Won't
Write Home Mom
- I'm
Dead
(ITC Movie title "Terror From Within")
Original UK transmission: 26th April 1975
Original US transmission: 3rd March 1975
WRITTEN BY: Dennis Spooner based on a story by Brian
Clemens
DIRECTED BY: James Ormerod
PRODUCED BY: Ian Fordyce
MAIN CAST: Pamela Franklin (Abigail), Ian Bannen (Frank),
Suzanne Neve (Beryl), Oliver Tobias (Alan Smerdon), Dallas Adams
(Douglas Sadler), Lesley North (Janet Sadler), Norman Scace
(Teller)
Teaser
Sequence
A shot of five elm trees
dissolve into a close-up of a desperate young man in a cellar.
Wielding a scrap of paper in his hand, he looks frantically
around him and stuffs it into the frame of a painting resting in
a pile against the wall. He rushes upstairs in a state of panic,
where he suddenly doubles up in pain; he falls down the stairwell
to the cellar screaming the name "Abby!" By the time he
has reached the bottom he is dead, as a gloved hand wielding a
knife slowly appears.
Plot
Summary
American Abby arrives at a
hippy commune in England in search of her boyfriend Doug, but the
cousin who she has not seen for fifteen years insists that he was
never there. Abby nervously reveals that she has a psychic link
with Doug and that he sent her a telepathic message, but the
commune members ridicule the idea. When they conclude that her
boyfriend must still be due to arrive, she asks to stay and is
taken in by the eccentric group, one of whom appears to be
possibly dangerous. While staying at the cottage, Abby repeatedly
hears Doug's disembodied voice calling her name and even imagines
seeing him surrounded in flames. Fearing for her lover's safety,
Abby becomes convinced that he has met with ill fortune and that
a recurring mental image of five elm trees holds the key to his
fate.
Comments
This one can either be considered to be slow and plodding or
eerie and atmospheric. I must admit that originally I found it
rather dull, but if one can make it past the halfway point there
are many rewards waiting. The eccentric yet sinister members of
the commune are all well portrayed and make good foils for Pamela
Franklin's innocent portrayal of Abby (Susan Neve had previously
played a small part in Season Three's "The Next Scream You
Hear", while Ian Bannen would return in "Death
In Deep Water"). Surprisingly for such a slow story, the ending is
one of the most dramatic ever. Watch it with an open mind.
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