User Reviews

An odd woman takes her girlfriend to stay at her place in the country, but a former girlfriend has something to say about that ...

Slow and creepy mystery. The atmosphere is set perfectly by photography and music, but especially through the overgrown lakeside estate from the early '70s, when locations were cheap. I'm not sure this is a horror - it does dabble in the ghostly, but really it's all about psychosis - although the gore is effective: films from this era relished their stabbing scenes, and the crunchy-cabbage sound effects in this one got me every time.

The lead actress is excellent, and the performances all round are good, but the big drawback is in the character of the odd-job man: the performance is a little awkward, and the purpose of the character turns out mundane, missing the opportunity to make this a true horror, where things turn inside out and the past becomes cosmic truth. Ahem. In the end it's just a tale of bloody madness temporarily disturbing the surface of normality.

Music sets the tone. Photography is mostly delicious, and the house and lake take on real character.

Overall: Nicely disturbing, but falls short.

This was the third Larraz title I've watched after VAMPYRES (1974) and THE COMING OF SIN (1978) – and will be promptly followed by another, THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED aka SCREAM…AND DIE! (1973); it's his second best-regarded effort after VAMPYRES itself and, in retrospect, a reputation that's fully deserved.

Even so, the film is hardly the heady brew of erotica and visceral thrills that was the latter (though it contains similar lesbian undertones and the occasional outburst of shocking violence) but rather a deliberately-paced mood-piece – in fact, it might best be described as REPULSION (1965) in the countryside (with all the inherent eeriness that such a remote setting entails)! In any case, relying as it does on fleeting frissons (the subtle appearance of a 'mysterious' woman roaming the mansion), admirably-sustained tension (the connotations involving Peter Vaughn's character and, of course, the various murder sequences) and a carefully-deployed central puzzle (which keeps us guessing down to the very penultimate shot!), the film is surely a testament to Larraz's versatility within a genre which had all but turned stale by this time (even more so vis-a'-vis the then-crumbling British movie industry).

Interestingly, the lead role is played by Angela Pleasence – daughter of horror icon Donald; just because she's his spitting image, the actress' odd looks are perfect for her mentally unbalanced character (though I doubt Larraz intended it to be a serious case history, there is the singular fact of SYMPTOMS being one of the competing entries at that year's Cannes Film Festival to consider!). Equally thoughtful was the selection of the other principal cast members: the aforementioned Peter Vaughan's burly and stern handyman could, at first glimpse, have been played by just any heavy-set person – but there's no denying that the part benefits immensely from his experienced presence; and pretty Lorna Heilbron (from THE CREEPING FLESH [1973]) as Pleasence's housemate, with short-cropped hair suggesting the then-fashionable androgyny. Affable character actor Raymond Huntley, a veteran of many a British comedy, plays the owner of the village drugstore in what proved to be his last film.

Incidentally, this was yet another picture – bafflingly M.I.A. on DVD as we speak – which I recently acquired on DVD-R i.e. I've had to make do with a full-frame edition culled from TV with forced Spanish subtitles to boot…but which is appropriate in this case, since the director actually hails from that country!

the plot is paper thin but what it lacks in story it makes up for in good acting, excellent cinema photography like visual poetry, and a creepy moody atmosphere. I watched it in black and white and it looked beautiful.. I may watch again in color just to compare. This is the kind of movie that needs to be remade.. fix some of the clunky dialog and establish a more cohesive story arc.. but then again the feeling of being lost as to what exactly was happening on screen is part of this movie's charm.

A young woman called Anne (Lorna Heilbron) is invited by her girlfriend named Helen (Angela Pleasence) , who lives in an English country house , to stay there with her. The estate, however, isn't quite what it seems and neither is the friend who issued the invitation, as things go wrong when strange happenings start appearing at the woods and at the weird mansion .

