Twisted Nerve
Twisted Nerve
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 1, 2025
I was not familiar with this era of Hayley Mills filmography (post Pollyanna/Parent Trap, pre Miss Bliss/Saved by the Bell). So that, and Tarantino’s commandeering of the whistle score for Kill Bill had had me intrigued for a while. All in all. This was a pretty solid thriller. Controversial in it’s time for it’s thematics on chromosomal abnormalities and criminal behavior, but honestly there’s all kinds of dialogue that ranged from casually racist to misogynist to lots of other -ists. Still, at the center of it all is Mills, wholesome as ever as Susan, who’s being stalked by a boy essentially because she showed him some kindness and he showed her some dong. My goodness was not expecting Susan’s mommy to be as hospitable to little Georgie boy. There’s some funny moments, too. I think I died when the doctors are like “oh, you’re on your bed pan right now? 😬 I think we’re gonna bounce then.”
Overall, I liked this more than I expected. A few more kills would have been nice but that’s kind of par for the course for a 60’s slasher. This definitely has me curious to check out some of Mills’ other thrillers from this era,