Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Leofwine_draca Another Gothic chiller from early '60s Italy, this is one of the best. The reason being that no other film of the period had such a quietly sickening theme as this one: the main character is a necrophiliac, who gives his partners anaesthetics before making love to them and gets rather too close to the bodies in the morgue. Of course, the subject matter was (and still is) extremely disturbing, which resulted in this film getting banned in Britain. Nowadays the authorities see fit to let us watch it, although the film carries a hefty 18-certificate, even though there is no on-screen sex or violence involved.The film deftly sets up an atmospheric situation, by having the setting as an old mansion full of dust and decay. The weather outside is perpetually stormy, with lightning flashing all the time, and an old portrait fills one entire room with its presence. Of course no film of this period would be complete without a basement full of coffins, and sure enough we have one of those too, with creaking gates of iron surrounding it. However while there are flashes of the supernatural in the film (mainly at the ending), the concentration is on human horror: the perverse condition of the title character, whose necrophilia is openly hinted at. His quiet sickness is what makes the film so watchable - and, indeed, a classic in the genre.This is thanks to some excellent acting, especially on the part of Robert Flemyng (THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR), who plays Hichcock. Throughout the film he has a gradual breakdown, until he becomes openly villainous and murderous at the climax, and this is portrayed subtlety. He is a man torn between love for his new wife and love for his old, unable to keep his lust for the dead hidden and yet sickened by it at the same time. Flemyng is given some excellent support by scream queen Barbara Steele, who plays his new wife, and conveys the anxiety, confusion, and outright disgust at her husband's mysterious actions well. It wouldn't be the film it is without the presence of Steele, and her charisma makes the film what it is. On top of that, Medin and Glenn have solid supporting roles.THE TERROR OF DR HICHCOCK is that rare film; a controversial yet cerebral masterpiece of death and nostalgia which obeys the conventions of the genre (complete with burning house at the end, and climatic fight between hero and villain) and yet stays fresh and interesting throughout, because of the sheer talent involved. It's obvious that director Freda knew his stuff, and it shows, because this is a top notch horror film, even beating some of Bava's own work of the period.

christopher-underwood A pretty wild ride, this one, after a rather uncomfortable and disturbing start as the first coffin is interfered with. Robert Flemyng is effective as the horrible doctor but I bet he used to leave this one off his CV. Between the worrying start and the breakneck finale there is really not that much happening but we are sustained by the grisly nature of the goings on, majestic photography and, of course, the equally majestic, Barbara Steele. I read somewhere that it was reckoned this was Steele's greatest performance and, on reflection, I think that may be so. Certainly she has a lot to do and continually looks as worried as she is beautiful. Strangely, her two most impressive scenes are both shot through glass. There is a terrifying moment when she and we see a ghost in the garden, through her window and then towards the end the amazing shots of her in the coffin through the small glass window. Not a great story but this works from beginning to end, nevertheless.

chaos-rampant We really learn a bit too much of Dr Hichcock and his unusual sexual practices until the 15th mark when the movie makes a real start with the eponymous doctor arriving at a county mansion with his new fiancé. For the next hour Ricardo Freda's movie seems to be doing a lot in two directions, Barbara Steele goes exploring the old mansion with a candelabra to find subterranean passages colored by turqoise filters, and Dr. Hichcock snoops around and is embarrassed to be discovered at night at the hospital he works trying to get his kicks on with one or the other buxom dead patient. Barbara Steele gets to faint a lot and there's a scene where the doctor goes out in the rain screaming the name of his dead wife. It's all very high strung and emphatic in the fashion of Gothic horror cinema and Robert Flemyng as Dr. Hichcock takes hilariously unsubtle facial expressions to indicate shock or suspicion or withdrawal. The sexual deviancy promised by the subject matter of necrophilia is largely absent, but some of the shocks are well timed and the sight of a ghastly old woman in a veil almost gave me the creeps, so this should bode well with the horror aficionado.

MARIO GAUCI Actually what I have on VHS (recorded off the TV) is the full-length version of the film, released in the U.K. as THE TERROR OF DR. HICHCOCK (in the U.S. it was cut by 10 mins. and retitled). From the little I have watched of 'Euro Horror', this is definitely one of the highlights; most critics place it at the top of Freda's canon and it's easy to see why. Visually the film is stunning (even if the print I have watched has seen better days) with any number of striking images that are not easily forgotten.Still, the film's greatest coup, perhaps, is its unabashed (but not sensationalistic) treatment of necrophilia, a theme that was pretty much taboo at the time - and probably still is! (I urge you all to read Glenn M. Erickson's excellent and highly perceptive essay on the film on the 'Images Journal' website - incidentally, you will find a whole section here devoted to Italian horror films.) In this respect, THE TERROR OF DR. HICHCOCK would make a fine companion piece to Mario Bava's LA FRUSTA E IL CORPO/THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963), another unhinged (and extremely personal) Gothic masterwork!The exemplary cast is headed by Barbara Steele and Robert Flemyng. Steele is pretty good in what she has to do (though never quite scaling the heights of LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO/THE MASK OF Satan [1960]) but is overshadowed by Flemyng as Dr. Bernard Hichcock (an inspired choice for a name!) who is utterly credible in all the various facets of manic lust his character has to go through. Indeed, this doctor would not have been amiss in a Poe story and, much as I love Vincent Price in the AIP/Corman adaptations, Flemyng here emerges a far more sinister figure - without ever resorting to camp!Finally, I wonder how this film's follow-up LO SPETTRO/THE GHOST (1963), which I have never watched, compares with the original. Hopefully both films will one day be adequately represented on DVD, possibly released as a double-feature.