An interesting and terrifying movie with tension, thrills, chills, suspense and an unexpected conclusion. It is an enjoyable film that owes a lot to ¨Polanski's Repulsion¨ and ¨Hitchcock's Psychosis¨by taking parts here and there , although , of course , inferior to these two great terror films that quickly established themselves as classics in its field and whose frames have been very imitated since . This Symptoms (1974) packs a chilling feeling of incipient madness that has seldom been realised with such imagination and skill , containing some hallucinatory and surprising scenes . Larraz's direction is slow but deliberate , never missing a chance of jolting the audience with a sudden shock . This disturbing horror movie was such a critical and public success at the time , but unfortunately after being forgotten , and nowadays recuperated from obscurity and considered to be a cult movie . Terrific acting from main starring Angela Pleasence who shows efficiently all the agony of a tormented mind in her eyes .Also very nice acting from his beloved friend Lorna Heilbron and the suspicious handyman played by veteran Peter Vaughn . Special mention for the thrilling and suspenseful musical score by John Scott.

This much-loved 70s shocker was professional and stylistically directed by Jose Ramon Larraz . Larraz who deceased in 2013 started in cinema world by casual way when he meets the famous director Josef Von Stenberg running a cinematographic course in Brussels . Larraz was a director of horror and erotic films and former comic book illustrator and fashion photographer . Worked in England as Joseph Larraz, and in Spain, using the pseudonym Joseph Braunstein . Larraz subsequently shot horror classics , cult obscurities , euro-trash , and even some sexploitation . As he filmed his first movies in England , plenty of terror , suspense and sex , such as ¨Whirlpool¨ (1970) , ¨Deviation¨(1971) , ¨La Muerte Incierta¨(1972) , ¨Scream or die¨(1973) and ¨Symptoms¨ with Angela Pleasence and Peter Vaughan . He also shot soft-cores and then Jose Ramón returns Spain filming horror and semi-exploitative movies such as ¨Estigma¨ , ¨Ritos Sexuales Del Diablo¨, ¨Al Filo del Hacha¨ and ¨Descanse en Piezas¨ , imitating the American Slashers of the 70s and 80s . His most successful film is this ¨Vampyres¨ about bloodsuckers who get victims to pull over hitchhiking , played by Playboy young models with sexy bodies , blending arty house , horror and erotic situations . Symptoms (1974) rating : Notable terror movie . Most hardcore Euro horror fans will appreciate the kinkiness of this film as that is what gives it its distinctive flavour . A compelling movie that's a must for connoisseurs of the cinema's darker corners.

Called out to an ancestral house, a troubled woman is invited by her friend to spend time together and strengthen their relationship, but the more they spend together the more the house has an effect on her psyche and mental sanity bringing a deadly resolution for all around her.

Overall, this was a decent enough if somewhat troubled psychological genre effort. One of the better features here is the main descent into psychological instability that becomes the focal point of the film. Since the signs of her unhinged state are given to us from the very beginning through the journal writing and just reserved remarks that present themselves whenever she's on-screen, the seeds are sewn so that the unnerving nature of the house, as well as the surrounding woods on it's grounds, offer the kind of appropriate setup for where this one goes. As the reserved and blank expressions, cryptic sayings about nothing in particular, or just plain odd behavior finally come to a head, the atmosphere built up here features quite the fun turn of events at play here which makes for a fun enough time. However, there are some big issues with this one. The main drawback on display here is that for all the good this does in establishing the psychological breakdown of its main character and what's going on with her, nothing else really happens here. This one becomes incredibly repetitious in the use of a formulaic storyline involving her snapping at something her friend does, blaming it on her psychosis but doing nothing to help remedy the situation, and then trying to rebuild their friendship until the next incident. This produces a dull and generally dreary pacing which is hardly all that memorable or exciting in the slightest, and without explaining anything until a brief conversation at the end to reveal what the twist actually meant means this one is based solely on the atmosphere generated.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

'Symptoms' is an awkward and obtusely constructed film on emotional isolation and sexual disharmony between people which uses forms of psychological horror to build an uneasy tonality from many small narrative deviations and pockets of suggestive information.

Needless to say mad, insane, rabid and dissolute homicidal violence eventually manifests, and it manifests upon plenty of assembled characters.

'Symptoms' is certainly a film to enjoy and savour the taste of and not one to eat in and feel hearty, heavy nourishment.

Form and style take precedence over function and substance; however in its mood and tonality, so carefully achieved there is a great value.

