When I first saw Summer
of Fear (which I knew as Stranger in
Our House, the title by which it originally aired) at the age of five or
six, it terrified me. Terr-i-fied
me. Its insidious “I’m the only
one who realizes the monster is a monster” premise, hellish climax, and queasy
slow-mo closing credits gave me years of nightmares. No exaggeration. Rewatching
Summer of Fear nearly forty years
later, I no longer find it particularly scary, but it is great fun as a time
capsule of super-seventies fright wigs (perms for everyone!) and polyester wardrobe and quite effective as simple horror premise. Blair is
very good as the initially petulant, increasingly harried, ultimately heroic teen, and she and Lee
Purcell have terrific antagonistic chemistry. It’s also interesting to see Wes
Craven tone down his trademark nastiness for a subtler approach to
horror.
On the cusp of its fortieth anniversary, Summer of Fear comes to Blu-ray via
Dopplegänger
Releasing. The film looks its age with a fair share of scratches, specs, and
blotches. The picture is generally soft and grainy, but it is still very
watchable. Interior scenes tend to be dark and low on detail, but exterior daytime scenes look good and the overall clarity seems to improve about halfway through the movie. Extras include a commentary by Wes Craven’s, which has been ported
over from Artisan’s 2003 DVD, a short image gallery, and a neat new 13-minute
on screen interview with Linda Blair, who discusses the film’s casting, her
rapport with that cast, Wes Craven’s directing style, a disturbing stunt involving a horse
that clearly made an impression on animal rights activist Blair.
