OK…lets take this one out for a spin for my first post.
I have a vague memory of an English movie from the late 70s, early 80s about a creepy killer who lives on the top floor of a boarding house…or possibly apartments in an old house. He watches the people that move in below him through a hole in his floor. I think there is an old lady who runs the place, also maybe the typical house cat that ends up ‘teets up’ and at one point two young college(?) women move in under the killer. I remember that its more creepy than anything because it moves sorta slow and ominous. And it has that 70s horrible sound quality especially when someones screaming or he’s doing his creepy laugh. I probably saw it on an old Sat. night ‘creature feature’ type series. But I remember that it wasn’t edited for blood or sex so I’m not sure where it aired.
“The Silent Scream”(1980)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081515/?ref_=ttkw_kw_tt
You can watch a trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msgam8fzzi4
Ooh! ‘sandnc’ might just have it. Its hard to tell unless I can watch the whole thing.
But…looking at the trailer…it seems TOO ‘American’ and straight forward ‘slasher’
versus my memories. I don’t remember the mom and son aspect…I thought it was
ENGLISH English…and it had that rougher, grainier quality to it almost like BBC
video quality I (maybe even b&w). Could it have been a English TV movie or episode of something? Graphic nature says no…but…Anyone have any other possibilitlies?
Oh…and I don’t remember the ‘Pringles’ dude in it.
Sounds like it could be either Black Christmas (1974): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gNdplqmCcQ
or Crawlspace (1986): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ySsCuZPMM
Do you remember any other details?
Both of the above suggestions have the right ‘pieces’ but not the right feel. The main thing I remember is the what I mentioned earlier
“…it had that rougher, grainier quality to it almost like BBC video quality I (maybe even b&w). Could it have been a English TV movie or episode of something?”
Just that poor quality look and maybe not mono but definitely crap 70s sound quality.
Almost like old Dr. Who episodes mixed with British 60s gothic horror. But…
I kinda remember the stairwell in the place being super tight with the rooms being oddly placed along the winding stairs with the top floor room mysteriously dark as you looked up. There were no landings per say and you couldn’t see up or down the stairs. I also remember the killer watching through a tiny hole in his floor so just his wide crazy eye was visible. I think one girl gets killed or disappears then another moves in. And that it was more on suspense that the typical ‘slasher’ flick that was getting popular. Of course…these memories are based on the brain of someone who was maybe in early teens at the time?
Peeping Tom?
“Thriller” (TV series 1973-1976)
1st season. episode 3: “Someone at the Top of the Stairs”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070715/?ref_=ttep_ep3
It was British but stars American actress Donna Mills. It’s 70 minutes long, but all I could find on YouTube was this abbreviated version. You can see the cat that winds up ‘teets up’ at 4:28 and a really creepy eye peering through a peephole at 7:09 and 29:40.
This was solved a few days ago before the site crashed.
Did dopajeau confirm it? If so, the reply got lost. (Sad thing about the crash–I discovered it just when I was coming in to do the weekly backup. If I had shown up an hour or so earlier I would have had a complete backup of this site in the state it was just before it went down).
Yes, dopajeau confirmed it, but I guess it got lost.
It was definitely confirmed.
OK, I will mark it “Solved” and credit Livinghead. Thanks guys!
Thank you sandnc and admin.
No problem! I still had the email from when dopajeau commented that you had the right movie.