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ACTOR
Anthony SharpSusan PenhaligonStephanie BeachamNorman Eshley
DIRECTOR
Pete Walker
SYNOPSICS
House of Mortal Sin (1976) is a English movie. Pete Walker has directed this movie. Anthony Sharp,Susan Penhaligon,Stephanie Beacham,Norman Eshley are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1976. House of Mortal Sin (1976) is considered one of the best Horror movie in India and around the world.
A troubled young girl goes to confession at the local church. Unfortunately, the sexually frustrated priest she confesses to becomes obsessed with her. At first, the priest stalks the girl, but later it is revealed that he will stop at nothing, including blackmail and murder, just to get close to her.
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House of Mortal Sin (1976) Reviews
''Sometimes Satan comes as a Man of Peace..."
This surprised me by its sense of urgency - the writer-director had a point to make and did - with a straight ahead drive, never straying from powering the plot along with extraneous moments. I'd have guessed its running time to be less than 104 minutes. This is a credit to Walker who stamped his savage vision on a witch's brew of a film that is one quarter horror, one quarter suspense, one quarter giallo (the Father Cutler, Miss Brabizon, Mrs. Meldrum revelations - some dark secrets from the past are responsible for the twisted actions of the present) - and one quarter brutal social commentary. While not as terrifying as FRIGHTMARE, a horror film with a shocking feel for family dysfunction in extremis, pitting family member against family member, until the jealousies and hatreds of the past build to a unremitting apex of cruelty, this film nonetheless makes the viewer feel as if something very dark has been learned about mankind. Walker and McGillivray have a way with turning out a tight, creepy script. There's not a boring moment. It builds to a satisfying, and as in FRIGHTMARE, terribly cynical denouement. If FRIGHTMARE dealt with familial cruelties and WHIPCORD with sexual permissiveness, SIN deals with the discarding of free will for the rigidity of a fundamentalist belief that Walker tells us will surely destroy anyone who by nature is unable to sublimate his humanness to the point where his own earthly needs and desires for individual ideas are dsetroyed. SIN takes its place as part of a trilogy which deals, as with FRIGHTMARE and WHIPCORD, with unreasonable expectations, loss of control and ensuing madness leading to the victimization of and violence against others, especially against those who are felt to challenge or threaten the fixed ideas of the perpetrators. The least successful of the three is WHIPCORD, overlong and a bit unbelievable that the victims can't fight back against their dotty, frail captors. The cast is excellent. Though Peter Cushing was offered the role of Father Cutler, I'm glad it was taken by a less familiar face and an actor not known for so many horror roles. More sinister than Cushing, Norman Eshley underplayed if anything, making the character's lunacy believable. The two sisters (staples of the other two films in the trilogy though used in different relationships) were well-cast. The heroine was a symbol of her day, a symbol for spunkiness, free expression and the questioning of authority. I thought it wise not to have her capitulate to the priest's sociopathic behavior "because he was a priest". In her mind he was a sick then evil man. Her sister was more given to doubts. Though in the end it didn't matter - not when they came up against a tortured mind, a disturbed psychosis, singular in its goal. Cast well to the last of the secondary characters, the sad Mrs. Davey stands out as the distraught mother of a daughter driven to suicide by the priest's hypocrisy and/or blackmail. She presents a pathetic picture in her sorrow that has nowhere to morph into except excitement at believing she is a match for the monster and can lay a trap for him. The actual murders of the real and imagined heroine's lovers were horrific. The hospital scene where innocence collides with savagery left no doubt that the beast had won out - as he did through to the end. The death of the 'mistaken libertine' in his hospital bed had a sense of future doom. The imposing actress Sheila Keith (happily) commands the screen whenever she is in the frame. In a role quite different from the petulant but vengeful cannibal of FRIGHTMARE, she is oddly affecting as the would-be bride of the killer priest who has waited chastely by his side all these years - though of course her affect (and that great eye patch) add sinister touches. The death throes of those who inhabit this house of mortal sin would live up to any horror or giallo fan's dreams. If there is anything to quibble about it would be the younger priest's believing Father Cutler's every word and hurriedly renouncing the thought of not continuing in Cutler's shoes. But better than having him run to the police accusing Cutler. There is now the implication that evil will grow in his own church garden. The shock ending shot of the priest pulling on his glove to kill the only "normal" human being left in the film illustrates his psychotic obsession left to flourish, because he has carte-blanche to carry out his murders hidden by the sanctity of the church. Great, unexpected last shot. The themes of Walker's trilogy seems to be there are unknown houses of horrors set amongst the everyday world of those trying to go about their own lives, who don't know they are viewed as sinners by unknown psychotics and don't even realize they are standing in some psychotic's path, viewed as an adversary to be dealt with. It makes you think - there are houses like that in every city - you could pass one unknowingly. Walker is a director not given anything like his full due. Just the quiet shot of the parishioners in SIN sitting joylessly and gullibly on the pews in the dank church are as disturbing as the shots of bloodshed. The film seemed real and menacing and I loved it.
