A hideous rape to a lovely young teen girl heading home through the woods after exiting her all-girls-school opens this adult British mystery thriller. Soon, the one responsible for the rape will strike again, this time killing the second victim. Although this time the man gets sloppy as an Art teacher, Julie West(the beautiful Suzy Kendall)drives her car, with other students inside the back seat, into the forest on the main road finding him hovering over the dead student's body. Her description is hazy because of the light reflecting on his face. She still poses a threat, but not as so as the first victim, Tessa(Lesley-Anne Down)whose so traumatized she's borderline catatonic. Several possible suspects are served to us such as Dr. Greg Lomax(James Laurenson)who is trying to mentally assist Tessa back to health, Dr. Bartell(Anthony Ainley), and the headmistresses husband(Leslie Sanford;who is often shown peering at girls' legs, up their skirts and carries a lustful gaze). Det Chief Velyan(Frank Finlay)will reluctantly agree to allow Julie to make artistic renditions of a possible murderer, placed in the newspaper of a dogged reporter(Freddie Jones, underneath a large hat and sunshades)to flush the killer out of hiding. Here is when the danger towards Julie..and Tessa..increases as someone will obviously attempt to silence the voices that can put him away.
I watched this film under a low-quality VHS print under the title, "The Creepers" and must say I liked it. I've noticed many label this a British giallo and that's a pretty good assessment I must say. It shows poor Tessa get her shirt and bra viciously torn off, nude photos of naked girls found by the headmistress possibly implicating her vile husband who will not hide his lust for young nubile flesh. The music was a bit loud, often melodramatically overlapping key moments of dialogue like when Julie was being interviewed by Lomax in the police car. I liked Kendall as Julie, quite a strong female heroine performance as she must contend with the fact that this killer is at large and could be just about anyone. The opening chase scenes through the woods as a killer stalked his two victims is dazzling and frightening at the same time. Tense final revelation where the killer reveals himself to be quite an important man in society while chasing poor Tessa, who has trouble even speaking or responding to anything, is a fine conclusion as Julie tries to save her as she is being raped yet again.
I watched this film under a low-quality VHS print under the title, "The Creepers" and must say I liked it. I've noticed many label this a British giallo and that's a pretty good assessment I must say. It shows poor Tessa get her shirt and bra viciously torn off, nude photos of naked girls found by the headmistress possibly implicating her vile husband who will not hide his lust for young nubile flesh. The music was a bit loud, often melodramatically overlapping key moments of dialogue like when Julie was being interviewed by Lomax in the police car. I liked Kendall as Julie, quite a strong female heroine performance as she must contend with the fact that this killer is at large and could be just about anyone. The opening chase scenes through the woods as a killer stalked his two victims is dazzling and frightening at the same time. Tense final revelation where the killer reveals himself to be quite an important man in society while chasing poor Tessa, who has trouble even speaking or responding to anything, is a fine conclusion as Julie tries to save her as she is being raped yet again.