Symptoms – 1974 | 91 mins | Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

A former comic-book artist and fashion photographer, Barcelona-born director José Ramón Larraz spookily directs a poetic outsider’s eye on the English countryside in this gothic chiller. To the snooty consternation of British critics, it was entered, alongside Ken Russell‘s Mahler, as an official British 1entry at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.

A psychopathic lesbian, Helen Ramsey (Angela Pleasence), and her friend Anne (Lorna Heilbron) drive down to a country house to relax fora few weeks. Also on the estate is Brady (Peter Vaughan), the odd job man, who reveals to Anne that Helen often brought friends to the estate, and that the last one had disappeared mysteriously. Anne meanwhile is under pressure from her boyfriend to return to town, and also feels uncomfortable in the old country house. She pledges to stay for just a few more days whilst Helen recuperates.