Plot

After a 20-year asylum stay for a double ax murder, suspicion arises about Lucy Harbin's behavior as she returns to her daughter Carol, who is engaged to marry Michael Fields. Soon, heads begin to roll again. Is Lucy repeating her past?

Lucy Harbin has been in an asylum for 20 years after axing her husband and his mistress during a crime of passion, witnessed by her young daughter, Carol. While trying to renew ties with Carol, who is now a young woman about to be married, heads begin to roll again. Is Lucy repeating her past?—Ray Hamel <hamel@primate.wisc.edu>

Twenty years after being sent to a mental institution for having killed her husband and his lover with an ax, Lucy Harbin is released. She returns to her brother Bill Cutler's farm where she is reunited with her now adult daughter Carol. Soon after her arrival, however, there are a number of strange occurrences. She begins to hear voices and wakes up seeing a bloody ax in her room which subsequently vanishes. Carol is very protective of her mother, who is uncomfortable in the presence of strangers, but her situation apparently deteriorates. Things get more serious when one of Lucy's doctors from the asylum visits, but then disappears. Has Lucy started killing again?—garykmcd

When Lucy Harbin arrives early from a trip, she sees her husband with his mistress sleeping in her bed, so she kills them with an ax. Her little daughter Carol witnesses the murder. After 20 years in an asylum, Lucy is released by her physician Dr. Anderson and her brother Bill Cutler brings her back to her farm where he lives with his wife Emily and Carol. Lucy meets her estranged daughter and she learns that she is going steady with the wealthy Michael Fields. Soon, Lucy has nightmares and hears children singing a pejorative song about her. When Dr. Anderson unexpectedly visits her at home, she shows that she is unbalanced and the doctor decides to take her back to the asylum; however, he is axed in the barn. Is Lucy killing again?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lucy Harbin has been imprisoned in an insane asylum for 20 years for murdering her husband Frank Harbin and his paramour for that night, Stella Fulton, Lucy decapitated their heads with an ax before indiscriminately wielding it to other parts of their bodies. The murders were witnessed by Lucy and Frank's then-adolescent daughter, Carol Harbin, who was eventually adopted by Lucy's brother and his wife, Bill and Emily Cutler. With only a brusque hired hand named Leo Krause helping out, the Cutlers now live on a farm in California, far away from the Harbins' house in Ohio where the murders were committed so that Carol could get away from the public scrutiny of her mother's murderous act. The board at the asylum, believing that she is now reformed and well enough on new medications, is releasing Lucy into Bill and Emily's custody, the decision being against the advice of Lucy's physician, Dr. Anderson. Carol, an up-and-coming sculptress, is nervously excited about seeing her mother after 20 years. Carol wants to be as open as possible about her mother's situation to others; however, she only tells one person who is not in the know about Lucy, namely her boyfriend, Michael Fields, the son of wealthy dairy owners Raymond and Alison Fields. As Carol and Michael are planning on getting married, Carol wants no secrets of this nature from Michael. Seeing how scared and depressed her mother looks, Carol wants to brighten up her life by transforming her into the young, vivacious woman that Carol remembers as her mother. However, that transformation, as well as other issues in general, evoke the murders and the incarceration for Lucy, who still seems to be suffering from mental illness exacerbated by these emotional triggers. Eventually, some people within this situation go missing; everyone, with the exception of the perpetrator, not knowing that the missing have been killed by someone wielding an ax. Has Lucy reverted back to her ax murdering ways?—Huggo

Various flashbacks and images introduce Lucy Harbin [Joan Crawford], a young woman who comes home unexpectedly to find her husband in bed with another woman. Carol, their very young daughter, is in bed right in the next room, but she is awake. Heartbroken, Lucy suffers a moment of fury and confusion that leads her to spontaneously pick up a nearby axe and decapitate her husband and his lover while they sleep. Carol watches in terror and shock as Lucy hacks the two bodies to pieces. Lucy is declared insane and sent to an asylum, where she endures traumatic shock treatments for her mental breakdown.

The narrator of the flashback is revealed to be Carol, now a young woman. It is twenty years later, and Carol is opening up about her past to her boyfriend, Michael Fields. After Lucy's incarceration, Carol was taken in by her aunt and uncle, Bill and Emily, and the family lives on a farm in a rural location. Carol is revealing the family history to Michael because Lucy is being released from the asylum, and is coming to live with the family. When Lucy arrives, she is skittish. She cautiously acclimates to the farm, exploring the area with Carol and meeting the gritty-looking farm hand, Krause. But she is clearly thrilled to see Carol again, and is touched by the lovely young woman Carol has become. Carol is a sculptress and has a spacious studio filled with her work, and she thrills Lucy by giving her a bust of herself just as she was in her youth.

