I Start Counting

Jenny Agutter - Wynne
Bryan Marshall - George
Clare Sutcliffe - Corinne
Fay Compton - Mrs. Bennett
Gregory Phillips - Len
Simon Ward - Bus-Conductor

Director David Greene’s manipulative psychological thriller I Start Counting was adapted from Audrey Erskine Lindop's sinuous novel. The story deals with teenager sexual awakening and how infatuations are formed but came as a major disappointment when originally released to admirers of Greene’s earlier efforts The Shuttered Room and The Strange Affair; with the director subsequently returning to tv work having appeared to be establishing himself as a feature film helmer. That’s not to say I Start Counting is a bad film because it isn’t, there are some excellent performances and the suspense builds steadily throughout but the convoluted plot has an excess of red herrings and a hint of 70s titillation in Jenny Agutter.

Wynne (Jenny Agutter), an adopted teenage schoolgirl living in a New Town block of flats has a massive crush on her elder foster brother George (Bryan Marshall) who has unwittingly become a father-figure in the household. A series of local sex attacks strikes a sinister tone and from slender clues the girl suspects that her worshipped brother is the perpetrator.

Also vying for her brother’s attentions is Wynne’s best friend Corinne (Clare Sutcliffe), a far more extroverted and provocative individual but also pathetic in the way she tries to kid everybody that she's sexually experienced. Wynne in contrast is more sincere but perhaps less amusing and vainly tries to keep up with her sexual fantasy. The two girls spend much of their time playing in the condemned house in which Wynne used to live. The house is bang in the middle of woods which is the danger area frequented by the roaming sex-maniac.

After storming off during an afternoon picnic with George and Wynne, Corinne heads home alone and is offered a life from a handsome stranger. When Wynne returns home soon after and discovers Corinne is missing she treks round their old haunts looking for her friend – as darkness fall’s her search ventures to the dilapidated old house in the woods.