SPOILAGE
I enjoyed this movie to a certain degree. It's a passable time killer, and it presents an interesting situation (if overly inspired by "Psycho"), but the real interest here lies in the sets, particularly the sprawling mansion where the action takes place. Filled with ornate woodwork, yawning fireplaces, and staircases that go up, up, and further up, this place is a morbid dream house. The fact that it is isolated on an English moor makes me wonder if places like this actually exist. What I mean is, why would anybody with the money to build such a magnificent home want to put it in the middle of the marshes? Why would they choose such an inhospitable place to live?
Ah but anyway, back to "The Ghoul". Snooty partygoers get drunk on champagne and make an ill-advised effort to "race" their cars to Land's End.
It doesn't really go as planned, however, and one couple breaks down near the manse of Peter Cushing, which houses "The Ghoul"--Cushing's insane son who is into cannibalism. One of the women wanders to the mansion against the warnings of the mad groundskeeper, and she winds up as ghoul-bait. The groundskeeper kills her male companion (what, the ghoul doesn't like male flesh?) and eventually another couple comes looking for them. The scenario is repeated, but Cushing has reached the breaking point and decides to shoot his son, and himself.
There's a lot of kookiness going on in this movie, and some uncomfortable positioning of Indian culture as some exotic evil, but as I said before, what really makes this movie work at all is the attention that went into the building of the sets. I have no idea if the house is real or just a set itself, but those staircases...and that woodwork!
I enjoyed this movie to a certain degree. It's a passable time killer, and it presents an interesting situation (if overly inspired by "Psycho"), but the real interest here lies in the sets, particularly the sprawling mansion where the action takes place. Filled with ornate woodwork, yawning fireplaces, and staircases that go up, up, and further up, this place is a morbid dream house. The fact that it is isolated on an English moor makes me wonder if places like this actually exist. What I mean is, why would anybody with the money to build such a magnificent home want to put it in the middle of the marshes? Why would they choose such an inhospitable place to live?
Ah but anyway, back to "The Ghoul". Snooty partygoers get drunk on champagne and make an ill-advised effort to "race" their cars to Land's End.
It doesn't really go as planned, however, and one couple breaks down near the manse of Peter Cushing, which houses "The Ghoul"--Cushing's insane son who is into cannibalism. One of the women wanders to the mansion against the warnings of the mad groundskeeper, and she winds up as ghoul-bait. The groundskeeper kills her male companion (what, the ghoul doesn't like male flesh?) and eventually another couple comes looking for them. The scenario is repeated, but Cushing has reached the breaking point and decides to shoot his son, and himself.
There's a lot of kookiness going on in this movie, and some uncomfortable positioning of Indian culture as some exotic evil, but as I said before, what really makes this movie work at all is the attention that went into the building of the sets. I have no idea if the house is real or just a set itself, but those staircases...and that woodwork!