A real curio from the dying days of Hammer – some fresh blood, director Peter Sykes and writer Christopher Wicking, set out to make something different and of quality, two things often missing from that studio in the 1970s. They didn’t quite get there, but at least they gave it a go. It’s about a weird family, where dad is convinced his two kids are insane, so he locks them up. He’s visited by a crazy priest (Michael Hordern) and crazier doctor (Patrick Magee).
As the two children, Gillian Hardy is stunningly attractive (stepping in for Marianne Faithfull; apparently Hammer couldn’t get insurance for her due to the drug conviction) and Shane Briant is effective. This was his first film for Hammer, and he fit the look of the studio perfectly – he was like some opium-addicted aristocrat, which is along the lines of what he plays here (he lost effectiveness by becoming just a little bit more chubby and old). The guy who plays dad isn’t that great but Patrick Magee is spot on, as is Hordern.
I think what part of the problem with these Hammer attempts to depart from formula was that within formula there was safety – and they didn’t have the skills to pull off these new forms of storytelling.
The audio commentary contains an interesting bit where Virginia Wetherell – Mrs Ralph Bates – admits she felt very uncomfortable about doing a nude scene, to the surprise of the director Peter Sykes (although she does qualify it was the main problem was she agreed to do it provided no stills and the stills photographer continually tried to get a snap, and admits she had only just gone nude for Kubrick in A Clockwork Orange, but as she says… that was for Kubrick).
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