The Ghoul (1975)

User Rating:

3.3/10   

Director:

Freddie Francis

Writer:

Anthony Hinds (writer)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Peter Cushing stars as a former priest who harbors a dark and horrible secret in his attic. The locked room serves as a prison cell for his crazed...

Plot Keywords:

Son | Attic | Priest | Secret | Cannibal

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Peter Cushing	...	Dr. Lawrence
John Hurt	...	Tom Rawlings
Alexandra Bastedo	...	Angela
Gwen Watford	...	Ayah
Veronica Carlson	...	Daphne Welles Hunter
Don Henderson	...	The Ghoul
Ian McCulloch	...	Geoffrey
Stewart Bevan	...	Billy
John D. Collins	...	Young Man
Dan Meaden	...	Police Sergeant

Also Known As:

Night of the Ghoul (USA) (DVD title)
The Thing in the Attic

Runtime:

USA:80 min (2002 DVD release) | USA:88 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Norway:18 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Tyburn Film Productions Limited

Trivia:

The photograph of Doctor Lawrence's wife is a photograph of Peter Cushing's own wife. She had died shortly before filming began, and his tears are real.

Quotes:

[after Dr. Lawrence mentions his wife's suicide]
Daphne Welles Hunter: I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so inquisitive. It must be very painful for you to talk about it.
Dr. Lawrence: The pain is there, whether I talk about it or not.

Movie Connections:

References Psycho (1960)

boring because of no bloodshed nor an evil looking monster, exciting for many other reasons

"The Ghoul" is the best movie Tyburn Productions ever delivered, apart from a made-for-television-movie "The Masks of Death" also starring Peter Cushing in his last performance as Sherlock Holmes. It was made on a shoestring budget and given that, they made out wonders with the budget they had... "The Ghoul" has nothing to do with the 1933 vehicle with the same title, starring Boris Karloff. The screenplay was written by John Elder (pseudonym of Anthony Hinds, one of the main screenwriter's from the former Hammer Productions). Peter Cushing and Veronica Carlson (who were seen already together in the 1969 Hammer production "Frankenstein must be destroyed" are here, along with John Hurt and Ian McCulloh (who would go on to perform in the infamous Lucio Fulci-flick "Zombi 2 aka Zombie Flesheaters" (1979) and Marino Girolami's "Zombie Holocaust" (1980) as well as Luigi Cozzi's "Contamination" (1980)). Alexandra Bastedo is in it as well (more or less known from her contribution in the popular British television-series "The Champions" (1968-1969)). The period setting is OK (roaring 20ties) with bored youngsters, pretty much as youngsters are bored in any period and looking for some excitement. Peter Cushing delivers a great performance (although one can argue if most of it was just a performance or more a kind of exorcism of real-life misery: he allowed real-life photographs from his departed wife Helen to be used in the movie and according to studio-history as well as to comments from Veronica Carlson who did particular scenes with Cushing in this movie, Cushing had to make several takes because he broke into tears every time the photographs of his late wife came up and he had to deliver ideologue as "My wife is dead"... The "Ghoul" himself is a big disappointment to a general audience, not being scary in the least... A lot of comments have been made in the past about racism in the movie (particularly towards Indians practicing their "hideous" religion in a modern society (well, even modern for 1920 or somewhere in that period) in the UK. For all commentators about that: let's not forget: the movie is set in the 1920ties... and views and opinions from Western people towards anything "exotic" like Indian culture were very different from nowadays, so one has to put everything into period perspective... So what do we get in the end ? A great atmosphere (lots of fog on marshes and on a mansion somewhere in a remote place of England), great performances from experienced actors in the genre, some suspense (I agree: the suspense could have been worked out better); overall: a sense of bleakness and doom that perverts all and everything and being seldom experienced in movies like this... I rate this 8/10. See for yourself why...

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