One of a number of co-productions AIP made in England in the 1960s, this benefits from an excellent script by two giants of fantasy writing, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. It's got a neat central idea too - an arrogant academic (Peter Wyngarde, who I don't recall ever seeing in a lead role in a movie before, but who has charisma and reminds me of a younger David Farrar) discovers much of his success is due to the fact that his wife (Janet Blair) is a witch. So it's like Bewitched! only serious.
Films made from Matheson scripts were almost always worth watching (if they didn't tinker with them too much) and this is logical and exciting. The art direction lacks the flair of the Corman-Poe movies Matheson wrote, and I probably would have enjoyed this more had I recognised the cast (who, however, give excellent performances). The finale also might have been better with stronger special effects and I felt several of the subplots could have been developed more - or at least used another beat or something (eg the student who falsely accuses the professor of rape - the actress who played her reminded me of Meg Ryan, incidentally).
The atmosphere is spooky and effective, the depiction of academia as a vicious backbiting world comes across as very realistic (it's real Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? territory), and it's a very solid horror flick that deserves to be better known.
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