In the dirty and dingy world of mouldy and autumnal decay and decline, in the offset and isolated characters and in the always heavily suggested mental illness and sexual dissonance of the lead character played by Angela Pleasance this film builds an insane and unsanitary tonal mood piece.

I rate a high 6/10 and I'd recommend this film to fans of morbidity and psychological slashers in their films. Also to fans of 70's British horror in general.

"Symptoms" follows a paper-thin plot line that details a woman who invites a girlfriend to her remote mansion for the weekend, but her true motives come into focus as something far more sinister than imagined. Originally screened at the Cannes Film Festival, "Symptoms" inexplicably became a lost a film in the ensuing years, until being unearthed and re-released on Blu-ray for the twenty-first century.

To put it plainly, if you're looking for a film where things "happen," then look elsewhere. This is a film that never quite entirely gets onto its feet, and instead wallows in its own mysteriousness and atmosphere—and the atmosphere is laid on thick. The camera meditates on the foggy England backwoods, the swampy lake that holds dark secrets, and the dilapidated mansion that is quite literally engulfed in trees and foliage. If nothing else, "Symptoms" is a mood piece, and a fantastic one at that.

Given its sparse scripting, the film demands top-notch acting from its performers, and the audience gets as much with Angela Pleasence in the lead role of the mysterious, violent hostess. She is vulnerable and simultaneously terrifying, and has a compelling screen presence. Lorna Heilbron matches Pleasence as the seductive and insouciant house guest.

Writer-director José Ramón Larraz, who is perhaps best known for his over-the-top lesbian vampire flick "Vampyres," has a consistent style established with this film, and his vision comes across on screen very strongly. Given his notoriety for the aforementioned film, the natural expectation I had for this was along the lines of an exploitation film, but it is far, far from it—it's actually a classy, quiet, and ominous meditation on broken femininity, at times evoking Robert Altman's "Images" or 1971's "Let's Scare Jessica to Death." It is part horror film and part psychological character study, moving along in that order; after the first dramatic scene of violence, the film and its heroine unravel before the audience, and the result is nothing short of compelling.

Overall, "Symptoms" is a phenomenal and under-appreciated horror film. Its status as a lost film has no doubt robbed it of the wider contemporary audience it deserves, but hopefully the re-release of it will attract modern genre fans. I was blown away by the nuance and all-around skillfulness of it. It's a quietly spooky and wildly atmospheric film that is well-acted and well-shot. Truly something to behold for fans of understated cinema. 9/10.

José Ramón Larraz will always be best remembered for his excellent 1974 lesbian vampire flick Vampyres; and for good reason since its his best film, but it wasn't the only film he made in 1974 - he also made a Spanish film called "Emma, Dark Doors" - which I haven't seen (nor did anyone else it would seem), but it does look interesting. Oh, and he also made this little British film 'Symptoms' and I'm not surprised to find that this one isn't too well seen either as despite some interesting elements; it's all a bit dull and doesn't have a great deal going for it. The film takes place in the English countryside and focuses on a mansion. A young woman gets an invitation to stay there as the mansion is owned by her friend, and accepts. However, her stay at the mansion takes a turn for the strange and the woman soon realises that neither her friend - nor the mansion itself - is quite what it seems.

I can't really say I'm a fan of José Ramón Larraz - mostly due to films like The House That Vanished and Black Candles. The director clearly has a good eye for atmosphere but unfortunately the same cant be said for his plotting and Symptoms' main problem is undoubtedly the lack of intrigue. The film does benefit from the presence of Angela Pleasance; Donald's daughter has a very creepy screen presence and the director was obviously keen to capitalise on that as much as possible. The setting is good and the isolation of it all benefits the film in terms of atmosphere. However, the fact is that the story doesn't really go anywhere for large periods of the film. It's obvious that the director was trying to build up steam for the ending, but I was starting to lose interest long before then. It's a shame actually as well because the ending of the film is actually rather good and would have worked well with a more interesting build up. Many people consider this to be the director's second best film; and actually I agree with that, but that's more because Larraz's other films are so bad rather than because this one is good.

I walked away from Symptoms scratching my head, I don't know entirely what they were going for here but it's a swing and a miss.

