‘He’s known for it…’
Fear is a strange thing. There are two different types of fear. The first one is loud and bombastic and in your face. Sinister. 1408. Paranormal Activity. These are films that go big and go hard and you can reel off all the most frightening moments and nervously laugh about them later with your friends. The second and more insidious type of fear is that which gets under your skin. The Shining. The Sixth Sense. Skinamarink. While these films do have big moments, the underlying sense of dread is what makes them effective. Robin Redbreast isn’t quite as chilling as some of the examples above but there is something about it that genuinely got under my skin…
Norah Palmer (Anna Cropper) moves to a remote house in the countryside to get over a painful breakup. Upon arrival, she finds the townsfolk to be strange but not unwelcoming, with her housekeeper Mrs Vigo (Freda Bamford) becoming an ally of sorts. She soon becomes romantically entangled with local exterminator Rob (Andrew Bradford), an outsider in the village who weirdly practises karate in the woods, and this union paves the way for unusual goings on.
As previously stated, you never really see anything horrifying in Robin Redbreast but the dread that it inspires is palpable throughout. Legendary TV writer John Bowen’s dialogue is just uncanny enough to cause unease even though there is nothing directly threatening about it. And that’s what sums up the mood of Robin Redbreast. It is the ominous threat of disaster that looms large throughout and ends up getting under your skin. In that respect it feels very similar to the work of M.R. James.
Robin Redbreast arrived between Rosemary’s Baby and The Wicker Man and it ends up acting as a bridge between the two. It’s the kind of film that made me linger at the window just a few seconds longer than usual before drawing the curtains.
