House of Mortal Sin (1977)

Best movie of this year hands down!

The Age of Commercialism

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Well... Mortal Sin opens with a pretty gruesome scene. Young chick comes home crying... runs up to her room, reads the bible, and we're off on the adventure. Then our star "Jenny" (Susan Penhaligon) meets up with her old school buddy (Norman Eshley) who is now a priest. Lots of talking, drinking tea, confessions in the church, and of course, eerie, creepy music. Anthony Sharp is Father Xavier, and plays a large part in our story. Some of the scenes don't really make sense, but I guess you have to buy into it. Next thing you know, her school, priest friend is now shacking up with Jenny. Holy guacamole, batman! Lots of odd things and nasty things. Not for the young 'uns. An entertaining viewing, but SO predictable. All of it.Recommended on the Frank Dicaro show (XM radio), this is one of the campy horror flicks which didn't start out to be that way. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Walker, British director. Acc to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Walker_(director) , he had made films that fell under various categories in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, frequently using the same cast of characters.

A rip-roaring Pete Walker special and definitely not to be missed. A scary yarn of a mad priest's reign of terror amongst his parishioners in a 1970s London suburb, this is tightly plotted, economically written and well acted by an ensemble of veteran English actors.Stephanie Beacham, Mervyn Johns (Welsh!), Ivor Salter, Hilda Barry, Sheila Keith (of course)among others. Top honours go to Anthony Sharp for his demented and tormented loony cleric and also to the gorgeous Susan Penhaligon as the object of his desires. There is a scene when she clambers out of bed during the night at the sound of a disturbance. You might want to use the freeze-frame before she puts on her dressing gown. Stunningly beautiful!! Well worth your time and a great addition to Pete's portfolio.

I just watched House of Mortal Sin again this evening. Pete Walker is one of my favourite directors, and his mid-1970s movies are high up on my list of classic British films. House of Mortal Sin is perhaps not as disturbing as the director's two previous movies, House of Whipcord or Frightmare, but makes up for it with flamboyantly entertaining murders and some mesmerising performances from (the ever dependable) Sheila Keith, Anthony Sharp and Stephanie Beacham.What I love about Walker's films is their seedy, sordid quality - I don't mean "T&A", but the overall sense of degeneracy and decay. There's no need for supernatural terrors in a Pete Walker film because he shows us that real life is grottier and more horrible than any vampire or ghost. In House of Mortal Sin, Susan Penhaligon's character goes into church in a fit of pique and unwittingly triggers a chain of events that, in a "spiralling descent", destroys not only her life, but the lives of everyone she touches. Her helplessness in the face of others' disbelief, her inability to convince anyone that she's not just an overwrought and silly girl, and the way that the "Establishment" closes ranks to protect its own is plausibly frightening, especially in light of recent revelations about institutionalised abuse routinely covered up by the Church.As the tortured priest, Anthony Sharp brilliantly veers between whining, childish self-pity and stone-faced, stone-hearted bombast, characterising the hypocrisy that Walker sees in the Catholic Church. Happy to leave his mother to the depredations of Sheila Keith's vicious housekeeper, manipulating the young people who come to him for help, and blaming his actions on other people, Meldrum is a monster.Producer/director Walker and scriptwriter McGillivray make the most of the priestly theme, having Meldrum commit his murders with holy paraphernalia like an especially twisted Avengers villain. The script is full of witty incidents and clever flourishes, and it's a shame that McGillivray's punning working title, Mass Murder, was dropped.Another cracking movie from Heritage, certainly worth seeking out. The scratchy print used in the recent Anchor Bay DVD release is past its prime, but is part of a superb package of Pete Walker movies. If only all horror films were made with this level of conviction and commitment.

The church is corrupt, that's what director Walker seems to be saying in a rather clumsy way with this exploitation effort. Elements of "Psycho" are mixed uneasily with "Rosemary's baby", about a mad priest who tapes his confessional sessions and keeps his bedridden mother in the attic. There is extortion, murder (by religious symbols like a rosary and an incense-burner) and an accomplice with a disfigured face (eye-patch and all!). Some scenes, ie the ones with the bedridden mother, border on the tasteless, but I somehow think that that was the point. Surprisingly good performances from a largely unknown cast, with Sheila Keith as a standout in a (too) minor role. Boy, can she give a murderous glance! It's not a stunning tour-de-force like "Frighmare" by the same director, but still manage to pack a punch or two, despite some dreary bits (most of them involving the hero-priest who is too goody-goody to be interesting). For those who is familiar with Pete Walker and his movies, the ending will come as no surprise, but to others it will be shocking/frustrating in about equal measures.