This exceptional shocker from the Pete Walker collection is one of the director’s best known films. It’s been called by many as the UK’s answer to the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” but tonally the two exist in very separate worlds. (And who is asking that question anyway?) While “Frightmare” is far gorier than “Massacre,” its truly memorable nastiness happens without the benefit of a bloody drill. The real shock value lies in the horrific performance of Walker regular Sheila Keith. The late, great British actress is in fine form here, offering up a galvanizing performance that is unnerving to this day. Keith’s combination of low key vulnerability and psychotic rage gives this film an edge missing from Walker’s later work. After “Frightmare,” a substantial hit, it should have been “The Sheila Keith Show” all the way. The fact that she was relegated to supporting roles in the director’s subsequent works is a bloody shame. Her lack of screen time seemed to directly diminish their impact. Keith’s creepy bit in “House of Mortal Sin,” (aka “The Confessional”) made a couple years later, was the most memorable element of that film. Keith was primarily an acclaimed TV actress and did fine outside of the horror realm, but it’s a shame she didn’t do more genre film work.

“Frightmare” is the story of Edmund (Rupert Davies) and Dorothy (Keith) Yates, a loving couple who are sent to an asylum on several counts of murder and cannibalism. It seems that Dorothy was a fortune teller at a small entertainment park. Driven by a compulsion to eat human flesh or, more specifically, brains, she would attack and kill her clients. Her husband Edmund would then help her hide the bodies and aid in protecting her. 15 years later both parties are deemed cured and released from the asylum. Both live in seclusion in a small farm house; Edmund working during the day as a chauffeur while Dorothy is left to her own devices. Edmund’s daughter from a previous marriage, Jackie (Deborah Fairfax), is a successful make-up artist for the BBC and leads a somewhat normal life. Complicating her routine is the troubled Debbie (Kim Butcher) her younger half sister - and up and coming juvenile delinquent. Debbie, who was a product of the cannibal couple the year they were institutionalized, believes that the two of them are dead. While Jackie juggles work and the stress of her sister’s delinquent behavior, she also must deal with her newly released father and stepmother. Keeping their existence a secret from her sister, Jackie makes curious late night trips to visit them, carrying with her a bloody package. It seems that Edmund was never convinced that his wife was cured of her cannibalistic desires. So, quite naturally, once a week Jackie drives to the farmhouse with pig brains wrapped in paper, hoping to sate Dorothy’s blood lust and keep her contained. This set-up can only end badly.

Jackie meets Graham (Paul Greenwood) at a friend’s dinner party and the two begin dating. Graham is a psychiatrist and takes a vested interest in Jackie’s sister. He senses that her problems stem from abandonment issues and begins to do some research into her background. Back at the farm it seems that Dorothy is not quite satisfied with the pig brains and puts an ad in the local paper for tarot readings. Dorothy exhibits a genuine psychic ability, intuitively assessing her clients through the cards. Inevitably she pulls the death card and, contrary to her assurances that it’s purely symbolic, ends up helping their fate along - literally. One tragic woman meets her end with a hot poker through the stomach, followed by an electric drill to the head. The faithful Edmund eventually catches his wife post-kill and ends up repeating his past crimes of helping her dispose of the bodies. Debbie’s rebellious nature is revealed to be far more sinister than her sister or Graham originally thought. She’s implicated in the murder of a bartender who was not only killed but might have been eaten as well. Debbie runs off with her delinquent boyfriend and the two stop off at a familiar farm house. The violence continues to escalate until an unexpected family reunion brings about a tragic end.

Make no mistake about it, “Frightmare” is Keith’s movie, but like most Walker films, the entire ensemble is uniformly good. Davies gives a great performance as the concerned husband. His unyielding support of his tormented wife is both genuinely affectionate and horrifying. The aptly named Butcher as the bad apple who clearly didn’t fall far from the tree conveys a wonderful adolescent nastiness. Her disaffected Debbie is almost as frightening as Keith’s unhinged character. Fairfax makes a suitable protagonist but seems to be missing the requisite moxie needed to make her character believable. Walker’s younger protagonists are often the weakest links in his films. His usual team of collaborators, co-writer David (Whipcord) McGillivray and cinematographer Peter (Mortal Sin) Jessop are on board again. It certainly keeps a strong consistency in the way all of Walker’s films feel. “Frightmare” has a much tighter script than most, at least as far as narrative coherence. It’s difficult to fault the dialogue or characters in most of Walker’s films, he and McGillivray usually manage to create smart nuanced pieces even when the resulting film might not pay off. But often their scripts tend to meander and lose focus, especially in their follow-up film “House of Mortal Sin.” “Frightmare” doesn’t have such a problem and expertly builds to its grim conclusion. Jessop’s cinematography here is also quite inspired, especially during the more violent sequences. His smart composition (which leaves much of the mayhem just out of frame) makes the acts all the more unsettling.

This DVD release from Shriek Show is yet another strong entry in the Pete Walker Collection. The film print, presented in 1.85:1 ratio, runs a little dark, but works well in the context of the grim proceedings. It’s far superior to the horrible VHS prints of the film, including the wretched “Frightmare 2” release. There was evidently an American film with the “Frightmare” moniker as well, forcing the distributor to claim Walker’s movie an unofficial sequel. There are two soundtracks provided, a Dolby Digital 1.0 and a 5.0 mix - the later being far superior. In fact the digital mix of this film is one of the more superior presented by Shriek Show. The extras include another fascinating commentary by Walker, Jessop and biographer Steve Chinball. There is also a photo gallery and trailers for all of the more popular Walker titles (including “Mortal Sin” which was missing from that film’s DVD release). It’s odd that the short, but informative, featurette “Sheila Keith: A Nice Old Lady?” wasn’t also included in this package (it’s a supplement in the “Mortal Sin” DVD). Given that this was her most iconic Walker role, they could have at least slapped it onto this disc as well. No matter, it’s a great package for a classic film. Well worth the price for the director’s commentary alone.