The greatest movie ever made..!

Sadly Over-hyped

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

'House of mortal sin' has an eerie premise, and some scenes on their own work okay, but there is too much silliness going on. Our leading pretty lady all too easily takes back her lover who had left her just the day before, only for the purpose of having our baddie kill the wrong guy. Then on to our baddie, who turns out to be a very silly mama's boy who never knew about the woman who really loved him all along. Or maybe he did and never cared; when she finally offs herself he is none to bothered. There are plenty of other questions popping up from time to time; why does the mother of the first 'murdered' woman not go to the police when she sees a body being buried (or at least write down that information in case she doesn't make it)? How can the disabled mother of Xavier write on a piece of paper, hide it from the ones who take care of her and know who to trust with it? Et cetera, and so on.It cóuld have worked, but it didn't. Sure, some scenes are atmospheric, some parts are utterly creepy, the kills are quite gruesome and the soundtrack is mostly just fine for a b-horror movie, but it never becomes more than that. Especially with the tagline on the poster in mind: 'The Omen', 'The exorcist', 'The Confessional' (the latter being the alternative title to this one), the unholy trinity is now complete. That's pretty pretentious...A small 6 out of 10.

Catholic priest Father Xavier Meldrum (Anthony Sharp) becomes obsessed with parishioner Jenny Welch (Susan Penhaligon) who unwisely pays a visit to his confessional after a break-up with her boyfriend. Excited by the gorgeous young woman, but unable to have her, Meldrum is driven to kill using rosary beads, a flaming incense burner and poisoned communion wafers as his weapons.House of Mortal Sin sees British exploitation legends David McGillivray and Pete Walker having fun at the expense of Catholicism, depicting the murderous antics of a sexually frustrated Catholic priest with a mother complex whose mind has been twisted by a lifetime of repressed carnal urges. It should be a whole lot of salacious silliness, but sadly falls short of the mark.Despite the film's deliberately controversial subject matter and plenty of sadistic violence, House of Mortal Sin is actually one of my least favourite Walker movies thanks to a dreary narrative, a plodding pace and surprisingly uninspired direction. Penhaligon is lovely as the poor subject of Meldrum's attention but is given little to do other than look frightened; likewise, Sheila Keith is wasted in yet another role that calls for her to be cruel and emotionless.

After having been told by a friend about Pete Walker's warped Women In Prison film House of Whipcord,I decided that I should first pay a visit to Walker's "religious Giallo" at the House of Mortal Sin.The plot:Walking back home to the shop that she runs with her sister Vanessa,Jenny Welch bumps into an old friend who she has not seen in years called Bernard Cuttler,who Jenny is shocked to discover,has come to her village due to recently having become in priest for the local church.Finding it surprisingly easy to be completely open to Bernard about the recent messy end to the relationship with her long time boyfriend,Jenny is told by Cuttler that she should go and visit the church tomorrow,so that they can continue their discussion there.The next day:Finding that the church is currently taking confessions,Jennny decides to go into the confession box,in the hope of continuing her conversation with Cutler.To Jenny's disappointment,she discovers that instead of Cutler,the head vicar Father Xavier Meldrum is taking confessions.Deciding to stay for confession,Jenny begins to tell Meldrum about the feelings that she still has for her ex-boyfriend.Expecting Xavier to talk to her in an understanding manner,Welch is instead horrified to find Meldrum pushing her into giving more info about her "bedroom" activates.Getting out of the confession box,and running away from the church,Jenny soon discovers that Meldrum is prepared to do everything necessary to make sure that none of his "sheep" escape from the flock.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,writer David McGillivray gives an extremely clever,reverse twist to the Giallo outline,by making it that the audience sees the (sometimes) black glove wearing killer priest in plain sight,but the character's in the movie are unable to,due to be blinded by a fog-like faith that "their" saint:Father Xavier Meldrum would ever do something that would hurt his flock.Along with the sinister Meldrum, (who has more than a little Norman Bates about him) McGillivray also fills the Meldrum's church with a number of shadowy character's who are more than happy to get hold of a razor blade,the moment that they risk being exposed,with Shelia Keith's tremendous,stern performance as Meldrum's aide Miss Brabazon being a particular highlight,as Keith shows Brabazon a deranged,almost totalitarian military general,who is willing to do anything to protect her captain.Being drawn to the story partly due to being a lapsed Catholic,director Pete Walker attacks the institution of the church with a relish that the Italian Giallo directors surprisingly stayed mostly away from, (perhaps over fears about facing troubles with the Vatican?) with Walker smartly using the religious setting as a way to give the brilliantly stylised murder scenes a strong,gritty feel,that goes from strangling someone with Rosemary beads,to openly killing one of the townsfolk at Sunday Mass!Along with the stylish killings,Walker also gives the movie a good Film Noir touch,as Jenny Welch (played by a terrific Susan Penhaligon) continues to walk round in her long raincoat,pulling those around her into the trouble that she finds her self in,that leads to Walker giving the movie an amazingly harsh,brutal and nihilistic ending that shows the saints and sinners of the village all ending up in the same bleak place.

Spoilers!!!What words come to mind after watching THE CONFESSIONAL? How about dour, sour, dreary, miserable, trashy, silly. Did I say dour? Watching THE CONFESSIONAL is as exciting as going to the doctor's office. It's miserably serious and silly at the same time. The mood of the film is fatalistic, very anti-Catholic and pessimistic, and yet the conveniently contrived plot twists in the script are constructed in such a way that one can't help but giggle at the silliness of it all, which clashes with the super seriousness of Walker's direction. The funniest parts are with the good Priest and his love affair with perpetually ditzy looking Stephanie Beacham. This trashy and useless plotline is just there to make fun of Catholic priests' oath of celibacy. It has very little to do with the main story and even when the good priest finds Beacham dead at the evil priest's home, he seems to be totally indifferent with the fact that the woman he was in love with and was about to leave the church for has been strangled to death. Seeing the dead Stephanie with her eyes bulging and tongue sticking out, tucked away in the background while the two priests talked made for some unintentional "Monty Pythonesque" moments. The script is filled with such silly moments that could have looked even more funny hadn't the direction been so dour and serious. Every single character in the movie deserved a miserable and painful death because they were so freaking stupid.Critics complain that Dario Argento's movies are all flash and no substance. Well, at least his movie are great to look at (his earlier movies though). THE CONFESSIONAL wants to be a giallo of sorts but its uninspired direction and zero style make it a chore to sit through. This is my first Pete Walker movie and if THE CONFESSIONAL is one of his best films, well, I actually don't want to see another movie of his.