BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

gridoon2018 The two biggest assets of "Twisted Nerve" are Bernard Herrmann's sensational score (right up there with his work for Hitchcock), and Hywel Bennett's masterfully measured performance as a man who puts on an innocent, childlike, slightly "backwards" interior but is actually a cold, cunning, calculating psychopath. The problem is, we know nearly everything there is to know about his character after about a half hour; the story unfolds slowly and without many surprises. Hayley Mills is a doll and also puts in a strong performance, but a sinfully sexy Billie Whitelaw (cast as her mother, even though she is just 14 years older) pretty much steals her thunder! Not a classic, but watchable. **1/2 out of 4.

chuckchuck21 The story revolves around a psychotic personality that developed because of a lack of ability to deal with sexual maturity. As is normal, this personality is exceptionally manipulative & willing to play things to the end to get what they want. A great scene showing this is when he "goes to Paris" & shows Hayley's mother the note he's written to gain entrance to the house. They originally refuse him & send him back into the rain so he walks slowly away giving the guilt he knows will bother them time to work all the while appearing to be a gentleman & unwilling to put them out.This is a good suspense movie even though the director is careful to show the rising tide of evil & doesn't give any misdirection to fool the viewer. We know what is going to happen before it happens & it doesn't really matter. The tide of evil comes on almost like a gentle ocean tide; you're in it before you notice the beach is gone.The term special needs, doesn't really play out here, as it didn't exist at that time. Special Ed. perhaps but this doesn't involve education. It is as the book title in the movie said, 'Psychopathia Sexualis' which doesn't necessarily require what we term today special needs as a spawning ground. It's the inability to deal with sexual maturation that drives this movie. Other movies that deal with this subject are Black Swan of 2010 & perhaps the best known, Repulsion by Roman Polanski (1965) from the UK also. Twisted Nerve is about the male end of the story while the other two deal with this psychosis & dual personality on the female end. Strangely or perhaps obviously the two female centered movies deal with the opposite ends of one mental health strata that being the "does harm to others" end the other is "does harm to self". Repulsion deals with "does harm to others" while Black Swan deals with "does harm to self".Hywel Bennett is very good here as the troubled soul & Hayley Mills comes across as a full blown young adult (with boobs). I'm going to have to check on Hywel Bennett at IMDb as I'm totally unaware of him. While no role here is complicated except for Bennett's they are all competently portrayed. Heck I like this movie better as I type. It's not an Oscar contender but it is a couple of steps above the norm. I'll say "An enjoyable ride."

ackstasis In 1960, two respected British directors debuted shocking psychosexual thrillers, to mixed critical and commercial receptions: Alfred Hitchcock with 'Psycho,' and Michael Powell with 'Peeping Tom.' Both films were shocking in their time, and their influence on low-budget 1960s horror can't be overstated. Roy Boulting's 'Twisted Nerve (1968)' is a typical Hitchcock rip-off, but of the serious, stylish Brian De Palma mould, rather than the schlocky comic-horror of William Castle. The film introduces us to Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett), the younger brother of a man suffering from "mongolism," the condition now known as Down Syndrome. Though seemingly healthy a birth, it seems that young Martin has developed some psychopathic, psychosexual tendencies, inextricably linked to a chromosomal mismatch at conception. Martin pretends to be mentally-challenged in order to get into bed with the virginal Susan (Disney favourite Hayley Mills, later the director's much-younger wife), only to instead capture the attentions of Susan's lonely mother (Billie Whitelaw) – did I mention this film was rather twisted?Though the film treats its absurd, gloriously un-PC narrative with the utmost seriousness, it is nevertheless startlingly effective at capturing the main character's psychoses. Bennett's performance is menacing and pathetic in equal degree, playing a sort of introverted Alex DeLarge, whose wicked intentions are always bubbling beneath an otherwise honest exterior. 'Twisted Nerve' also features a maddeningly catchy musical theme, memorably recycled in Tarantino's 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2004),' composed by Bernard Hermann, who by this time was estranged from Hitchcock on account of his rejected score for 'Torn Curtain (1967).' Nevertheless, it's clear that Alfred Hitchcock himself both saw and enjoyed 'Twisted Nerve,' as he cast both Barry Foster and Billie Whitelaw in his own back-to-basics British shocker 'Frenzy (1972).' Due to controversy surrounding its depiction of Down Syndrome, the film opens with a spoken announcement that attempts to shirk responsibility for its political incorrectness, but without much luck. I probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Coventry Clearly this production stepped on some sensitive toes around the time of its release, as it opens with two separate statements – one spoken and one written – assuring us there's absolutely no scientifically proved evidence that there might be a link between Mongolism and criminal behavior. It's of course a very provocative and courageous assumption to revolve a psycho-thriller on, especially during the late 60's and even more so with the close-minded and easily offended board of censorship in Britain around that time. No wonder "Twisted Nerve" rapidly grew out to become a controversial and harshly hated gem that only just recently got put back into the spotlights, partly thanks to the fancy DVD-edition and partly because no less than Quentin Tarantino used the catchy and bone-chilling theme whistle song for his own already classic 2004 epic "Kill Bill". "Twisted Nerve" is definitely one of the most unique and original psycho-thrillers ever made; on par with that other legendary British cult-shocker "Peeping Tom" and easily several classes above all the rest in its genre. Martin is a young schizophrenic (or is he?) who obtains whatever he desires by posing (or actually being?) as Georgie; an intellectually underdeveloped but well-mannered and helpful boy. As the arrogant Martin, he's kicked out of the parental house by his dominant stepfather, but as the innocent Georgie he's taken in by the cherubic Susan and her mother who run a boarding house just outside of London. From inside this safe environment, Martin can plot a fiendish revenge against his stepfather and simultaneously become an essential part in the life of the unsuspecting Susan. The extremely intelligent script – courtesy of Leo Marks and director Roy Boulting himself – comes up with what is pretty much the perfect murder (even more waterproof than Alfred Hitchcock could ever come up with) and it's so courageously twisted and blunt that the film is guaranteed to appeal to fans of controversial cinema. Quite late in the film, there's a lecture about the connection between criminal tendencies and an "error" in the hereditary chromosomes' structure that will make you wonder how come an angry crowd of offended Brits didn't burn all existing copies on a big pile. There's more controversial stuff going on as well, like the suggestive sexual tension between a mature woman (Billie Whitelaw is a stupendous role) and the allegedly mentally handicapped boy, a demented showcasing of motherly love and even the dubious sexual preference of Martin's character itself. Martin slash Georgie is a pretty petrifying character, constantly altering his behavior between a dangerous delinquent and a handsome young lad with the intellectual capacities of a 6-year-old. Hywell Bennett's performance ranks amongst the best ones ever and the indescribably ravishing Hayley Mills is equally astonishing as Susan. There's very little graphic violence shown on screen, but in the case of this film it's definitely the uncanny ambiance and the carefully drawn characterizations that will cause the hairs in the back of your neck to rise.