A thriller with an extremely ingenious scenario, written by Peploe himself, who has a great reputation as scriptwriter. Afraid of the Dark is his directing debut and he admits to being influenced by Hitchcock above all, but also Michael Powell of Peeping Tom and Antonioni’s Blow-up.The main character in the film is a child (a convincing and intriguing role by 11-year-old Ben Keyworth) and the whole film is made as if seen through the imagination (and the dreams and nightmares) of a child, which implies more with cruelty than sweetness. ‘What is it that makes us afraid ?’, is the crucial question in the film which is about aggression and the fear of it. The boy has a blind mother and himself needs an eye operation. Panic breaks out when a maniac turns out to target blind people, who he attacks with a razor. From that point on, everyone around is a suspect for the boy.Afraid of the Dark is set in an unreal, silent and almost surrealist London. Peploe says that he went into town on a bank holiday and was struck by the desolate atmosphere of thealmost deserted city. An encounter with a group of blind people in this desolation and his desire to make a film with a child were the ingredients for this highly original and exciting story.Derek Elley (Variety) called the film a ‘tricky mix of slasher movie and psychodrama’. The film is proof of the thesis that the combination of craftsmanship and an original, often controversial theme, which made British cinema so fascinating in the past has not disappeared entirely.
