The Ghoul (1975 film)
The Ghoul (1975) AKA Night of the Ghoul, The Thing in the Attic
Summary
"GHOUL: A person of revolting, inhuman tastes, supposed in the East to haunt burial places and feed on the dead...." A party of friends are separated on a trip, the girls abducted and taken to the home of a former clergyman who has lost his faith. A young man who works for him is forced to reveal the horrible secret of the lonely mansion: the thing in the attic!
Details
- Release Date: 1975
- Country/Language: UK, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror, Thriller
- Setting: Classic UK
- Runtime: 1 hr 25 min
- Starring: Peter Cushing, John Hurt, Alexandra Bastedo
- Director: Freddie Francis
- Writer: Anthony Hinds (screenplay, as John Elder)
- Producer/Production Co: Kevin Francis; Tyburn Film Productions Limited
- IMDB Page: (link)
- Wikipedia: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: R (Violence, possibly mild Adult Content and Profanity, brief Nudity)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone, could be a very loose adaptation)
A cannibal ghoul locked in a priest's attic on a creepy English estate sounds fairly Lovecraftian to me....
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Graham Clarke at The Spinning Image (link) - "Really, The Ghoul isn't so bad, it's just that it's unrelentingly grim..."
- Mark Hodgson at Black Hole Reviews (link)) - "While set in the 1920's, this has less of a period feel than the Hammer films and aligns itself closer to contemporary horror with a variety of shock tactics and a far stronger heroine than Hammer usually managed."
- Richard Scheib at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (2/5 Stars) (linkl) - "The film breaks the mold of the Hammer Gothic drama in choosing a an Edwardian rather than Victorian setting. Unfortunately, the plot is irritating... ...thin on the ground, only centring around various people investigating the disappearances and the mysteries of Peter Cushing’s brooding country estate. ... However, the atmosphere of strangeness amid the mist-flowing moors is certainly well evoked..."
- Christ Wood at British Horror Films (link) - "...The Ghoul is a top-notch Gothic horror in the Hammer tradition, which unfortunately by the time it was made was woefully out of whack with the trends at the time. Still, with the benefit of hindsight, it's a cracker."
Synopsis (SPOILERS)
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
A former priest harbors a dark and horrible secret in his attic: the locked room serves as a prison cell for his crazed, cannibalistic adult son, who acquired his savage tastes in India during his father's missionary work there. The priest fears that his son will escape to prey upon guests staying at his rural English estate for a cross-country auto race.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
- Before he signed on to do this film, Peter Cushing had lost his beloved wife Helen to natural causes, leading him to wish he would soon die himself. The photo representing the character's wife is actually Helen Cushing. Director Freddie Francis made Cushing do multiple takes during the scene where he talks about his love for his late wife, causing Cushing great distress and reducing the widowed actor and some of the crew to tears.
Associated Mythos Elements
- fiction: compare to "The Unnameable (fiction)"
- race: Ghoul
Keeper Notes
