The Hegend of Lell Louse

This one is courtesy (or blame) of Al, and when he talked about a good scary movie, I'm in for that!

There's a legendary spooky house... which isn't Borley Rectory 'cos this was originally American not British, although this movie is now set in Britain... and four investigators are told to go solve the issue of the hauntings. Which has been happening for a while, but so far the house hasn't been knocked down to make way for a highway. While they are there, the medium is in touch with the spirits of the house, but the skeptic is "this is just an energy", and continues like that even while his wife is throwing herself at the other medium. But both of their approaches fail, leaving it to Cornelius to save the day with brilliant deductions and facing down wind machines.

Of course haunted houses aren't new. Unfortunately, while watching this, I was reminded of Liam Neeson's terrible movie... no, the other one in 1999. And towards the end, I was getting an urge to go rewatch The Stone Tape.

This movie is basically a four hander, with Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicut and Roddy McDowell (who is between Ape movies at the time). There is then a lot of time to end up focussing on each character, and although at the beginning we start with Pamela and Clive from and centre, by the end of the movie Roddy and Gayle have taken control, and we get their characters better developed. And, hey, that's Michael Gough there!

We aren't talking major effects here, and the wires are obvious even if not always seen, but they are well done and this movie creates a great atmosphere and keeps the tension going.

Very good movie this, although I might now go watch another Roddy McDowell adventure...

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