check out Fright: Night of Fear. It packs more shocks into one hour than most horror TV shows do in their entire series run.
AKA: Night of Fear.
the whole "no dialogue" thing would be later revisited in a full-length Ozsploitation film released in 2004 called "Defenseless: A Blood Symphony"(unfortunately it's not on streaming but it did get a DVD release in the U.S.) and there's an upcoming John Woo movie called Silent Night which is also said to be lacking dialogue, very interested to see how that one plays out.
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