Wonderfully offbeat film!

A Brilliant Conflict

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Housewife Edith Eastwood (Yvonne Mitchell) decides to rid herself of her cruel, domineering husband Walter (Michael Gough), enlisting the help of her wayward teenage daughter Jane (Sharon Gurney, who looks more than a little like Emma Watson to me, and who provides the film with a little gratuitous nudity). Together, the pair carry out a scheme to poison Walter, but are shocked when his body mysteriously vanishes, only to repeatedly turn up in the most unlikely of places.British chiller Crucible of Horror blatantly uses French horror classic Les Diaboliques (1955) as its template, but fails to achieve that film's level of atmosphere or nail-biting suspense, a dreary pace and just a little too much horribly dated '70s psychedelia making it a less than satisfying experience. The film also manages to completely fluff the ending, delivering a 'WTF?' final act that will leave the viewer wondering if they have somehow accidentally restarted the film. My guess is that everything we have seen in the film has been wishful thinking on the part of the browbeaten wife, a broken woman's daily fantasy; if that is the case, then it's a massive cop-out. If I'm wrong, then the director's real intent is difficult to fathom. Either way, the film is a dud.3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for Gough, who plays the role of British bastard to perfection.

This 1971 film is known as "Crucible of Horror" and "The Corpse". This is not to be confused with the 1971 film "Crucible of Terror" starring Mike Raven. Both horror films came out in 1971 and have a similar title.Michael Gough plays Walter Eastwood - a sadistic madman towards his wife and daughter. His son Rupert Eastwood (played by Simon Gough - Michael's real life son) is just as bad. Jane and Edith Eastwood plans to murder Michael for they have grown tired of his ways.It's a great but twisted film from start to finish. The ending of the film will leave you guessing, wondering "what just happened?" "Was is all a dream - or was it real?" This is an odd film that is worth a watch if you like evil or twisted "family secrets" type of horror movies.7.5/10

The sadistic and domineering Walter Eastwood (splendidly played to the nasty and menacing hilt by Michael Gough) rules over his household with the proverbial iron fist; his browbeaten painter wife Edith (a fine performance by Yvonne Mitchell) and rebellious teenage daughter Jane (an excellent portrayal by Sharon Mitchell of "Raw Meat" fame) join forces to kill him. However, disposing of Walter's body proves to be easier said than done. Director Viktors Ritelis, working from an intriguing script by Olaf Pooley, does an expert job of creating and maintaining a profoundly grim, depressing, and claustrophobic atmosphere and firmly grounds the downbeat premise in a thoroughly plausible drab workaday reality. Moreover, Pooley's screenplay offers a compelling and provocative feminist subtext on how men do their best to control women through both physical and psychological torture and the impossibility of abused women to successfully overthrow the cruel male hierarchy. The startling moments of sudden brutal violent and underlying themes of incest and spousal abuse give this picture an extra potent emotional sting. The sturdy acting from the able cast rates as a real substantial plus: Gough excels in a tailer-made hateful bastard role, Mitchell and Gurney are both deeply sympathetic, and Simon Gough impresses as Walter's smarmy suck-up son Rupert who's completely indifferent to the women's pain and suffering. The cinematography by John Hotchkis boasts several neat stylistic flourishes. While this movie does suffer a bit from slow pacing, an overdone score, and a rather frustrating ambiguous ending, it nonetheless manages to be genuinely chilling and hence is worth a watch for fans of out of the ordinary fright fare.

With a plot that's heavily derivative of LES DIABOLIQUES (1954), this is one of the oddest British horror films of its time. In itself, it's watchable but not especially rewarding; there are, however, good performances from Michael Gough (playing a despicable tyrant, naturally) and lovely Sharon Gurney (in her film debut as his long-suffering daughter). Still, its sporadic outburst of technique - rapid-fire flashbacks and dream sequences shown in negative - often doesn't work and the twist ending, practically negating everything that has gone on before, is baffling to say the least!