Symptoms

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Jose Larraz, 1973

A Repulsion-esque horror from Spanish ex-pat José Larraz which unexpectedly became the official British entry to the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.

Helen (Angela Pleasence) is mesmerised by the picture of Cora (Marie-Paul Mailleux).

Credits

Director Production Companies Producer Screenplay Photography	'Joseph Larraz' (José Ramón Larraz) Finition Productions Jean Dupuis Joseph Larraz and Stanley Miller Trevor Wrenn
Cast: Angela Pleasence (Helen); Peter Vaughan (Brady); Lorna Heilbron (Anne); Nancy Nevinson (Hannah); Ronald O'Neil (John); Marie-Paul Mailleux (Cora); Mike Grady (Nick); Raymond Huntley (Burke)
80 mins, 7,249 feet, sound, colour.

Why are we so keen to find it?

In the dying days of the 1960s, director José Larraz departed from his native Barcelona for the unlikely destination of Tunbridge Wells, from where he embarked on a short but impressive foray into the world of British exploitation cinema, unleashing the kinds of violence and eroticism of which, in the early 70s, home-grown film-makers could scarcely dream, among them Whirlpool (1970), whose posters promised, "She died with her boots on... and not much else"; Deviation (1971); the giallo-inflected Scream... and Die! (1973), which upset many with its graphic rape and sex scenes; and Vampyres (1974). Symptoms is a rather more understated, sombre affair, benefiting from sturdy performances from a fine cast of familiar faces. Its absence is regrettable, given its restraint relative to the more full-blooded films surrounding it in Larraz's filmography.

What's it about?

Anne visits her friend Helen at her remote and dilapidated house in the English countryside. She can't shake the feeling that someone else is in the house with them, and is curious about Cora, a girl in a photograph that Helen seems reluctant to talk about. Helen becomes increasingly agitated when Anne's estranged boyfriend John arrives at the house and when she later spies on Anne talking to the sinister gamekeeper, Brady. When Anne takes a nocturnal trip to the attic to investigate strange noises, a now insane Helen stabs her to death and props her body up in an armchair, where it's discovered by John - who Helen also murders. Helen is forced to kill again when the gamekeeper discovers Cora's body in the lake and goes to the house planning to blackmail Helen. When the housekeeper arrives the following morning, she finds a catatonic Helen surrounded by the bodies of Anne, John and Brady.

Last seen?

After sitting on the shelf for two years, the film was finally released to British cinemas in summer 1976, retitled The Blood Virgin for some screenings. It was available on a particularly poor quality Belgian VHS at some point and it turned up late one night on ITV in 1983, but has not been shown on television again since.

What else do we know about it?

To the surprise of many, Symptoms was an unlikely choice as the official British entry at the 1974's Cannes Film Festival, alongside Ken Russell's Mahler.

Does anything survive?

In truth, Symptoms isn't quite as 'lost' as many of the films on our list. It certainly exists on bootleg DVDs in various states of watchability (most seem to have been sourced from the aforementioned Belgian VHS, complete with frequent colour drop-outs), but the all-important original prints are missing and those are what we're really looking for.

Reviews

After expressing some surprise that Symptoms was showing at Cannes, Variety's reviewer, Hawk, was appreciative of the film's early scenes but felt that it went off the rails somewhat in the latter half: "Joseph Larraz, aided by a good cast, manages some intriguingly effective stuff. It's only when repressed feelings erupt into violence on the part of the house-mistress that pic loses much of its eerie effectiveness and degenerates into a more conventional (and at times risible) blood bath."

David Pirie was always a more ardent fan. In the July 1976 edition of the Monthly Film Bulletin he acknowledged the debt it owes to Polanski's Repulsion (1965), but concluded that it "works more on the level of atmosphere than ideas, but its psychological perceptions are unusually sophisticated for genre cinema." In Time Out (21 May 1976) he mentioned Jack Nicholson's love for the film before hailing it "the finest English horror feature from a foreigner since Polanski's Repulsion... Larraz's eye for visual detail is mesmerising."

Symptoms' reputation has held up well over the years. In 2000, Jonathan Rigby praised Larraz's "spookily poetic outsider's eye" in his book English Gothic, while Kim Newman, writing in 2001, offered special praise for "Angela Pleasance as the withdrawn girl who drifts through life like a ghost, occasionally solving her relationship problems by taking knives to her friends."

Kevin Lyons, Filmographic Unit, BFI National Library

You can find more about British films of the early 1970s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.