Crucible of Horror, 1971.
Directed by Viktors Ritelis.
Starring Michael Gough, Yvonne Mitchell, Sharon Gurney, Simon Gough, Nicholas Jones, and Olaf Pooley.
SYNOPSIS:
A mother and daughter plot to kill the abusive patriarch of the house.
In Crucible of Horror (a.k.a. The Corpse in the US), Michael Gough plays Walter Eastwood, a stiff and domineering insurance broker who stifles his family with his abusive and sadistic ways. His artistic wife Edith (Yvonne Mitchell) and wayward teenage daughter Jane (Sharon Gurney) are both terrified of him, whilst elder son Rupert (Simon ‘son of Michael’ Gough) appears to be following in his father’s footsteps with his misogynistic attitude towards his mother and sister, and after a particularly brutal beating from her father, Jane and Edith both hatch a plan to kill Walter.
When Walter goes to the family’s country cottage for a weekend on his own, Edith and Jane follow him down there to execute their plan but when they accidentally alert him to their presence they must act quickly. Believing him to be dead after they poison his drink, the two women move the body to make it look like an accident, but when the corpse is not discovered by the maid or anyone else they go looking, only to discover Walter isn’t where they left him.
Made on a very low budget, Crucible of Horror is a creepy and atmospheric chiller that features a central performance from Michael Gough that is the total opposite of his portrayal of kindly Alfred Pennyworth in Batman. The actor always had a spiky side to his screen persona but most of the characters he portrayed were at least ‘good guys’. However, Walter Eastwood is a nasty piece of work and Gough plays him with a slight glee to his wearisome put-downs and overbearing manner, although the scene where he beats Jane for stealing some money is particularly harrowing.
Sharon Gurney – who was dating Simon Gough at the time before marrying him the following year – is solid as Jane, who impressively flips from rebellious and scheming teenager to vulnerable victim of abuse at a moment’s notice, but Yvonne Mitchell’s performance as Edith is a little baffling, playing the role as if she were in a daze, which is probably how Edith would be but she appears so disconnected at times that you wonder if there wasn’t more going on with the character that got chopped out.
There are some hallucinatory scenes where Edith imagines herself floating on a pond which have the look of a late 1960s music video, and whilst visually it is quite cool and gets across the character’s distress, the actress continues to deliver her dialogue and perform in an almost physical manifestation of that trance-like state. For a character who has to act urgently, her plight never feels as intense as Jane’s and you don’t really find yourself rooting for her to get through this as much as you do her daughter.
But get through it they must, although the resolution is never quite clear and it is that sense ambiguity and something vaguely supernatural that gives Crucible of Horror its edge, as the plot is really the sort of thing you would find on an episode of a mystery crime thriller from the time, hence the hallucination scenes inserted to pad it out a bit and create a slightly spooky tone.
Released as part of the Hammer Presents… range, which highlights other notable non-Hammer horror movies from their classic period, Crucible of Horror comes with two cuts of the movie, namely the UK theatrical version and the US re-titled version, the former featuring an audio commentary by authors Vic Pratt and William Fowler, and a very informative interview with font of British horror knowledge Jonathan Rigby about the movie and its place in history, as well as trailers and Hammer’s impeccable packaging, which features brand new artwork.
Overall, Crucible of Horror isn’t particularly horrific or graphic but it is unsettling and, thanks mainly to Michael Gough and Sharon Gurney, a decent low-fi shocker that is engaging enough to want to see it through to its strange conclusion. There might not be enough in it for modern audiences used to jump scares or gore scenes every few minutes, and it goes without saying that Hammer collectors will be adding to their collections regardless, but there are far worse low budget British horror movies from the 1960s that could be getting such lavish HD releases (and probably will in time).
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
