House of Mortal Sin (1975) @ EOFFTV


			SYNOPSIS \| REVIEW \| PRODUCTION NOTES \| TRIVIA \| PRESS \| QUOTES \| KIM NEWMAN ARCHIVE \| MEDIA

	House of Mortal Sin (1975) Country of Origin: UK Year of Production: 1975 Running Times: 104 mins Format: colour Ratio: Sound: CREDITS PRODUCTION Production Company: Pete Walker (Heritage) Ltd Producer: Pete Walker Production Manager: Robert Fennell SCRIPT Script: David McGillivray Story: Pete Walker DIRECTION Director: Pete Walker Assistant Directors: Brian Lawrence, James Hamilton, James Beasley PHOTOGRAPHY Director of Photography: Peter Jessop Additional Photography: Tony Imi Camera Operators: Peter Sinclair, John Metcalfe EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION Editors: Matt McCarthy, John Black MUSIC Music: Stanley Myers SOUND Sound Recording: Peter O'Connor Sound Re-Recording: Tony Anscombe Sound Editor: Alan Brett MAKE UP AND COSTUMES Make Up Supervisor: George Partleton Make Up: Pearl Rashbass DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION Art Director: Chris Burke CAST Anthony Sharp (Father Xavier Meldrum) Susan Penhaligon (Jenny Welch) Stephanie Beacham (Vanessa Welch) Norman Eshley (Father Bernard Cutler) Sheila Keith (Miss Brabazon) Hilda Barry (Mrs Meldrum) Stuart Bevan (Terry) Julia McCarthy (Mrs Davey) Jon Yule (Robert) Mervyn Johns (Father Duggan) Kim Butcher (Valerie) Victor Winding (Dr Gaudio) Bill Kerr (Davey) Ivor Salter (gravedigger) Jack Allen (GP) Jane Hayward (nurse) Andrew Sachs (young man) Melinda Clancy (girl at presbytery) Austin King (boy at presbytery) David Corti, Nicholas Power (altar boys – both uncredited) Anthony Hennessey (policeman - uncredited) PLOT SUMMARY Father Xavier Meldrum is a Catholic priest with problems - obsessed with the promiscuous sex lives of the young women whose confessions he hears, he tapes their intimate secrets and blackmails them. When his latest victim commits suicide, he sets his sights on Jenny Welsh. No-one who hears Jenny's claims believes a word of it and even her sister Vanessa believes that she is going mad. But bodies are starting to pile up and Vanessa overhears an incriminating conversation that seems to suggest that Jenny may have been right all along... CAPSULE REVIEW Writer David McGilivray is not so keen on this, his third collaboration with Pete Walker, dismissing it as "too far-fetched." He may be right, and it certainly doesn't live up to the promise of both House of Whipcord (1974) and Frightmare (1974). But it has plenty going for it nonetheless, not least the unexpected ending which suggests that the corruption which may afflict instututions as powerful as the Catholic church is so all-pervading as to be unassailable. This was a far cry from the Hammer blueprint for British horror which demanded that the forces of good always triumph over evil and again aligned McGillivray and Walker with their American contemporaries. Not Walker's best, but an enjoyable nasty and wickedly satirical romp all the same. AVAILABILITY USA Theatrical Distributors: Atlas Films; Joseph Brenner Associates Inc Video Distributor: Prism Pictures CENSORSHIP HISTORY Australia Rating: R UK Rating: 18 USA Rating: R TIMELINE 1976 February 5: UK - theatrical release POSTER TAGS Tortured by desires his vows forbid... master of a house of mortal sin! ALTERNATIVE TITLES La casa del peccato mortale - Italian title The Confessional – US title The Confessional Murders - UK video title REFERENCES BOOKS Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.179 credits, review OTHER SOURCES screen credits KEYWORDS arsenic, blackmail, churches, confessions, priests, psychopaths, serial killers, sex, tape recordings