This is a little gem of a horror film that I only recently discovered almost 50 years after it's initial release. Shelley Winters plays a deranged widow who hosts Christmas parties for orphaned children in her countryside mansion in England, however she keeps the mummified remains of her dead daughter locked up in the attic after a traumatic accident that occurred years earlier.
When one particular girl turns up at a party and reminds her of her daughter she becomes obsessed and decides to lock her up in the attic as well, so it's left to her brother played by Mark Lester in a similar role he played in Oliver! (1968), to rescue her after the authorities refuse to believe him.
With a good supporting cast of Ralph Richardson, Judy Cornwall, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith and Michael Gothard under the assured direction of American director Curtis Harrington this is a neat psychological thriller with moments of horror in a loose adaptation of Hansel and Gretel that is both fun and unsettling. Winters hams it up to good effect when she needs to, going from jovial to psychotic at a moments notice, but also chooses to play her character as a lonely and pathetic figure.
Penned by Hammer Films regular Jimmy Sangster this AIP US co-production with British company Hemdale is another entry in the so-called psycho-biddy sub-genre that began with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). I detected moments in this film that could have inspired Spielberg to make Poltergiest (1982) and did the moment when Shelley Winters pokes her head through the broken door panel near the end give Stanley Kubrick his 'Here's Johnny' moment?
When one particular girl turns up at a party and reminds her of her daughter she becomes obsessed and decides to lock her up in the attic as well, so it's left to her brother played by Mark Lester in a similar role he played in Oliver! (1968), to rescue her after the authorities refuse to believe him.
With a good supporting cast of Ralph Richardson, Judy Cornwall, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith and Michael Gothard under the assured direction of American director Curtis Harrington this is a neat psychological thriller with moments of horror in a loose adaptation of Hansel and Gretel that is both fun and unsettling. Winters hams it up to good effect when she needs to, going from jovial to psychotic at a moments notice, but also chooses to play her character as a lonely and pathetic figure.
Penned by Hammer Films regular Jimmy Sangster this AIP US co-production with British company Hemdale is another entry in the so-called psycho-biddy sub-genre that began with What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). I detected moments in this film that could have inspired Spielberg to make Poltergiest (1982) and did the moment when Shelley Winters pokes her head through the broken door panel near the end give Stanley Kubrick his 'Here's Johnny' moment?