The Corpse

AKA Crucible of Horror, this movie is a psychological thriller about a sadistic husband and father who plays cruel mental and physical games with his family. When the mother and daughter (Sharon Gurney) have finally decided that they've had enough, they turn the tables on this brutal bully and give him a taste of his own medicine.

For tight, merciless tension and venom, this bloodless movie is uncommonly effective and engrossing. Sharon Gurney is also engrossingly naked, however briefly.

It is one of those films that would be enjoyed by those who grew up on VHS cassettes, but younger views who do not have low budget experience will likely find it tedious.

This had all the ingredients to be a classic film, but ultimately doesn't quite completely hit the mark. The story revolves around the daughter and wife of a dictatorial and cruel man who concoct a seemingly clever method of killing him - making it look like suicide. After quite a muddled start, the film picks up pace once we witness the uncomfortably violent beating by Walter (played by Michael Gough) on his demure and beautiful teenage daughter Jane (Sharon Gurney).

Jane and her mother Edith decide enough is enough, and hatch their plan - but could it be that Walter is already one step ahead of them?

My favorite era for British horrors is the early 70s, and this film certainly delivers with its tense atmosphere, quirky direction and colorful dream sequences. The music is good too, and helps to really punctuate the action.

There's some good countryside locations, and the bonus of Michael Gough in a memorable role - seeing him immediately brought back memories of his role as the creepy butler in the first Hammer Dracula movie more than ten years earlier.

But the film ultimately belongs to Sharon Gurney, who gives an amazingly understated and moving performance as the troubled victim Jane. Besides being a beautiful 'English Rose', she has a wonderful screen-presence and charm, and as a viewer you desperately want her to triumph and find some happiness and peace away from her father.

The film builds well to a tense and unexpected climax - but ultimately the viewer is left feeling rather short-changed by an inexplicable and abstruse final scene - one which left me completely befuddled!

But, this aside, it is still a very enjoyable film for lovers of this genre, and it's a pity it doesn't seem to be more highly regarded than it maybe is.

Those with long memories might notice this film borrows more than a little from DIABOLIQUE, if not necessarily in a good way. Despite a nasty caning and attempted murder this is more about psychological torment than physical violence; the lasting impression is that typical English family life is enough to drive anyone to murder or bonkers, in that order. One of the seemingly endless string of potboilers that Michael Gough used to liven up, back in the day.

Just as "Psycho" would inspire any number of American movies, the contemporary French thriller "Diabolique" would influence any number of European movies. This movie is a decidedly British and more familial version of that film. In "Diabolique" a brutal and abusive man's wife and mistress decide to bump him off. In this one it is a mother and daughter trying to do in their cruel husband/father (the relationship between the father and daughter is especially twisted--he seems to enjoy whipping her, he slaps her around after he catches her swimming nude, and he likes to feel her bicycle seat after she's just been riding it). The pair surprise him out at the cabin where he's doing some hunting and force him to drink poison, hoping that his friends will find him and think he died of natural causes. Their plans go awry though for various reasons, not the least of which is that the "body" keeps disappearing and appearing.

If you've seen "Diabolique" you know that there's a good chance that the father isn't really dead, and there's also a good chance he has at least one co-conspirator. Fortunately, this movie doesn't follow the plot of "Diabolique" too slavishly, and it has quite a few surprises up its sleeve. The end is very memorable. Michael Gough, who plays the abusive father, really makes the movie. He is very creepy both alive and "dead" projecting a subtle but powerful air of menace. (Unfortunately, most people today remember him as the butler in "Batman", not as the cruel villain he played in movies like this or "Horror of the Black Museum"). Sharon Gurney, who plays the daughter, is also good, but she had the misfortune of appearing two critically regarded but commercially unsuccessful horror flicks (this one and "Raw Meat") and her career went nowhere.

Unfortunately, the available prints of this movie look awful. The video is a mess and the DVD looks like a DVD-R recorded from the video by someone who doesn't know how to use a DVD recorder. It's also advertised on the front cover like its another version of "The Stepfather" (also a good movie, but a very different one)which is bound to attract the wrong audience. It's worth seeing though if you get a chance and you know what to expect.

Right from the opening seconds we know that something is seriously wrong with the Eastwood family.

Mother and daughter (Yvonne Mitchell and Sharon Gurney) scurry about surreptitiously, like prisoners, while husband / father Walter Eastwood (Michael Gough) dominates, lurks, and spies on them. Walter is an irredeemable pig. He's also violent. His son, Rupert (Simon Gough) is a chip off the old blockhead. A mere dinner at home is a maddeningly tense experience. Calling this family "dysfunctional", would be like calling the sun "warm".

It doesn't take long to see where this is heading.

CRUCIBLE OF HORROR is sort of a familial version of DIABOLIQUE, up until the jaw-dropping-ly impossible, ambiguous, yet perfect ending. Many questions arise, such as, "Was it all a dream / fantasy?", "Was there something afoot PRIOR to the vengeful scheme?", "Were supernatural forces at work?". Of course, this is all left open-ended, so, it's up for debate. Worth a watch. See if you can figure it out.

Michael Gough gives one of his best performances...