The eleventh installment in Hammer's House of Horror series sadly suffers from a severe lack of originality as well as an incoherent script that leaves open too much space for plot holes and unanswered questions. Director Peter Sasdy ("Nothing But the Night", "Taste the Blood of Dracula") creates some effective moments of pure tension and mystery, but you can too easily predict exactly which plot twists will happen and when. Recovering from a period in a mental institution, the American immigrant Penny stays at a remote country cottage belonging to her English husband Harry. One night, when Harry is away for business, a guy who claims to be her husband's former partner breaks into the house and even assaults Penny. She shoots him, but when Harry comes home he's reluctant to go to the police and prefers to bury the body in the woods instead. Soon after Penny suffers from nightmarish visions in which she sees the victim appearing before her and even with the help of a professional supernatural medium she can't exorcise the restless spirit. The story doesn't make too much sense right from the beginning. Penny's husband reacts exaggeratedly peculiar and his reasons to keep the police out of the affair are suspicious. Also, what bothered me most about the whole tale; Penny's mental issues from the past are never clarified. She keeps saying she doesn't want to go back to the institution, but we never get to know why she was committed in the first place. In case you're familiar with convoluted crime thrillers, you'll be able to guess the denouement (including the final twist) rather quickly. Acting performances, choice of filming locations and editing are all pretty mediocre.
Review of Visitor from the Grave
