classicsoncall Review of Crucible of Horror

Crucible of Horror (1971)

"I'm not bloody interested in what you should say."

[5/10 · 22 March 2020]

I saw this film under the title "Crucible of Horror". To be clear, a crucible does make it's appearance in the early going when Jane Eastwood (Sharon Gurney) mixes some sort of potion, then it's never to be seen again. Like many reviewers on this board, I too sensed a similarity to the 1955 French film "Diabolique". However that picture was a masterful story of suspense that kept you on the edge of your seat for a final resolution. Here, when the dead Walter Eastwood (Michael Gough) turns up near the end of the story, you wind up scratching your head as to what you just watched for almost an hour and a half. Was it a dream, or a hallucination on the part of wife Edith Eastwood (Yvonne Mitchell)? There were certainly enough nightmarish sequences as part of Edith's reveries to suggest some sort of tragic outcome. Instead, the tragic outcome is that director Victors Ritelis didn't really provide one. Nevertheless the film did inspire a humorous moment to my mind, strictly as a matter of timing for catching the picture. With all the hand washing Walter Eastwood did, you would think he was trying to avoid the corona virus.