"I Start Counting" http://www.beardyfreak.com/rvcounting.php
Wynne (Jenny Agutter), an adopted schoolgirl has a growing crush on her elder foster brother George (Bryan Marshall).
At the same time a series of local sex attacks on young women is haunting the town.....
Welcome to the world of dusty, long forgotten, stuck at the back of the highest shelf, British flicks that pushed new boundaries in content and subject but got lost in the shuffle between ‘Hammer’, ‘Amicus’, ‘Tigon’ and ‘Carry On’ films.
“I Start Counting” is a weird hybrid of kitchen sick drama, risqué coming of age flick and sex predator exploitation.
Don’t go expecting an explicit sex killer on the loose exploitation ride like the same year’s
“Night, After Night, After Night”, as here the main focus is on Wynne’s growing realisation of her own sexuality and dispossession from her adopted family.
The other main point of the film is the changing times that Wynne’s generation are maturing into. This is the tail end of the swinging sixties and loud music you parents don’t like is the norm, skirts as short as can be without getting a clip round the ear are the fashion and more open and frank attitudes to sex are creeping into daily life.
And it is here that the film’s positive attributes shine forth.
These aspects of life in England during this time are a fascinating part of the film and anyone with an interest in such explosive times of social upheaval will find much to enjoy here.
Religious connection to sex is carried on throughout the film with many a pure white wall, or shining bright light dominating the scene where sometimes that purity becomes stained…like a fine scene where Wynne imagines what seems to be her Mother lying dead at the bottom of some cellar stairs, as the young version of herself touches the blood pooling under her Mum's head only to quickly wipe crimson trails upon her pretty white dress as blood that meant death to the young Wynne mirrors the menstrual blood of life that is about to enter the older Wynne’s life as her body catches up with her mind concerning her feelings for George.
The biggest metaphor though comes in the form of the sex murders.
The unseen killer is the danger that comes from her newly found desire.
The simplistic meaning is sex at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong man can be literally deadly, but they also stand for the fact that there are consequences when you become sexually active, more serious aspects to desire than just the girlish thrill of a touch or a look.
Really, I think purposely but I don’t think in a preaching way, the killer becomes the great big Catholic bogeyman of sinful sexual encounters and their repercussions.
So we have many interesting things happening within the story and the rough, gritty, look of the film also adds to the whole vibe of the time.
If the exploitation aspect of the story is tame indeed as far as the killings go, it has a bigger influence during the day to day scenes of Wynne’s life.
And it is here we just have to mention the young Jenny Agutter.
Looking as cute as the cutest thing in the house of cute in the land of much cuteness she shows that shyness has never meant much too her (as her subsequent film career would delightfully prove) as the opening credit sequence includes the 16 year old Agutter putting on and walking around in her underwear as she gets dressed into her school uniform.
I feel like a dirty old man just typing such things!
But this is not just a bit of cheeky exploitation as the carefree scene of her getting dressed shows us not only the budding young woman but that this budding young woman is still in the guise of a schoolgirl.
That contradictory time between dressing as you did when you were 12 but having the growing body and feelings of a young woman is effectively set out for us before the narrative even begins.
Agutter, away from her obvious physical presence, also delivers a genuinely satisfying acting performance as the confused, torn, Wynne.
She really comes into her own during the numerous daydream/fantasy/flashback moments and shows some real fire during the finale as the film turns into a more conventional ‘damsel in distress’ fright flick.
Away from Jenny the marvelous Bryan Marshall shows why it’s a crying shame he did not have a bigger career (his undoubted triumph is his great turn as the scheming Counselor Harris in the classic
“The Long Good Friday”) as he skilfully essays George as a character we truly have no idea about as far as him being the killer is concerned.
The only other person who sticks out is the young Simon Ward (just on the cusp of a mini-breakthrough in
“Frankenstein must be Destroyed”) as a rather leery Bus Conductor.
So what we have with “I Start Counting” is a real mish-mash of ideas (even genres) that sometimes works sublimely well as far as linking metaphors from one plot strand to another goes, but at times also seems to not focus enough on one aspect (the killings) while rather treading water on some of the more kitchen sink drama stuff goes.
And if the screen time is too truncated and the exploitation aspects too diluted as far as the sex killings go (away from the genuinely affective finale inside an abandoned house that delivers a couple of good, dark, shocks), the sight of a young Jenny Agutter is always going to be a big plus, as is the clever look at such a vital era in the history of Great Britain and the influence it had on those who had to crawl their way to adulthood within it.