UNMAN, WITTERING AND ZIGO: forget the title, feel the fear

Behind the prosaic yet puzzling title of this 1971 British production lies a genuinely disturbing and gripping story which succeeds in unsettling despite building to a distinctly unsatisfying conclusion.

A cherubically  handsome David Hemmings stars as naive schoolteacher John Ebony who lands his first job at the remote Chantry boarding school for boys somewhere on the English coast. He arrives halfway through the term to replace Mr Pelham, form 5B's previous teacher, who has fallen to his death from nearby cliffs.
The official verdict is that he got lost in the fog but as the boys of 5B soon make crystal clear to Mr Ebony, they murdered him after he got on their bad side and they're quite willing to do the same thing to him if he doesn't agree to their terms. His initial response is to fight back but the boys' willingness to follow up their threats with action soon forces him to yield to their demands.
Hemmings is superb as the idealistic young teacher who's slow to recognise he's way out of his depth despite the blunt warnings from his charges (always couched in the politest of terms and never failing to address him as 'Sir'), the disinterest of the school's headmaster (Douglas Wilmer), and the lack of support from his frustrated wife (Carolyn Seymour) who's struggling to adapt to her new role as a compliant spouse.

Ebony's initial enthusiasm for his new career and misplaced confidence in his ability to best his nakedly evil pupils drains away as director John Mackenzie slowly ratchets up the tension, building to a goose-bump inducing sequence where the boys target Ebony's wife to teach him a lesson. Rarely has a squash court felt like such a terrifying place.
It's tempting to describe UNMAN, WITTERING AND ZIGO as a horror movie, but that wouldn't be strictly accurate. It's more of a psychological thriller, soaked through with menace and an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. The school is just a bus ride away from the nearest town but for all intents and purposes it exists in a separate dimension, buffered from the outside world by rolling hills and those treacherous cliffs. The isolation is essential for the boys' threat to be credible. Intruders with more savvy than the Ebonys would call form 5B on their behaviour and the spell would rapidly be broken.
To call form 5B 'boys' is something of a misnomer. As with almost every film set in a school, the actors are much too old for the parts they're playing (future star Michael Kitchen was 23 at the time) but it's less of a distraction here and doesn't overly detract from the purpose of their presence. Credit is also due to Tony Haygarth (only 3 years older than Kitchen) as the cynical art teacher who takes Ebony under his wing, and embodies the disillusionment with the profession which awaits Ebony if his pupils don't get him first.
Like me, you may not fully understand or accept the final climax, and while that's disappointing it's not of a magnitude to destroy what's come before. If you can find it (and the film's not currently available on DVD) UNMAN WITTERING AND ZIGO is a rewarding and engaging watch best experienced late at night with the lights off.