This British made thriller stars Donald Pleasence's daughter Angela who incidentally almost died during the filming of the film. The stories say that a piece of lighting equipment landed on her head and she was very lucky to have survived.

It tells the story of a woman who is invited to stay with her friend in a country mansion, but her friend has secrets.

It's really hard to pigeonhole Symptoms, it's advertised as a horror but it certainly isn't. So what is it? Thriller I suppose, but a not so thrilling one.

It's a plodding slow ultimately uneventful affair that has atmosphere but nothing else. The film also stars Peter Vaughn who folks will likely know as playing Maester Aemon in his very final on screen appearances in Game Of Thrones (2011).

I get the appeal to a degree, but I'm certainly not the demographic.

The Good:

Moody atmosphere

The Bad:

Confusing and uninteresting

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Plots that make sense are overrated

First of all I love pretty explicit and audacious lesbian vampire flick "Vampyres"(1974),but more rare and obscure "Symptoms" is even better and certainly different in tone.It's a very subtle,calm and restrained horror film with plenty of mysterious atmosphere.Helen Ramsey arrives back from Switzerland to her old-fashioned family home,accompanied by a friend Ann West.It quickly becomes clear that Helen suffers from a nervous disposition.At night both Helen and Ann hear voices in the house and Helen seems convinced that there is something in the attic,a trap door to which is in the ceiling in a corner of her room."Symptoms" is a genuinely frightening horror film about a woman slowly slipping completely into madness.The cinematography is striking,the interior sets are terrifyingly dark and the acting by Angela Pleasence is fantastic.I fell in love with this film and can't praise it enough.

Symptoms might be a little slow and meandering at times, but it does feature a few worthwhile shocks and a wonderful central performance by Angela Pleasance as a repressed woman who goes insane and begins killing people at her secluded country estate.

It shares more than a few similarities with Roman Polanski's Repulsion, but I suppose if you're going to steal, steal from the best.

A considerable nonchalance fills the first long stretch of the movie, with nothing more than mere suggestions of anything peculiar dancing around the edges of the picture. At that, the marginal unease is built almost exclusively with out of place sound effects, John Scott's ominous score, or lines of dialogue that do not comport with the beautiful scenery and setting. So it is until just over one-third of the film has passed, as the eeriness begins to coalesce - first with more concrete notions of something amiss in the scenario, and at last with confirmation.

I appreciate the costume design. I think the concept is alright. However, I think the screenplay is regrettably thin, and hollow. Unconcerned pacing and piecemeal, light plot limit our engagement, and dialogue is often ham-handed and unconvincing. These qualities are echoed in the writing and orchestration of scenes, and the characterizations, to which little to no personality is imparted. All this works to restrict the cast, especially stars Angela Pleasence and Lorna Heilbron, from fully realizing the potential of characters. Heilbron is duly pleasant and uncertain as Anne, and Pleasence bears a dark intensity and disquiet as Helen; sadly, that's about all the more there is to be said. Whatever measure of nuance the leads are able to bring to their performances is effectively lost given the indelicate, feeble hand otherwise crafting the feature.

There are strong ideas here, and a strong cast. The end result just doesn't cut it. The atmosphere, thrills, foreboding, and broad entertainment we should get are greatly dampened by what feels like a weak, incomplete writing. I feel as indifferent to the film at its end as I did when I first began watching - save for that I'm also disappointed. There are worse things you could watch, and yet - a horror-thriller should get one's blood pumping to at least some small extent, but as it is, this simply doesn't. I hesitate to say that 'Symptoms' is outright bad, but it's not good, either.

Symptoms (1974)

*** (out of 4)

After spending time away from home, Helen (Angela Pleasence) decides to return to her country estate and she brings along her friend Anne (Lorna Heilbron). It doesn't take too long for Anne to realize that there's some secret that Helen is hiding. As the film moves along we start to realize that there's something supernatural or psychological going on.

Director Joseph Larraz's SYMPTOMS is a film that was released to Cannes and got a few positive reviews but the film pretty much disappeared outside of that. Over the decades people spoke highly of the film but it was nearly impossible to actually find it. In truth, the majority of people had never even heard of it. With that in mind, it's rather shocking to see that the picture actually lives up to the hype.

