Director: Riccardo Freda (as Robert Hampton)
Year: 1962
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: L’orrible segreto del Dr. Hichcock
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Working in a London hospital, a doctor’s sexual games with his wife go further than anticipated which results in her accidental death and his quest to remarry years later with a new wife at his mansion house, but she soon grows weary of his fascination to repeat the same games with her once again.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly fun and enjoyable Gothic horror effort. One of the better aspects here is the fun setup that allows for all sorts of dark shenanigans to come about as it plays out. With a brief enough expose of his addictions and behavior towards her with the bits we get on his medical practice as well as the lengths he goes to so that he can fulfill his sexual desires of drugging her for their sessions, it paints a fairly solid mark on his personality which helps to understand the motivations once the later stages of the relationship emerge that comes from the arrival of the new wife. The dynamic at play with them growing increasingly more suspicious of her questions and attitude about what’s going on at the house despite their calm approach and demeanor allows for some intriguing drama to develop over the first half as it tries to set up the storyline to come.
As the film carries on and the relationship between them develops over time, her unhinged state continues to get worse with each passing encounter that takes place. From the sight of the strange figure darting from the house to the secret shack outside in the pouring rain which renders an accurate identification impossible, the belief that someone’s trying to get into her room at night, and the discovery of a skull left behind in her bed, the initial stages of her arrival there provide more than enough to give the idea of something nefarious happening which is only exacerbated with the revelation of something genuinely being hidden from her despite protests to the contrary. This spark for her to go out and investigate everything naturally is a fantastic touch as the initial setpieces gaslighting her into not thinking too clearly about what he’s doing which makes this one feel far more unnerving as time goes on.
That comes about nicely in the final half where the atmosphere of the situation starts to manifest in some fun manners. With the full discovery of the contents within the family crypt and his behavior towards her finally starting to make some sense, these final moments bring about the true terror of his master plan and include some standout moments throughout the house and into the underground tombs as the race to save her is quite fun and frantic. This final half does have the lone issue with the film in that there’s no need for the constant calls away from the house to go back to work at this stage of the game as the plan coming to fruition should be far more important and the whole thing unravels only because he's’ too busy preoccupied with work to see it through even if he’s keeping up appearances. The pace might also be an issue for some, but otherwise, there’s far more to like here than not.
Overview: ****/5
One of the better Gothic horror efforts out there, there’s plenty of fun aspects to this one that make it stand out quite nicely with only a few bits that bring it a couple of slight issues holding it back. Those who appreciate this style of genre fare or are fans of the creative crew will want to give this one a chance as soon as possible while most others out there not into these features should heed caution.
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