100 Best Horror Films

Vivian: "What would frighten me to death? Set the mood for me, Mark."
Mark: "Imagine... someone coming towards you... who wants to kill you... regardless of the consequences."
Vivian: "A madman?"
Mark: "Yes. But he knows it - and you don't."

Producer-director Michael Powell made one of the most horrifying contributions to the cinema of the macabre since World War Two. Written by Leo Marks, who co-scripted the equally controversial Twisted Nerve, it tells of Mark, a psychopathic young cameraman who photographs his victims' terrified death agonies, the most horrifying being Moira Shearer's wannabe actress Vivian. The scandal surrounding the film basically sounded the death knell for Powell's career. Other candidates for the role of Vivian were Joan Plowright (rejected as 'too sympathetic') and a young Julie Andrews (rejected as 'too famous').