Identify British Horror-Type Film (with minimal plot details)

Extremely minimal plot details, in fact.

Right, this may or may not have been made for television. Television is where I saw it at some point in the mid to late-ish 1980s (which doesn’t necessarily mean that is when it was made.

There is a couple on a canal boat (on a holiday trip, I think, rather than permanently living) and they take aboard another guy - perhaps his boat has broken down or something. Sex and violence ensue (wife fascinated by this stranger, that sort of thing.) Not the big loud explosion type of violence - more like sneaky human stuff.

I seem to recall there’s a bit of tying people up in dark cupboards - either wife or husband or possibly both at different times. I do not recall if anyone got killed, but I recall it all being pretty dark. Well, it seemed a bit scary to me, but scaring me isn’t difficult.

I recall some phrase like “Limit of Navigation” which I thought must be the title, but it does not seem to be.

What else can I think of? Let’s see. I do not have the impression that it was ever a particularly famous film/drama/whatever, but I could be wrong about that. No especially famous actors, as far as I can recall.

I don’t know why I want to know about this. Really, it is just the maddening annoyance of a bit of useless trivia that I cannot recall. For some reason, I just Googled it, you see, and the only reference I found was someone else asking for identification of what I am sure is the same film. Haha, the answer given to that person involved an Alan Ayckbourn “comedy-horror”. Nope, I don’t think this can possibly have been Ayckbourn, and I don’t recall any comedy.
(I found it quite funny that just when one assumes that Google will find anything, all I could find was someone else looking for the same thing).

So, asking for no really important purpose, and will very little hope of an answer, but I figure that the Dope has plenty of other people who hate it when they forget a title or writer or whatever, so it’s worth a try. :slight_smile:

Dead Calm?

Way Upstream

Heh, amazingly fast, there, elfkin and I’m grateful. :slight_smile:

BUT in fact the mystery deepens. 1989 is possible, and the plot is very similar, except that my “I wish I had not watched that before going to bed” film does seem to live in my memory as a barge or a narrowboat probably in southern England somewhere, rather than the more exotic yachts-in-the-Pacific thing. Indeed it was probably the familiar sort of setting that helped make it seem upsetting.

Hmm, either I am conflating two different films - entirely possible, as I’m not the cinéaste type with a copy of Halliwell’s at my side, OR two different films with very similar plot, which is also possible.

(Scratches head) So I’m not much the wiser, but I do thank you for that. It could just possibly be “Dead Calm.”.
(And I just nearly invented a whole new film called “Dead Clam” - doesn’t sound so scary, though.) :slight_smile:

See, that’s the one I discounted because it just did not seem like Alan Ayckbourn, but the general idea of getting mixed up with a dangerous nutter on a boat **is **the same, only I don’t remember much “comedy” involved.

Heck, this must be a pretty popular plot. Or I misremember badly.

Bah, either of you could be right. I feel very stupid.

Thank you both.

I don’t know about that. If you’ve ever eaten one that’s gone bad …

Back again.

I opened two threads on this by accident and did report that. However, it’s academic now, as I now agree that GuanoLad is clever and is right about “Way Upstream”. This

http://wayupstream.alanayckbourn.net/WayUpstreamHistory.htm

with mentions of a departure from Ayckbourn’s more familiar style fits entirely.

Thank you to everyone. I love it when a seemingly impossible trivia thing can be sorted out. And it will teach me not to trust to my own incorrect preconceptions too. :slight_smile: