FRENZY
(1972)
Starring Joe Finch and Barry Foster
After following up "Psycho" with a string of standard, "North by Northwest"-style thrillers, Hitchcock finally re-entered the splatter realm with this slasher pic filmed in London. It was his first film shot in Britain since 1950 ("Stage Fright").
"Frenzy" was written by Anthony Shaffer, the man behind that cult classic we all know and love, "The Wicker Man." Although it doesn't have any big stars in it (Stewart, Leigh, Grant, etc.), it pretty much kicks ass. For the first time, Hitchcock injected nudity in a film. While "Psycho" could conceivably be shown on broadcast television uncut, "Frenzy" is too graphic. The versions that turn up on the tube are heavily chopped.
Foster plays a smooth-talking serial rapist-strangler who's been stalking the streets of London for months. When he gets nervous about getting caught, he frames his best friend (Finch) by murdering the poor bastard's wife. This strangulation is one of the grimmest killings ever put on film in my book.
Many don't think
that this stacks up to Hitchcock's earlier work, and when compared to masterpieces like
"Vertigo" and "Rear Window" it obviously doesn't. But it is one of the
best slasher films ever put to celluloid and fans of the genre simply must check it out.
It also goes out of its way to be misogynist, beyond what Hitch did in his earlier
blonde-obsession movies. Pretty bizarre stuff from that perspective, and definitely not
the kind of cinema that could be made today.
Foster is pretty impressive as the sociopathic and suave killer, who starts losing his cool only in the moments before he strangles a victim. His weapon of choice is always a necktie. The best scene in the movie has the killer chasing after a corpse after realizing it's carrying a crucial piece of evidence. Hitchcock masterfully makes us actually identify with the killer, and the suspense is lethal.