A stranger in a distinctive pair of cowboy boots (we see him only from the waist down) leaves a cinema – which is screening the (fictional) films Rapist Cult and The Convent Murders – and walks alone along the dark street.
A passing car splashes mud on his boots . . .
The car stops at the railway station where George (Robin Bailey) and Betty (Dorothy Alison) Rexton are collecting their niece, Sarah (Mia Farrow), who was recently blinded when she was thrown from a horse and has come for a recuperative stay with her aunt and uncle on their large farm in the English countryside.
The following day, we see the unidentified man in boots watching from inside a pub as Mr and Mrs Rexton return from shopping to discover that their Mercedes has been deliberately scratched.
While Sarah is visiting her boyfriend, Steve (Norman Eshley), boots-man turns up at the Rexton farm and murders the entire family – yep, turns out he’s a homicidal maniac (or just really sensitive about his boots).
Sarah returns to the house and goes to bed assuming the family have gone out, unaware that the lifeless bodies of her relatives are all around her – which leads to some breathtakingly suspenseful moments and superb, inventive camera angles which gradually disclose the horror to the audience.
Her dead niece, Sandy (Diane Grayson) is lying on the bed beside her and she almost steps into a bath where the killer has dumped the corpse of her uncle.
Worse is yet to come: Sarah learns from the dying gardener that the mysterious psycho killer with the boots is still hanging around the house!
Written by British TV legend Brian Clemens, the story is beautifully filmed and sustains a tense and disturbing atmosphere throughout. Unfortunately, the ending feels rushed with the killer suddenly revealed and everything over too quickly.
Many of the scenes, including the opening views of the railway station, were filmed in and around Wokingham, Berkshire. The farm exteriors were filmed at the Grade II listed Binfield Manor which dates from 1754.
Released in some markets as Blind Terror and elsewhere as See No Evil.
Sarah
Mia Farrow Betty Rexton
Dorothy Alison George Rexton
Robin Bailey Sandy Rexton
Diane Grayson Barker
Brian Rawlinson Frost
Christopher Matthews Steve Reding
Norman Eshley Jacko
Paul Nicholas Steve’s Men
Max Faulkner
Scott Fredericks
Reg Harding Gypsy Mother
Lila Kaye Gypsy Jack
Barrie Houghton Gypsy Tom
Michael Elphick Doctor
Donald Bisset
Batman & Robin (1997) The movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze ("you ah not sendink ME to der cooler!") which killed the Batman series for…
Vampire Circus (1972) In one of the longest pre-credit sequences, we follow a bucolic family scene in 19th century Serbia dissolve to terror…
Suburban Wives (1971) This pseudo-documentary British sex comedy presented seven stories of marital infidelity told from the women's point of view. Sarah Eva Whishaw…
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) This action-adventure stars Peter Fonda as Larry, who steals $150,000 from a supermarket to buy a car so he can…
Railway Children, The (1970) London, Christmas Day 1904. Two men call on Charles Waterbury (who works for the Foreign Office) and lead him away…
Private Parts (1972) Young runaway Cheryl Stratton (Ayn Ruymen) quickly finds herself at the King Edward - a seedy, crumbling hotel which is…
Wombling Free (1977) Based on the popular TV series, this charming family movie sees the Wombles facing two struggles. While they wage their ongoing…
Her dead niece, Sandy (Diane Grayson) is lying on the bed beside her and she almost steps into a bath where the killer has dumped the corpse of her uncle.
