Expose – 1975 | 84 mins | Thriller, Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Director James Kenelm Clarke’s erotic thriller stars Udo Kier as the novelist whose attempts to meet his deadline are hampered by the hidden agenda of sexy typist Linda Hayden. Clarke’s derivative thriller is a competently photographed with effective use of flashbacks and reasonably well written example of the genre. The film’s blend of sex and violence ensured it ran into censorship troubles with the BBFC and became an infamous British ‘video nasty’. Seventies soft-porn star Fiona Richmond was cast at the behest of her boyfriend producer Paul Raymond, and she demonstrates little in the way of sensual allure or acting ability. German Udo Kier is dubbed into transatlantic English and provides a low-key performance as the unpleasant author whilst Linda Hayden, who now regrets involvement, manages to carry the illogical plot along with some success.

Paranoid author Paul Martin (Ugo Kier) living in an isolated cottage deep in the Norfolk countryside hires temporary typist Linda (Linda Hayden) to help him complete an overblown but potentially successful sex novel. Martin is also suffering from a series of nightmarish visions involving blood, somebody at the window, and a dead body in the bath.

He receives a phone call from his agent informing him Linda has arrived and will need collecting from the local train station, Martin dutifully picks her up in his Rolls Royce but is instantaneously struck with the notion the two have met before. Linda denies ever having met him previously. The two immediately set to work on his steamy novel; Martin dictates whilst Linda types. Having comfortably settled in, one day Linda ventures out to the surrounding fields on a warm summer’s day to relax and shockingly raped at gunpoint by two youth’s she’d earlier met at the train station. Bloody revenge is quickly exacted when one youth gets too close and allows Linda to gain possession of the shotgun.

When Linda rebuffs Martins amorous advances he becomes angry, and summons former girlfriend Suzanne (Fiona Richmond) to come and join him at the cottage. Having already surreptitiously murdered Martins housekeeper, the scheming psychopath Linda begins to reveal her scheme by next seducing the voluptuous bisexual Suzanne until murdering her too. Belatedly Martins realises that Linda is the former wife of an author he drove to suicide then plagiarised to concoct his debut novel, and now she’s seeking revenge.