This film contains elements of Polanski's REPULSION as well as Hitchcock's PSYCHO. The lead character is quite an interesting one because she's just so strange and has such a blank look to her eyes that you can just feel that something is haunting her. What makes the film work so well is that we don't know if she's really being haunted by something supernatural or if it is all in her mind. The director perfectly builds up a very strange atmosphere and the back and forth elements of what's really going on perfectly plays out.

The film also benefits to some shocking violence. Not shocking as in gory or over-the-top but instead it usually comes out of nowhere and catches you off guard. As I said, some of these seem influenced by the "shock" murders in PSYCHO but it plays out very well here. The performances are also quite good with Pleasence, the daughter of Donald, really shining in a very laid back and quiet role. I really thought she did a fabulous job at showing that damage this character has had done to her. Heilbron is also good in her supporting part as is Peter Vaughn.

SYMPTOMS isn't a shock fest or in-your-face and fast-paced horror movie. It takes its slow, sweet time building up the character, the atmosphere and the outcome. It's certainly not going to be a film to appeals to everyone but it's certainly well-made and entertaining.

Symptoms is a one of a kind film. If it was released today it would be mocked for it's slow pace and lack of jumpscares and what you get instead is haunting and beautiful film with lots of atmosphere.

The acting in the movie is bizzarre and in a good way. The nightmareish dream-like quality of the movie keeps you engaged and the few characters it has are very well written to make you wonder what is real and what is not.

What I loved about the film the most was the atmosphere. The use of lights and the way the scenes were set almost reminded me of the black and white horror movies from Universal and Night of the Living Dead but the way the movie delivers it's horror is different to those examples.

I highly suggest this dream-like gem but for those who seek a traditional horror experience, sadly this may not be a film for you. The film doesn't bombard you with scares, it slowly swallows you into a nightmare.

I can call it a hidden horror gem, i mean, this is better than most of the famous 70's horror movies i have watched. I can't understand why it flew under the radar. Anyway, this is a good psychological drama horror movie, one can say it is one of the first art horror movies too. Pleasence is very good, other actors were also fine. I can't say anything about the plot because even the less important things could be spoilers. Read the IMDB synopsis, that would be enough. Don't read the reviews here, some of them reveal too much.

In conclusion, every fan of this genre will enjoy it. Don't expect too much gore neither action, beauty of this film lies in its simplicity and eerie atmosphere. All hell breaks loose during the last 30 minutes but still, don't expect too much.

"Symptoms" or "The Blood virgin" is the favourite movie shot by Joseph Larraz, the catalanian director of such horror movies -Whirpool, Deviation, Scream and die or masterpieces as this "Symptoms" or "Vampyres"- that nobody did with their particular sight and their personal style. "Symptoms" is a very traditional horror tale with vampiric reminiscences and a very special study of a crazy lesbian woman obsessed with their dead mistress. The phantom of Cora, their lover is in the middle of this sensitive story and the reason of their crimes around the movie. The atmosphere and climatic shots are superb and the music score by John Scott are wonderfully executed with gothic images and dark places. "Symptoms" appeared in 1976 in british theaters and received cool opinions, specially in "Monthly Film Bulletin" and other prestigious movie magazines in United Kingdom. Twenty five years after "Symptoms" is a disturbing masterpiece of the horror movies and one of the most romantic studies of crazy love that other prestigious directors in the seventies, for example Truffaut, De Palma, Rivette, Richardson or Losey, did in this past prodigious '70 decade. Joseph Larraz, 70 years old now has a clear head yet and a great sense of humor. He is one of this rare spanish directors that made movies in United Kingdom or Demmark. He has their particular obsessions about sex, horror and movies and he showed us their talent in fashion magazines, in spanish comics or erotic pictures of beautiful women as Marianne Morris, Anulka, Lorna Heilborn, Teresa Gimpera, Helga Line, etc. "Symptoms" is a rarely piece for collectors and fans of darkness dreams and inmoral tales. The film has their soul and force in the face of Angela Pleasence as Helen Ramsey, the predator woman that kills everyone around her and use the people to take to their mortal manor where occurs all the drama. The movie is great in the beginning and in the end and offers to the audiences a clever entertainment that intelligent people will love with passion.

