Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

begob 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.

Michael_Elliott 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.

Coventry 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.

vampyres-2 "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.