1972, UK
In Peter Collinson’s disquieting Hammer thriller, Shane Briant (Demons of the Mind) is the psychopath in question, but British kitchen-sink staple Rita Tushingham enables his psychosis with her malleability and deep desire for a human bond, whatever the cost.
Tushingham stars as Brenda Thompson, a dowdy young woman who leaves her provincial home for the city, where she hopes to get pregnant.
Desperate for a baby who will love her unconditionally, she moves in with a slutty coworker she dislikes in the hope of meeting more men.
She allows herself to be mocked and used as a trade-off for her roommate’s party life, where her mating needs might be met.
One day she meets and becomes taken with a striking homicidal maniac named Peter (Briant) who agrees to give her a baby if she plays housewife to him.
He calls her Wendy, fancying himself as Peter Pan (even the dog’s name is Tinker), and she allows her identity (what little there is) to be sublimated to his fantasies.
They’re both like children, living in a hermetically sealed fantasy world (reflected in the use of frequent intense close shots).
That she is seemingly oblivious to his true nature betrays her own deep instability; she feels so unworthy of a healthy reciprocal relationship that she’s willing to turn a blind eye to Peter’s murderous extracurricular activity – as well as the likelihood that his homicidal attentions will eventually turn toward her.
hexafu 