Charming story
The charming story of a priest.....who murders people! Meet Father Xavier Meldrum from the Church of the Sacred Heart. He uses religious means to bump off his enemies such as a poisoned wafer, incense burner and rosary beads. Splendid performance by Anthony Sharp (remember him as the government minister in A Clockwork Orange?) as the obsessed vicar and a good turn by Pete Walker regular Sheila Keith as a one eyed housekeeper. A well done musical score by Stanley Myers is also featured. Remember this movie the next time you go to confession!
If you can't trust your local priest....who can you trust?!
Even though the majority of his movies haven't gone on to win vast acclaim or classic status, any fan of cinema would have to admit that British horror maestro Pete Walker is one of the most fascinating directors of the seventies. House of Mortal Sin follows the common Pete Walker theme of hypocrisy in an institution; and this time it's the church that gets lampooned. The film does feel like an all too obvious attempt to drum up some controversy, but it's all so well done that it's easy to ignore this fact and just enjoy the twisted imagination of Pete Walker and scriptwriter David McGillivray. Catholic priests are always above suspicion due their high moral ground in society, and so the idea that one of them could go off the rails and abuse his privileges is as intriguing as it is frightening. The story follows Father Xavier Meldrum; a priest who tapes the confessions of his parishioners and then uses them for blackmailing purposes! And he isn't content to stop there, as if the blackmail doesn't go to plan - he isn't morally above murder! The film is a little overlong and slightly overindulgent at times; but Pete Walker paces the plot well, and although at least ten minutes could have been shaved from the movie; it never gets boring. Walker is great at creating atmosphere, and through ugly cinematography and downbeat locations, the director ensures that there is nothing pleasant about the movie. The murder scenes are graphic in a typically seventies fashion, although the talented director never lets the blood overtake the plot, and the murder scenes are an event within the movie; rather than the plot being tied around the gore. The film takes influence from a range of sources, including the slasher sub-genre (most notably Psycho), as well as the Italian Giallo (the black gloves towards the end being a particular highlight) and even Walker's own previous efforts. As usual, Walker pulls great performances out of his older actors. Anthony Sharp is suitably sinister in the lead role, and also manages to retain his edge of authority. Hilda Barry gives the film the right amount of horror as the mother, while Walker regular Sheila Keith rounds off the cast in a convincingly macabre role. On the whole; this may not be as great as House of Whipcord, but House of Mortal Sin is further proof that Pete Walker really knows how to make his audience think and comes recommended.
Killing in the name of ... Catholism!
The events in "House of Mortal Sin" make it more than clear: repressing your sexuality can have serious consequences!! This third collaboration between controversial director Pete Walker and scriptwriter David McGillivray is lesser known than "Frightmare" or "House of Whipcord", and maybe also not as good, but it still is very inventive exploitation with some twisted themes and exhilaratingly horrific sequences. Walker and McGillivray openly assault the Catholic Church here and associate the "holy institution" with hypocrisy, sexual perversion and even murder. Walker's intention clearly was to shock audiences and to stimulate an angry reaction from the Church. Perhaps he couldn't achieve all this, but "House of Mortal Sin" nevertheless remains an enjoyable and schlocky horror movie, surely worth purchasing in case you're into unhinged 70's cinema. The story follows a troubled young girl who hesitatingly goes to confession at her local church. The priest, Father Meldrum, is quite out of his mind and starts stalking the girl and even killing the so-called sinful men in her life. No matter who the girl turns to for help, Father Meldrum stays above suspicion at all times because he's a respected man of the Church and she's just a mentally unstable blonde. The main storyline gets a little tedious at times but there's a delightfully insane sub plot involving the priest's seemly 273-year-old senile mother and the disturbing housekeeper played by Sheila Keith! Eccentric characters and the downright oddball relationships between them are still Walker's greatest specialty and also the unhappy ending is present. The gore and violence is less outrageous than in "Frightmare" but the priests' killing methods are quite ingenious and, of course, religiously themed, like poisoned sacred wafers and rosary strangulations. Recommended!
Neither horror nor giallo but....
A very fine Walker effort. Not really a horror film nor a giallo but very British. Must have upset as many as it pleased upon release with it's uncompromising attack upon the Church in general and the Catholic Church in particular. Excellent central performances and it is these performances that helps the film over the odd script shortcomings. Not for the easily offended but for everyone else quite a treat and who is to say accusations of wrong doings by priests and cover ups by other self righteous members of society is so far fetched? Begins well and although gets a bit lost halfway through, there is a full powered body strewn build up to a surprising ending.