HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR EPISODE 3 - RUDE AWAKENING (1980)

DIRECTED by Peter Sasdy

SCREENPLAY by Gerald Savoury 

STARRING - Denholm Elliott as Norman Shenley,  Lucy Gutteridge as Lolly,  Pat Heyward as Emily Shenley,  James Laurenson as Mr. Rayburn,  Eleanor Summerfield as Lady Strudwick

PLOT - Norman Shenley is a middle aged estate agent who is trapped in a loveless marriage with his frumpy wife Emily, he's also engaged in a torrid affair with his sexy secretary - Lolly.

Norman seems to be quite happy with his life all things considered. 

The problem is that Norman keeps dying. But he doesn't stay dead, he instead wakes up the next day as if it where all a dream.

It soon becomes obvious that Norman is trapped in a world of his own making. What is a dream ? What is reality ? And who is the voice that keeps telling him that he was wrong to kill his wife (something he hasn't yet done) ?

PERFORMANCES - Due to the existential nature of this story (it's basically a character study of one flawed man's desires, obsessions and fears), the character work in this episode has a lot more depth to it than previous episodes, so it's a good job that they cast an actor as good as Denholm Elliott for the role of Norman, as he does most of the heavy lifting in this story.

Norman when we first meet him basically comes across as a bit of a sleazy old bugger. He clearly has no feelings at all for his dowdy looking long suffering wife - Emily (Pat Heyward basically playing a typical British 70's sit-com style "old battleaxe" of a wife). Norman is having an affair with his secretary Lolly (Lucy Gutteridge) and you get the impression that's she's only the latest in a long line of desperate conquests that have been the result of what would now be termed "sexual harassment in the workplace". In thier first scene together Norman starts the day at work by groping Lolly's breasts, Lolly for her part doesn't seem to mind, in fact she's practically begging Norman to leave his wife. We get the impression that Lolly isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the box.

As the story progresses things start to become increasingly surreal - Norman is sent to view a potential property for sale by a client - Mr Rayburn (James "The Shadmock from Monster Club" Laurenson) and is promptly killed by a supernaturally animated suit of armour. Norman wakes up in a sweaty fit of fear, it was all a dream...

What follows is a series of increasingly strange dream sequences - Norman gets increasingly frustrated at his wife in each one, Norman has increasingly more erotic encounters with Lolly in each one and Norman dies in increasingly more bizarre ways. Only to wake up again and again and again. It's like Groundhog Day only with a horny porn star style secretary and a spooky stately home thrown into the mix. Elliott is great - constantly veering from being a sleazy old letch to being terrified out of his mind. 

Lucy Gutteridge is great as Lolly as well. As the nature of the story becomes more obvious it's clear that Lolly is basically a representation of all of Norman's repressed sexual fantasies. In each dream Lolly has a different look and persona - in the first one she's a ditzy blonde bombshell, she then becomes a leather clad punk rocker, a French resistance femme fatale, a "naughty" schoolgirl and what looks like a 70's "Disco chick". I'm surprised they didn't have a full-on dominatrix incarnation of Lolly but maybe that would have been a bit TOO extreme for 9 o'clock on a Saturday night in 1980 (I bet she's lurking somewhere in Norman's filthy little psyche though - he seems like EXACTLY the kind of bloke who'd enjoy being tied up while Lolly shoves a serrated toothbrush up his arse).

Gutteridge plays up to these various bits of role play by acting in an overtly sexual way - it's honestly like she's auditioning for a porn movie and it works BRILLIANTLY. She's as O.T.T. as you'd expect the masturbatory fantasy of a sexualy frustrated middle aged man to be. She nails it perfectly.

Of course Norman's final "dream" turns out NOT to be a dream at all - after gleefully murdering his wife he flounces into work and declares his undying love for Lolly. The only problem is that this time it's the real Lolly and to say she's not impressed is putting it mildly (downright horrified would be more accurate). You see, the real Lolly is nothing at all like the hyper sexualised dream Lolly. She's just a normal (and slightly shy and mousey) girl who doesn't want some middle aged deluded pervert pawing at her (funny that).

Gutteridge once more nails this real life and less confident Lolly perfectly. She's still extremely cute but she dresses like a librarian and seems very shy and reserved - the exact opposite to the person Norman fantasizes her to be.

This of course paints Norman in a totally different light as well - he's NOT the unfaithful husband who's played away from home with a succession of women young enough to be his daughter. He WANTS to be, but he isn't. He's just a sad ageing man trapped in a loveless sexless marriage who's obviously fixated upon this unfortunate young woman. Basically he's snapped and the whole episode has been one big deconstruction of his character. It's genius.

SEX & VIOLENCE - As stated above the ENTIRE story is rooted in sexual fantasies - so there's plenty of steamy clinches that Norman has with Lolly over the course of the story, most notable is an encounter in a phone booth that (momentarily) ends up with a topless Lolly.

Then there's Norman's various "deaths". Norman gets murdered by a suit of armour, hung by a lynch mob and trapped in a condemned building that's in the process of being demolished (he gets away...just, he wakes up before the killing blow strikes).

Most disturbing of all Norman undergoes brain surgery at one point - fully awake and with no anesthetic, he"dies" on the operating table - once again he's fully aware of what's happening and eventually wakes up once more...

...Only this time Norman wakes up for real (although he thinks it's still a dream) and smothers his wife to death with a pillow. Still protesting that it's all a dream Norman is eventually taken away by the police. I'm guessing a few decades in an asylum for the criminally insane awaits him...

SFX - Some very mild gore during the brain surgery dream and nothing else.

RATING - This is a really good episode. It tries something a bit different from the established "Hammer Horror" formula and knocks it out of the park.

It twists and turns like a twisty turny thing and keeps the viewer on thier toes at all times. It's less "horror" as such and more of a psychosexual fever dream. Very good stuff which shows just what this series was capable of when it was firing on all cylinders.

5 delusional sex fantasies out of 5.

ART -