Assault
Assault
R | 19 May 1973 (USA)
Assault Trailers

After a schoolgirl is raped while taking a short cut through the local woods, and another murdered a few days later, the police are baffled. With the help of a reporter, and against the wishes of a local psychologist, a young schoolteacher uses herself as bait to lure the perpetrator out.

Reviews
Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
PlatinumRead Just so...so bad
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
christopher-underwood Not particularly explicit and barely any blood, this is nevertheless packed with red herrings and starring Suzy Kendall, so the fact that this is pretty much a British giallo does not come as such a surprise. Sleazy subject matter, schoolgirls getting raped in the woods behind the school and poor old Lesley-Anne Down gets it twice, although I reckon they used the same footage twice. Even so this starts at quite a pace with not just one girl chased through those woods but almost immediately afterwards another. The rest of the film is more a who-dun-it but keeps the attention and if some are under performing, like the very poor offering from Frank Finlay (never knew he was that small!) the rest acquit themselves well enough.
Scarecrow-88 A hideous rape to a lovely young teen girl heading home through the woods after exiting her all-girls-school opens this adult British mystery thriller. Soon, the one responsible for the rape will strike again, this time killing the second victim. Although this time the man gets sloppy as an Art teacher, Julie West(the beautiful Suzy Kendall)drives her car, with other students inside the back seat, into the forest on the main road finding him hovering over the dead student's body. Her description is hazy because of the light reflecting on his face. She still poses a threat, but not as so as the first victim, Tessa(Lesley-Anne Down)whose so traumatized she's borderline catatonic. Several possible suspects are served to us such as Dr. Greg Lomax(James Laurenson)who is trying to mentally assist Tessa back to health, Dr. Bartell(Anthony Ainley), and the headmistresses husband(Leslie Sanford;who is often shown peering at girls' legs, up their skirts and carries a lustful gaze). Det Chief Velyan(Frank Finlay)will reluctantly agree to allow Julie to make artistic renditions of a possible murderer, placed in the newspaper of a dogged reporter(Freddie Jones, underneath a large hat and sunshades)to flush the killer out of hiding. Here is when the danger towards Julie..and Tessa..increases as someone will obviously attempt to silence the voices that can put him away.I watched this film under a low-quality VHS print under the title, "The Creepers" and must say I liked it. I've noticed many label this a British giallo and that's a pretty good assessment I must say. It shows poor Tessa get her shirt and bra viciously torn off, nude photos of naked girls found by the headmistress possibly implicating her vile husband who will not hide his lust for young nubile flesh. The music was a bit loud, often melodramatically overlapping key moments of dialogue like when Julie was being interviewed by Lomax in the police car. I liked Kendall as Julie, quite a strong female heroine performance as she must contend with the fact that this killer is at large and could be just about anyone. The opening chase scenes through the woods as a killer stalked his two victims is dazzling and frightening at the same time. Tense final revelation where the killer reveals himself to be quite an important man in society while chasing poor Tessa, who has trouble even speaking or responding to anything, is a fine conclusion as Julie tries to save her as she is being raped yet again.
FieCrier I saw Saturn Productions Inc.'s video of this release, retitled The Creepers (the title doesn't make much sense).It starts with young women leaving a school in uniforms of white shirts a short pinks skirts. One of them takes a shortcut through the woods, where she is chased and then raped underneath overhead electrical lines by someone we do not see. There are several shots from the stalker's point of view.The woman is hospitalized, still ambulatory but mute and largely unresponsive. A doctor tries to nurse her back. A couple months later, another girl tries cutting through the woods, and she is chased, raped, and killed. A group of girls and an art teacher drive into the woods to look for her. They get stuck in the mud, and when the teacher looks out the back window, she catches a glimpse of someone in the red taillights. She then finds the body of the dead woman.The teacher thinks the man she caught a glimpse of looked like the devil! She paints a picture of how she saw him. She works with the police to try to identify the man. Meanwhile, the first victim is becoming more responsive, but is still mute. A plan is concocted to flush out the killer...This was an OK movie. It was hurt by the music. The action scenes all use the same piece of music, which is so inappropriate it almost makes those scenes comical, which is just wrong. While the version I saw was probably cut, I can't imagine what would have led to this movie getting an NC-17 rating. Perhaps the assaults were more graphic; little is shown of them on the video I watched.After the movie on the video, there's a listing of Saturn Productions' videos, showing the boxcovers for this one and: Circle of Fear, Castle of the Walking Dead AKA Schlangengrube und das Pendel, Die (1967), Demon of the Lake AKA Creature from Black Lake (1976), Night of Horrors (1978), Sinner's Blood (1969), Blade of the Ripper AKA Strano vizio della Signora Wardh, Lo (1970), The Devil Walks at Midnight AKA Plus longue nuit du diable, La (1971), Christmas Evil AKA You Better Watch Out (1980). Several of these are little seen today! Curiously, the illustrated cover for Blade of the Ripper is the same used for the VHS for it still available from another distributor, Alpha. I'm not sure what movie Circle of Fear is; the cover shows a few women standing around a pentagram inside a circle chalked on a floor.
Brian Washington I haven't seen this film in years, but from what I remember of it, it was a pretty good movie. The only thing that I think might be a little politically incorrect is the fact that the a few of the girls are pretty much seen as teases, especially in the scene in which the headmistress' husband fondles one of the girls as she stands on top of a stool. This scene is a little disturbing, especially when you consider the film was made in 1971. No wonder this film was mainly shown very late at night when the kiddies were asleep.