Good movie but grossly overrated

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This movie makes me want to track down the people who made it and make them watch their own movie. Virtually everything about this movie is terrible. The noise, I mean music, you hear at the beginning of the movie is just the beginning of your suffering if you continue to watch the movie. The music isn't even music, it's just fingers scratching a chalkboard. The acting is lousy. Oliver Reed, and Gig Young must have been desperate for money when they made this garbage. It fits Carol Lynley because she never could act.The story is beyond absurd. H.P. Lovecraft must be spinning in his grave. Just read the story because if you are a fan of HP Lovecraft, you will not be happy seeing what they have done with "The Shuttered Room." The setting for the story is all wrong. It's based in the sixties but they still act like it's the eighteen hundreds.I really resent having to give this movie one star.

A terrific and really creepy adaptation of an HP Lovecraft story. Carol Lynley and Gig Young inherit Lynley's childhood home and get hell from a local gang of hoods (led by a very young Oliver Reed). That turns out to be nothing compared to the secret the house holds. Lynley and Young are terrific and Reed is excellent as a psychologically scarred punk. David Greene's direction is suitably bizarre, with plenty of odd angles and shrieking music on the soundtrack. Set in New England though clearly filmed in ENGLAND, which only adds to the film's oddness. Flora Robson, looking very haggard, is Lynley's mysterious aunt and she brings a lot to the film. A true unsung horror sleeper boasting a lot of good things, including very far-out opening titles.

It's impossible to warn people about this film without spoilers.The Shuttered Room does begin like a modern adaptation of a Lovecraft story would. Daughter sent away to live in the city. Parents killed by a lightning strike. An old crone harboring secrets. Soon however the plot descends into a running chase to keep the protagonist from being deflowered by a village tough, played by Oliver Reed. While Reed is good in this role (he may be the best actor in this film), Robert Blake did it better in "In Cold Blood." Gig Young is Uber-Urbanite in this film. He shows no fear, fights off scores of village ruffians (his kung fu is greater) and even drives a vehicle which reminded me of the Batmobile. Seriously. He solves the mystery of the Shuttered Room, which has persisted for decades, in a few days.The crone's admission near the end of the film ultimately removes this film from anything even remotely associated with Lovecraft. Far from anything supernatural, the secret in the Shuttered Room is the protagonist's feral sister, the Whateley curse made up to protect the poor girl. Indeed, the director tries to make you feel sorry for the "monster." Right. Feel Sorry for the monster. This ain't no "At the Mountains of Madness." In my opinion, if you want Lovecraft on film, your best bet is still "The Dunwich Horror" with Dean Stockwell's creepy performance as Wilbur Whateley.

Carol Lynley has never looked lovelier, I'll say that for this movie. Unfortunately, she also gives perhaps one of the worst performances of her career. She was never that much of an actress to begin with but she did have a certain charm and she had that slightly raspy voice which gave her a uniqueness of her own. In this movie, however, her emotional scale ranges from dazed to slightly annoyed.Gig Young, is ridiculously miscast as her husband. Certainly he's too old for Ms. Lynley or she's to young for him, whichever but they make an odd couple either way.I think I enjoyed Mr. Young's performance the most as he chose to play it practically as if he were in one of those martini, living room light comedies. Too funny.Flora Robson turns in her usual good performances even if the words she has to say are ridiculous.And then there's Mr. Reed. Ah yes, Oliver Reed. Playing a role he was probably born to play as a Neanderthal, boorish thug in incredibly tight blue jeans! I love when he corners Ms. Lynley and licks her ear! Oh baby! The movie starts out promising and seems to strike the right New England Gothic chill note. But within about ten minutes or so the situations start to become ridiculous. The type of thing where you see something on the screen and you start yelling at it and saying things like: "Why are you following them if they just tried to drive you off the road?!"....Things like that.The plot just gets sillier and sillier and looses any kind of scary hold it might have had.But I'll say it again: Ms. Lynley was simply GORGEOUS! I kept thinking she'd be great to play Michelle Pfieffer's mother in a current movie! If I had to recommend this flick, I'd say have some movie buffs over for drinks and have a great time making fun of this silly waste of time.