This singularly off-beat and original period mystery thriller drama curio set in the late 1800's plays like an arrestingly bizarre and inspired cross between "Tom Sawyer" and "Night of the Hunter." Lonely, miserable orphan buy George (a then 12-years-old Edward Albert in his excellent film debut) runs away from his stern, sadistic, abusive foster parents. George meets and befriends a cranky, grubby, but amicable elderly hermit (a sensationally spirited turn by Henry Hull of "The Werewolf of London" fame) who tells him a scary story about a strange 8 foot tall ax-wielding mythical bogeyman figure known as "the fool killer." Anthony Perkins has one of his best, most effectively creepy and compelling post-"Psycho" idiosyncratic wacko parts as Milo, a weird, quiet, disturbed, shell-shocked and enigmatic Civil War vet itinerant loner who suffers from amnesia and may or may not be the deranged murderous madman of local legend.
Sumptuously photographed in crisp black and white by Alex Phillips, Jr., with a fine harmonic folk music score, beautifully fluid editing (the graceful wipes, fades and dissolves are especially sweet), and strong, flavorsome direction by Servando Gonzalez, this spell-bindingly moody and atmospheric oddity wins the viewer over with its intriguingly spooky story, leisurely pacing, engaging array of colorfully quirky characters, and vivid, pungent, powerfully brooding Southern Gothic ambiance. An unjustly overlooked and underrated one-of-a-kind sleeper.
Sumptuously photographed in crisp black and white by Alex Phillips, Jr., with a fine harmonic folk music score, beautifully fluid editing (the graceful wipes, fades and dissolves are especially sweet), and strong, flavorsome direction by Servando Gonzalez, this spell-bindingly moody and atmospheric oddity wins the viewer over with its intriguingly spooky story, leisurely pacing, engaging array of colorfully quirky characters, and vivid, pungent, powerfully brooding Southern Gothic ambiance. An unjustly overlooked and underrated one-of-a-kind sleeper.