The Shuttered Room (1967)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

As many before have stated, I first saw this when I was about 12, and it definitely made an impression. I have been a big fan of the Horror genre since I was quite young (7 or 8). I must say I thought the film actually took place in England, it just has that feel to it and the soundtrack as well. I later found out it was actually filmed in England with mostly English actors. I searched for this for many years before I actually got a hold of a VHS tape (not great quality either). I recently was able to acquire it on DVD doubled up with "It" from the same period and on the WB title list. I think it is extremely underrated with a great score and ahead of it's time filming techniques to go along with a great HP Lovecraft story! If you get the chance, snag it! You won't be sorry, it destroys anything put out as horror these days!

UK-shot 'The Shuttered Room remains one of the better Lovecraft/Derleth adaptations thus far, and has pretty bride Susanna Kelton (Carol Lynley) returning with handsome hubby (Gig Young) to her desolate, ancestral abode, only to find that any real possibility of emotional exorcism is not only unlikely; her return merely expedites a far more terrifying familial malaise. As is in all films graced with his barrel-chested presence, Ollie Reed chews through the scenery as if they were a mere prelude to an evening's orgiastic drinking. Flora Robson is particularly effective as the creepy, domineering patriarch whose dark, malevolent secrets refuse to be contained any longer.

The problem with SHUTTERED ROOM is that the writer and director seem to be making two films side by side.The first is a standard "haunted house" flick, where an innocent couple come to claim an old mill house that everyone in the neighborhood seems afraid of. That plot, with its prologue and resolution, would have made a decent TV episode.But there's also a sort of backwoods British "Deliverance" film happening at the same time, where some slack-jawed character actors (doing pretty good American accents), led by the always menacing Oliver Reed, try to lure the lovely Carol Lynley away from her seemingly clueless husband, Gig Young. You'd think that Gig would catch on earlier and keep his wife on a short leash (for her own safety). But no...she's always putting herself at risk and even Gig's silly karate skills can't always save her.HP Lovecraft fans will look in vain for the touch of "the master," since this film is based loosely on a story clapped together by August Derleth, best known for picking the literary bones of the Lovecraft estate.This film could have fallen in the same category as WICKER MAN; even the look of the film shares some similarities. But it's nowhere near as eerie, and without the visceral punch.

Troubled Susannah Kelton (an excellent and affecting performance by the lovely Carol Lynley) and her wise, sensible husband Mike (splendidly played by Gig Young) inherit a rundown old mill house that's located on an isolated New England island. The Keltons receive a chilly reception from the unfriendly locals and are warned by Susannah's kindly, but formidable Aunt Agatha (a spot-on redoubtable turn by Flora Robson) that the place has a curse on it. Ably directed with stylish aplomb by David Greene, with a deliciously eerie and mysterious brooding Gothic atmosphere that positively drips with dread and menace, an intriguing script by D.B. Ledrov and Nathaniel Tanchuck, evocative use of the verdant countryside locations, crisp and vibrant cinematography by Ken Hodges (the occasional artful use of fades and dissolves is especially striking), colorful characters, a marvelously spooky and offbeat discordant experimental jazz score by Basil Kirchin, witty dialogue, a flavorsome depiction of the remote rural region, and a rousing fiery conclusion, this film really hits the bull's eye as a superior 60's shocker. Young and Lynley make for extremely engaging leads. Moreover, Oliver Reed contributes a delightfully leering and hearty portrayal of unruly no-count trouble-making lout Ethan, who has a most unsavory lascivious interest in poor Susannah. The explanation for what's really going on in the mill house is not only expectedly startling, but also surprisingly poignant. A fun and engrossing fright feature.