This is How Movies Should Be Made

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

When a virginal bride (Stephanie Beacham) heads to her new home, she has no idea of the horrors ahead of her. Husband to be Ian Ogilvy is a wealthy landowner who is tortured by his family's past. It seems that Grandpa Herbert Lom (now deceased) committed some evil on the woodsman (Geoffrey Whitehead) and his wife, and a curse has moved onto the future generations. Unfortunately, it will be the sweetly innocent Beacham who suffers at the hands of this revenge, but the evil of the past must be avenged....This is a genuinely spooky horror film, a lot like some later mainstream horror films of the late 70's/early 80's ("The Sentinel", "The Changeling", "Ghost Story"), even if it looks like many of the horror films made by Hammer or American International from the late 50's on. Beacham, best known to American audiences for her multi-faceted role as Sable on "The Colbys" and later on "Dynasty", is ravishingly beautiful as well as a very good actress. Why she hasn't had a career in films beyond these string of horror films is as mysterious as the plot line here. (Fortunately, she's been better utilized on stage; She has a presence that takes her a step beyond the usual horror film heroine.) Lom, a veteran actor with a long career in a large variety of genres, is quite menacing as the film's villain, seen in a well-filmed flashback. Geoffrey Whitehead adds scariness and pathos to his pathetic character.Unfortunately, Peter Cushing is wasted as the doctor who comes on half way through the film to help unravel the mystery as any Van Helsing would. But there are enough chills thanks to the crawling hand (that apparently has ears to hear) and mysteriously opening windows to keep you hooked.

This takes places in 1795 England. Young Catherine (Stephanie Beacham) marries Charles Fengiffen (Ian Ogilvy) and moves to live with him at his remote ancestral estate. She's attacked by a spirit on her wedding night, starts seeing an eyeless grinning man and a disembodied hand crawling around. Is she going mad or is there some family curse? Sounds good but this turns out to be a dreary, slow-moving horror movie. The drama drags along and seems longer than it's 90 minutes. It's also horribly edited with scenes ending just when they're starting to get interesting. Ogilvy and Beacham are pretty bad but the script does them no favors. Even old pros like Herbert Lom, Peter Cushing and Patrick Magee seem bored in supporting roles. However this does have a few things going for it. There's some incredibly beautiful art direction and nice cinematography. Also the ending does work. Worth a look for horror fans. I give it a 5.

This movie screamed me to death when I was sixteen hiding under the covers, eating butter popcorn. I saw this not too long ago on AMC.It is about a recent married couple moving into a huge mansion-castle, in late 1700s in England. The Bride is haunted by a painting of her husband's grandfather's portrait. She is frighteningly drawn to it. She sees a floating severe hand coming out of the portrait. Her husband at first thinks it is nerves and brings a doctor to come to her side. The doctor wants him to tell her the truth of a dark family secret, her husband refuses insist that it is fairly tale. The doctor tells him, "If you don't I will." Then suddenly he is afraid and does not.What Dark Family Secret is her husband hiding? Why won't he tell her the truth? Why is portrait of his grandfather haunts her so?

First, I know I am probably going to irritate some readers when I mention this, but I really think the stars of the film were Stephanie Beacham's breasts. Ms. Beacham (known to most American's as 'Sable' from THE COLBY'S) has always been a very attractive and shapely lady, but in this film set at about the year 1790, the dresses she wore throughout the film were extremely low-cut and they tended to highly over-exaggerate her already ample assets. I love my wife dearly and try to never look at another woman, but it was absolutely impossible for any straight man to watch the film without staring! Oddly, while Ms. Beacham (and her breasts) are the clearly the stars of the film, she is listed fourth in the credits (and and no mention of her chest at all).Now, apart from my rather off-color remarks, let's get on to the review. This is a British horror film that is pretty ordinary for the first half. A new bride comes to the mansion and sees a lot of frightening images, though no one else sees them. Slowly, her new hubby starts to think that maybe his wife is unhinged. However, when you learn about the curse and why this is all occurring, then the story gets pretty exciting. In fact, it was nice to see that the longer the film lasted, the better it got. This combined with the relatively low budget make this film a pleasant surprise, as they sure did a lot with what they had. For the casual movie watcher, the film might only merit a 5 or 6, but for horror fans, a score of 7 or 8 don't seem the least bit out of line.