''I Start Counting'' is a 1970 British

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by David Greene and starring

Jenny Agutter Jennifer Ann Agutter (born 20 December 1952) is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress in 1964, appearing in '' East of Sudan'', ''Star!'', and two adaptations of '' The Railway Children''—the BBC's 1968 television seria ...

and Bryan Marshall. Its plot follows a teenage girl who comes to suspect that her adult foster brother is a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. It was based on the 1966 novel of the same name by

Audrey Erskine Lindop Audrey Erskine Lindop (26 December 1920, London – 7 November 1986, Isle of Wight) was an English writer of various forms of fiction, including crime, mainstream and historical. She was active from 1948 to 1970. She was married to the writer ...

. The film was moderately controversial because of Agutter's squeaky-clean image and youth (16, playing a 14-year-old), when coupled with the film's sexual content.Britmovie.co.uk
It also included

Simon Ward Simon Anthony Fox Ward (16 October 194120 July 2012) was a British stage and film actor. He was known chiefly for his performance as Winston Churchill in the 1972 film ''Young Winston''. He played many other screen roles, including those of Sir ...

's first major film role.

Plot

Wynne Kinch (Agutter), an adopted 14-year-old girl, has a crush on her 32-year-old stepbrother, George ( Bryan Marshall). While spying on George in the bathroom, Wynne notices he has several scratches on his back, and finds a jumper she made for him thrown in the rubbish, with blood on it; this leads her to suspect him of being the serial killer of several local teenage girls, who is still at large. Despite this belief, Wynne continues to have romantic sexual fantasies about George, and dreams of marrying him when she comes of legal age. Throughout the film, she regularly visits the house she previously lived in with her family. Later on, Wynne searches the back of George's van, hoping to find clues but is forced to stay inside and hide when he gets in and drives off. He drives to a house and Wynne discovers that he is having an affair with a mentally unstable woman (

Lana Morris Lana Morris, born Avril Maureen Anita Morris (11 March 1930 – 28 May 1998) was a British film, stage and television actress during the 1950s and 1960s. She played the role of Helene Hillmer in the 1967 BBC adaptation of ''The Forsyte Sag ...

), whose blood was on the discarded jumper after she had slashed her wrists in a suicide attempt. Wynne's best friend Corinne (Clare Sutcliffe) teases her about her crush on George and when the family goes out on a picnic, Corinne flirts with him; he gets angry at her for acting like a "pathetic little mini-tart" and pins her down roughly on the ground. Corinne runs off and later phones Wynne to tell her she will stay out all night with an unnamed boy who, she says, they both know. Wynne, worried about her friend, goes searching for her at her former home and finds Corinne's dead body. About to leave the house she is confronted and trapped inside by the bus conductor who Wynne and Corinne often meet on the bus. He confesses to having killed the girls. Wynne tries to escape. He chases her and she falls into the pond. While helping her out he breaks down in distress, at which point the police arrive. The film ends with Wynne and George watching their old house being demolished.

Cast

Production

Filming

The film was shot at

Bray Studios Bray Productions was a pioneering American animation studio that produced several popular cartoons during the years of World War I and the early interwar era, becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the ...

in Berkshire and on location around Bracknell. The sets were designed by the art director

Brian Eatwell Brian Eatwell (1 June 1939 – 20 January 2007) was a British art director.Stephens p.99 He designed the sets for a number of British and American films and television programmes. Selected filmography * ''The Shuttered Room'' (1967) * ''Just Li ...

Music

The theme song, also titled "I Start Counting", was sung by Lindsey Moore.

Casting

Young Phil Collins makes a little appearance as an ice cream vendor.

References

External links

*
online review
{{Audrey Erskine Lindop 1970 films 1970s thriller films British coming-of-age films British thriller films 1970s English-language films Films based on British novels Films based on thriller novels Films directed by David Greene Films scored by Basil Kirchin British serial killer films United Artists films Films shot at Bray Studios Films shot in Berkshire Films set in England 1970s British films