Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

moonmonday This seemed a much better film in premise than it ended up being in reality. It's an absolute disaster, despite good acting from the solid main cast. The story is repellent and the main character, played well by Michael Gough, a complicated character who is nonetheless absolutely repugnant and gets what he deserves...except through some extremely contrived circumstances...well, actually I have no idea what actually was supposed to be conveyed by the final half-hour or so, because so many dead-end characters and plot points were brought up and then went nowhere and did nothing. Frankly, I don't quite see what the ending even accomplished. Were we then supposed to believe that, just because the jackass managed to cheat death once -- somehow -- that they couldn't just do the job right this time?This was a pretty significant example of a script that desperately needed some revision. It thinks it's far more clever and poignant than it is. It only ends up being incoherent, inexplicable, and asinine; points of continuity are brought up and then, not five minutes later, are seemingly forgotten about, as if they had never happened, or contradicted by something explicitly shown. Not much actually does happen in the film, so any viewer will likely be spending more time picking out the inconsistencies and plot holes than actually appreciating any part of the film itself.Please don't waste your time with this film. While it does have the incomparable Michael Gough, he was really and truly wasted on this piece of offal. If this film were forgotten tomorrow, nothing of value would be lost. It's a shame, because it's an interesting premise, but it is so incapably handled that it ends up being only a waste of time, and not a satisfying one in the slightest.

preppy-3 Michael Gough plays a man who routinely berates his wife and his daughter--sometimes even beating them. They've had enough, kill him and dump the body. However they start realizing that they may have not killed him...or is it his vengeful ghost coming to take revenge?Yup--it's a British redo of the French classic "Diabolique". As with most remakes this is pretty terrible. There's absolutely no reason to remake "Diabolique" at all. Over here in the US it was remade AGAIN in 1996. That version was bad but this is much much worse. It's slow, dull, poorly directed and thoroughly predictable. Also the ending is handled so badly that most people won't have a clue as to what just happened! It has a great cast (Michael Gough is magnificent as usual) but it's just so poorly made you won't care. Unless you're dying to see every ripoff of "Diabolique" you can safely skip this.

BloodTheTelepathicDog Might be spoilers This film focuses on the odd relationship of an affluent British family that could easily be described as "dysfunctional." The mother (Mitchell) locks herself away in the house to work on her paintings, the father is obsessed with order and cleanliness, the son is his old man's lap dog and the daughter (Gurney) is the oddest of the lot. After father (Michael Gough) is informed that his daughter has robbed the country club's golf shop, he beats her with a bit of wood. The following morning mother and daughter decide to rid themselves of the domineering patriarch.The women refuse to attend the family's weekend retreat at their isolated cottage so father heads out by himself for some hunting and relaxation while his son Rupert (SImon Gough) stays in the city to hobnob with clients. The cottage becomes a sanctuary for daddy who hunts birds and listens to classical music without the intrusion of his irrational female family members. But the two dames show up unexpectedly with intentions of poisoning dear old dad and setting up the scene as a suicide. But the women's plans were not well thought out and when they return to the cottage, believing that they killed the old man, they find his bed neatly made and his corpse missing.STORY: $$$$$ (Olaf Poolay writes a very strong story with exceptional characterization. This is a real horror movie that focuses on the inner terror rather than an outwardly psycho with a hatchet. What begins as a sort of a feminist's dream--women standing up for themselves and demanding personal freedom--evolves into a statement on female irrationality. The two women yearn for the shackles of the man's world to be removed but once they are taken off, they have no direction--no purpose. I can see how women could hate this movie).ACTING: $$$$ (The acting is top notch all around. Michael Gough is brilliant as the father. He expertly plays this demanding character and the viewer gets the sense that he has started a family not because he wanted a wife and children but because that is what is expected of respectable men. He is far more content alone at his cottage and even busying himself at work than he is around his wife and daughter, who are a constant source of annoyance. Yvonne Mitchell is equally strong as the passive mother who devises the plan to murder Michael Gough but needs the support of her daughter to carry it off. Sharon Gurney showed quite a bit of talent as the eccentric daughter but her career never took off. She does a stellar job with the tortured, misunderstood young lady role).NUDITY: $$ (Very little here. There are a few breast flashes from Sharon Gurney but nothing gratuitous. She is shown skinny-dipping in a creek when Michael Gough catches her and beats her. It is his goal to make certain that she doesn't fall for some "shaggy-haired lay-about.")

lazarillo 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.