Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

ofumalow This rather slow-moving thriller, inconspicuously based on a Lovecraft story (there's nothing fantastical about it), is surprisingly a lot like the later "Straw Dogs" until it finally gets to the mild "horror" content in the last half hour. Carol Lynley and the notably over-twice-her-age Gig Young are Americans who return to the remote English village where she's inherited a (seemingly) abandoned mill, and where her parents died (mysteriously of course) when she was a child. Her vague childhood fears turn out to be grounded in the reality of a sinister presence still hiding in the "shuttered room" upstairs. But before that manifests itself, she is mostly menaced by all the leering, rapey local louts. Chief among them is Oliver Reed, who as usual in these early roles seems much more vivid than anyone else onscreen, and is so detestably sleazy one really enjoys the scene in which Young (however improbably) beats him senseless. Fitting loosely into the "psycho chiller" category that flourished after "Psycho" and "Baby Jane," this is uneventful for too long, and David Greene's competent direction (commencing the relatively short period where he made big-screen features, before and after long stretches in TV) lacks distinguishing style and atmosphere. Flora Robson is a welcome presence as the aunt who tries to warn our protagonists off, though it's hardly an interesting role for her. Lynley, as usual, is pretty but undistinguished, and Young, as usual, is pleasant in a generic-leading-man way. The "Straw Dogs"-type sexual menace of the wife and humiliation of her husband actually continue--a lot less graphically than Peckinpah allowed, of course--right up until the rather tepid climax in which the secret about the "ghoul" is finally revealed. The film's only real eccentricity is a score that's much closer to jazz (with occasional Indian raga flourishes) than the usual suspense fodder this material would get. That, and perhaps the fact that it takes a while to realize the movie is supposed to be set in New England, when clearly it was shot in (and most of the cast is from) "old" England.Anyway, I waited a long time to catch up with this, and can't say it was really worth the wait. It's not bad--there are certainly cheaper and cheesier psycho-thrillers from the era--but it's not particularly memorable or scary.

LCShackley 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.

slayrrr666 "The Shuttered Room" is a severely disappointing entry.**SPOILERS**Receiving an inheritance, Mike, (Gig Young) and his wife Susanna Kelton, (Carol Lynley) return to her home on Dunwich Island after inheriting an old mill on the island. Meeting with the locals, they all warn them away from the mill for fears of an unknown curse from her childhood nightmare that still haunts her. When her Aunt Agatha, (Flora Robson) finds that they're desire to stay there and turn it into a summer-house, she feels it will unleash the curse again, and as they spend more time together, they start to believe in the curse and try whatever they can to get away before it becomes too late.The Good News: This was an incredibly disappointing effort. That it can go so wrong after it's brilliant opening moments is a mystery, but only sporadic moments afterward are any good. The opening here is classic, where a young child is attacked menacingly, then begins to fight off the parents before being dragged away and locked in a strange room, all done through the attacker's POV. It's brutal, shocking and intense, which is a fantastic way to open the film and get some good points going. There's also the fact that it's all pre-credit, so nothing is known of what's happening, making for a better scene. After arriving on the island, they are harassed and tormented by the locals, including a crazy, imaginative, and highly memorable part where one is pulled along behind a truck by a metal chain while standing on a wooden box as he's dragged over the pavement, with their car caught in the dust and flying debris behind them. All of this is done in the opening half of the film, and manages to be it's best part. Though it does play up the haunted-house style of scares nicely, there's a nice and sleazy undertow to the last half and it concludes with a Gothic-standard burning house, all of which are watchable, but can't really compare to the opening.The Bad News: There was a couple of flaws to this. Perhaps the biggest is that the film isn't a haunted house film at all, which is a huge cheat. It's hard to be able to take the hauntings seriously when the revelation occurs, which is such a cheat that it takes the viewer right out of the film, and are forced with a redundant back-story explanation after we all ready know everything anyway that gives way into the twist which, playing off that we already know what's happened, comes as no surprise at all and feels there simply to add to the chase through the house at the end and tie up the loose threads. Also, the focus away from the haunted house story and make it about the psychotic family torturing them through some of the lamest means possible for the rest of the time. The scenes with the brothers out on the highway are just terrible and don't have any sort of thrills or chills to them, and the fight is a major disappointment. These are just plain irritating and don't really do much of anything to help the film. Also rather hurtful is the fact that the film is just deadly dull and boring during the middle segments. While there's a few single, short scenes of the haunting going on, there's just way more scenes in here that are just so boring that it's hard to stay interested in them. They're just so low-key that it's hard to stay all that interested in them at all, as they consist of nothing more than just never-ended scenes of them wandering around the house while she freaks out over nothing and it all seems to just blend together one scene after another of the same thing. It's not exactly the fastest moving film, and combined with the cheat, really knock this one down.The Final Verdict: This was a hugely disappointing effort, mainly because it should've been much better than it really was and becomes a huge missed opportunity. Really only see this one if you're into the type or find some kind of enjoyment from these types, otherwise steer clear of this one.Today's Rating-R: Violence, children in danger, themes of incest and Brief Nudity

Woodyanders 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.