Clock Tower - The First Fear

"Clock Tower: The First Fear" is a 2017 psychological horror film, directed and produced by Alexandre Aja, and starring Anya Taylor Joy, Angourie Rice, Sophie Cookson, and Ellie Bamber, alongside Tilda Swinton as the leading antagonist. The film was scored by Thom Yorke of Radiohead, who also composed the score for Luca Guadagnino's reimagining of the supernatural psychological horror film Suspiria. The film follows a young woman, Jennifer Simpson, who is forced to fight for survival when her adoptive sisters are murdered by a disfigured young boy wielding a pair of large scissors.

Plot

The film begins with a young woman named Eva, as she drunkenly staggers out of a Norwegian pub in a small town. The woman is followed by an unseen figure who chases her down an alleyway, before murdering her with a large pair of scissors. Two weeks later on December 18th, 1986, four young orphan girls, composed of Jennifer, Laura, Ann, and Lotte, are escorted to The Barrows Mansion, which is located in a heavily wooded, mountainous area, by their social worker, only known as Mary. They have been adopted by Simon Barrows, the owner of the mansion which is known as The Clock Tower, due to the large clock tower that overlooks the surrounding forest. They arrive at the mansion, and find the front door already unlocked for them, but Mr. Barrows is nowhere to be found. An annoyed Mary goes to search for him so she can return to the orphanage, but she disappears for an hour. Jennifer volunteers to look for Mary, while the three other girls wait in the front parlor. She leaves the room and searches through the house, but finds nothing and no one, and runs back to the front room when she hears loud screams. While Jennifer is gone, the three girls are attacked by a disfigured man wielding a pair of scissors, who wounds Lotte. Laura and Ann separate, and Laura hides in one of the bathrooms with the telephone. As she attempts to call for help, the disfigured man severs the phone line, before bursting into the bathroom. He stabs and disembowels Laura, before abandoning her corpse in the bathtub. Meanwhile, Jennifer finds the other girls have disappeared, and furniture and other objects have been overturned. She begins searching for her other friends, and is alarmed when she notices water overflowing from a bathroom in one of the hallways. When she investigates, Jennifer discovers Laura's disemboweled corpse, with her tongue ripped out, floating in the bathtub. A frightened Jennifer leaves the bathroom to search for a phone to call for help, but the power is knocked out by the storm. Suddenly, Ann is heard screaming in the hallway, and Jennifer watches from the bedroom window as an unseen figure impales Ann through the chest, before pushing her to the ground below, killing her. The figure notices Jennifer and rushes to the bedroom she is in, while Jennifer hides under one of the beds in the room. The figure enters the bedroom and searches for Jennifer, but finds nothing and leaves. As Jennifer searches through the rest of the mansion, she discovers an old nursery, as well as a bricked-up old room, where she discovers a skeleton and a note, which reveals the skeleton is Jennifer's father, and that Mary is the wife of Simon Barrows, who had supposedly adopted the girls. The contents of the letter reveal that Mary had two twin sons, who were disfigured at birth that Jennifer's father helped to deliver. Jennifer concludes that one of the two twin boys and Mary are behind the killings. Jennifer attempts to escape in one of the vehicles in the garage, but is knocked unconscious by Mary, and later wakes up in a cage next to an unstable man covered in his own defecation and urine. Lotte appears and rescues Jennifer, but is shot and killed by Mary, who attacks Jennifer. Jennifer strikes her on the head with a wooden board, knocking her unconscious. Jennifer escapes the shed and runs through the woods before reaching what seems to be an abandoned sanctuary. She discovers the sanctuary leads to an underground structure of corridors, in which Jennifer is attacked by Bobby's twin brother, Daniel, who is a gluttonous, hideous monster. Jennifer uses a canister of lighter fluid to stop Daniel, who is killed in the ensuing fire set by Jennifer. Jennifer is then attacked by Bobby, who chases her down a corridor, before escaping in a dumbwaiter. She reaches the top of a tower, and is attacked by Bobby, who climbs up the rope of the dumbwaiter. Bobby attempts to impale Jennifer using his scissors, but Jennifer outwits him by dodging his attack and knocking him into the moving gears of the tower's clock. When Bobby is killed, a now insane Mary appears and attempts to murder Jennifer using Bobby's scissors, as retribution, but Jennifer pushes Mary into the switchboard, which instantly kills her. Jennifer then perches on the edge of the tower, as the Sun rises over the surrounding woods and mansion. The final scene shows Jennifer as she finally leaves the mansion to get help.

Main Cast

Anya Taylor-Joy as Jennifer Simpson

Tilda Swinton as Mary Barrows

Angourie Rice as Laura Harrington

Sophie Cookson as Ann

Ellie Bamber as Lotte

Patrick Wilson as Dr. Walter Simpson

Malcolm McDowell as Simon Barrows

Emily Rainey as Eva

Cast Gallery

Jennifer Simpson

Mrs. Mary Barrows

Bobby Barrows

Simon Barrows

Walter Simpson

Scott Hardy

Charlotte "Lotte" Silverjett

Laura Harrington

Henry Morgan

Dylan Reed

Anne Collins

Larry Stanller

Lindsy Falton

Erick Hale

Michael Hyde