Carving out his own territory in the ’70s field of sexually-charged thrillers with head games in striking locales, Jerzy Skolimowski sustains an enveloping yet disorienting tone. In an isolated picturesque pocket of Devon, mysterious drifter Alan Bates gloms onto experimental sound recordist John Hurt and wife Susannah York, bending her to his will. The score by Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford of Genesis is enhanced with electronics by Rupert Hine.

Jeremy Thomas: My friend Michael Austin had written a screenplay based on a short story by Robert Graves. Great concept, man can kill with a shout by his voice, but not a horror movie in any way. I was a great admirer of Jerzy Skolimowski and his film “Deep End”, so I chased him down, and he immediately wanted to direct the film. He was so well-regarded by actors that we were able to adapt the script with a cast that would be difficult to assemble in today’s independent cinema: Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens, Tim Curry, Jim Broadbent. 36 days filming on location in Devon. My second feature, and we were irresponsibly happy. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes, and amazingly 50 years later, the film has just broken even, and I worked with Jerzy again for the fourth time on “EO”.