The symptoms:

Fatigue - sufferers will experience prolonged periods of drowsiness and lethargy due to a plodding pace and an emphasis on atmosphere over action.

Irritability - as the uneventful plot drags on, expect to feel ill-tempered with a low mood.

Confusion - the meandering story may lead to bewilderment and disorientation; this will clear about a minute from the end of the film, to be replaced by shock (at the realisation that you've wasted an hour-and-a-half of your time on this rubbish).

Symptoms, from director José Ramón Larraz, is a Repulsion-style study of descent into madness, but with none of Polanski's film-making acumen. Angela Pleasence (Donald's daughter) plays the Catherine Deneuve role, a young woman called Helen who is recovering from a mental breakdown. She invites her friend Anne (Lorna Heilbron) to spend some time with her at her sprawling country estate. While there, Helen begins to relapse, and Anne becomes concerned that there might be someone else in the house. Can creepy odd job man Brady (Peter Vaughan) shed some light on events?

Larraz's plot introduces some mystery around the disappearance of another of Helen's friends, Cora, but it really isn't all that engaging, and after the brutal murder of Anne (in a Psycho-style twist), it's pretty obvious what has happened. The abrupt ending will come as little surprise.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for Pleasence, who is wonderfully creepy and convincingly crazy.

I must be honest straight away and start my user-comment by admitting that I expected a whole lot more of "Symptoms"… I've always been a great admirer of the Spanish director José Ramon Larraz and pretty much loved all movies of his that I have seen, varying from the publicly acclaimed 70s exploitation highlight "Vampyres" to the widely disdained 80s slasher "Edge of the Axe", as well as everything in between. I had particularly high expectations for "Symptoms" and all the signs were positive. The film got released in 1974, which was the peak year of Larraz' career but also the golden era of the typical "British countryside horror", it stars Donald Pleasance's curiously enchanting daughter Angela in a rare lead role and the two-line plot synopsis promises a dark tale full of mystery and eerie atmosphere. Nearly all reviews that I encountered were very praising, whether from trustful IMDb users (whose peculiar taste in movies I usually always share) or from prominent movie critics (who unhesitatingly compare this flick to Roman Polanski's "Repulsion" and label it as one of the best British horror movies not directed by a Brit). So here I was preparing myself to add another title to my list of all-time favorite horror movies, but I rather quickly got confronted with the realization that "Symptoms" is a superficially attractive but substantially void horror package! Yes, Larraz' talent for gradually building up tension and slowly generating an atmosphere of eerie mystery is unmistakable, but it also rapidly becomes abundantly clear that this is another one of those frustrating movies in which the climax can't possibly meet the expectations of everything that gets builds up towards to… In case you occasionally watch thrillers and/or suspense movies, you must know what I mean. The vague mystery elements keep on piling up and up, the main characters never reveal the slightest detail about their intentions (apart that they are raving mad) and every type of horror or perversion is suggestive but fundamentally nothing happens at all. The climax in "Symptoms" is arguably even worse than disappointing, as it literally just takes less than a minute and the whole "twist" is quite evident from the beginning anyways. But, it has to be said, Larraz' craftsmanship is vastly impressive and he manages to make the thin plot somewhat absorbing. Pleasance stars as an introvert and inconspicuous woman, Helen, who invites her friend Anne (who's more the social and extrovert type) to come stay with her at the secluded family estate. Anne notices that her friend keeps a bunch of secrets, like who's the attractive women in those living room pictures and why isn't she allowed to talk to the odd gardener who lives in the tool shed? That's all there is to share, but again, the depiction of Pleasance's mental dissolution is masterful and the film contains a gazillion of visually mesmerizing shots.

A young woman (Heilbron) goes to stay with eccentric Pleasence in her vast English manor. Grumpy Peter Vaughn is the estate handyman who, like Heilbron is aware that all is not as it should be, driven by the existence or not of the mysterious character - Cora.

Very slow, atmospheric and Turn of the Screw influenced mystery that is possibly a little too slow and atmospheric, but a noble effort worth catching as it does have a few surprises and Rita Tushingham is ideally cast as the bizarre Helen.