Refuge of Fear (1974)

Refuge of Fear (1974)
aka: El refugio del miedo, Creation Of The Damned
Director: José Ulloa
Writer: Miguel Sanz, José Ulloa
Country: Spain Runtime: 91 min Soundtrack: Juan Pineda
Cast: Craig Hill, Patty Shepard, Teresa Gimpera
A husband and wife along with their son and another couple find themselves stuck in a rather sophisticated underground bomb shelter after a nuclear war, with there only contact with the outside world being a somewhat temperamental short-wave radio. But an affair between the son and the wife of their friend, along with boredom, drug abuse and diminishing supplies cause tempers to flare and things slowly descend in to desperation.

After a nuclear bomb has wiped out most of the US, Robert his wife Marge along with their son Chris (adopted son of Robert) and their neighbors Arthur and Carol are all shacked up together in Roberts state of the art bomb shelter. Their only contact is a lone radio signal they receive from another survivor named Peter. Due to the confined nature of being underground they slowly start to come undone. Carol has an affair with Chris, which causes friction among the two couples. It comes to an head when Arthur becomes sick and dies, shortly afterwards Chris who Carol suspects has killed her husband decides to go to the surface where he knows he'll eventually become sick and die from the radioactive fallout. Next Marge becomes ill and dies, and a clearer picture unfolds that Roberts planned the proceedings all along because hes become infatuated with Carol, wanting her to become Eve to his Adam.

Overly soapy plot twists and acting, and flat direction hampers what could have been a fantastic sleazy post apocalyptic film. The brief segment with Chris going top side as a lone survivor among the dead was pretty good and reminiscent of Charles Hestons Omega Man, but the highlight was actress Patty Shepard as the horny housewife Carol. She does a strip tease for all the group, wanders into Chris's room naked, then later during her sex scene with him delivers the films best line "those shrieks on the radio, sound like souls trapped in hell". The ending is really peculiar, it cuts to years before the bomb with both couples sitting in a garden, while Robert picks out his choice of shelter. Not sure if it was pointing at him having day dreamt the whole thing, or maybe having planned the whole thing years earlier, whatever its intention it failed. I wouldn't rush out of my way to see it again, but its worth at least one view, the only other film of the top of my head I remember being set in a shelter was Paul Bartels Shelf Life.

Themes Included: Post Apocalypse ● Nuclear Bomb ● Bomb Shelter

Cultdb Totals
[Rated 5½ out of 10]
[Deathcount 4]
[Gorequota 3/10]
[Boobquota 1/10]