Things quickly start to get strange. Carol shocks Lucy by presenting her with two bracelets she used to wear when she was a young woman, large dangling charm bracelets that jangle when she walks. Carol seems intent on recreating Lucy as a young woman, taking her clothes shopping and buying her a wig that mimics the hairstyle she wore the last time Carol saw her. Lucy is uncomfortable with this, but agrees to dress this way to please her daughter, whom she desperately wants to make amends with. While they are in the wig shop, Lucy hears strange voices, as if children are singing a morbid nursery rhyme about her crimes. She dismisses it as nerves. Later, she suffers a terrible nightmare and wakes up to discover two bloody heads in bed with her, with a bloody axe lying nearby. When she wakes the others, the items are gone from her room. Lucy starts to think she is relapsing.

Things get worse when Carol attempts to introduce Michael to her mother. When Michael stops by for drinks, Lucy seems to try and seduce him, all with Carol right there in the room. The embarassing scene is interrupted by Lucy's former psychiatrist, Dr. Anderson, who makes an unexpected visit. When he sees how unstable Lucy seems, Dr. Anderson makes comments to the family that suggest he would like to take Lucy back to the hospital. When the doctor gets Lucy alone, his comments upset her and she runs off. As Dr. Anderson searches for her around the farm, he enters the darkened barn and a shadowy figure corners him--it appears to be Lucy, the silhouette revealing her hairstyle and figure, right down to the jangling bracelets she wears. The figure is holding an axe, and quickly decapitates Dr. Anderson.

Carol returns to the farmhouse to find her mother alone in the darkened living room. The doctor's car is still outside, and Carol quickly comes to the conclusion that her mother has killed him. In a panic, Carol drives the doctor's car into a barn and locks it in, but she is spotted by Krause, who is lurking the shadows. The next day, Carol sees Krause painting the car a different color and angrily confronts him, but he smugly suggests that he knows what happened to the doctor, and that he'll turn Lucy in to the authorities if Carol fires him. Lucy overhears the conversation from the window. Later that evening, Krause is stalked and murdered with the axe.

Lucy prepares for an evening that she dreads, a dinner party intended to introduce her to Michael's parents. If Michael and Carol are to be married, these will be their in-laws, and Michael's family is very wealthy, his father being the proprietor of a very successful dairy farm. Lucy has a panic attack in the powder room while at the Fields'--after spilling coffee on her dress, she retreats to the washroom and suffers a flashback because of the wallpaper, which resembles the bars of a prison cell. Carol calms her down and takes her back to the party. Mr. & Mrs. Fields are cordial until they plot to get Lucy alone so they can have a private conversation with her: Mrs. Fields is suspicious of Lucy, and poor Lucy makes a terrible misstep by revealing to Mr. & Mrs. Fields that her daughter and Michael are planning to be married. The Fields had not been informed of this yet, and they react disapprovingly. Mrs. Fields in particular gets very haughty with Lucy, making suggestions about her past, and Lucy suddenly snaps at her, revealing that she was in an asylum for twenty years. She says that under no circumstances will she allow the Fields' to interfere with her daughter's happiness, and she storms out of the house.

Michael drives Emily and Carol back to their house while he and Bill go out looking for Lucy, who has disappeared. Emily sends Carol to bed, but Carol is restless and cannot sleep. With Michael gone from the Fields' house, Mr. and Mrs. Fields are alone in their house and they hear sounds to suggest someone is prowling around. Mr. Fields is oblivious, but when he goes into his closet to get undressed for the evening, he is attacked by the figure of Lucy, brandishing an axe. Mrs. Fields becomes suspicious and goes looking for her husband, eventually finding his body in the dressing room. Horrified, she retreats, only to be confronted by the figure of Lucy in the bedroom. Before the axe can fall, the bedroom door opens and the real Lucy comes in; after scuffling with the other figure, Lucy tears off a mask to reveal her daughter's face underneath. Carol has been committing the murders while dressing as her mother; scarred by witnessing the double homicide committed by her mother, Carol's mind was unstable ever since. Certain that Mr. and Mrs. Fields would never allow Michael to marry her without a great deal of trouble, she plotted to make it appear as if Lucy murdered them in a rage, which would send Lucy back to the asylum and allow her to marry Michael. Her mind shattered, Carol clutches the mask of her mother and screams at it "I hate you! I hate you! Oh I'm sorry, I love you! I hate you! I love you!" Outside on the porch, Lucy hears her daughter's insane ravings and weeps, perhaps remembering her own moment of insanity.

An epilogue reveals Lucy discussing her plans with Bill. With Carol now committed to an asylum just as she once was, Lucy intends to stand by her daughter and be whatever kind of support that she needs.