The Ghoul (1975)
Directed by Freddie Francis

Film Review

Tyburn Films' third and final grim offering in the horror genre is ostensibly a remake of the classic British horror film The Ghoul (1933) but it feels more like a pretty ham-fisted remake of Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).  The borrowed storyline offers not one element of surprise (apart from a silly car chase that seems to go on forever) and the whole thing lumbers along its predictable, well-trodden path with as much excitement as a stray sheep ambling down a country lane.  The gruesome slayings that punctuate the tedious narrative look more like the spasms of a dying patient than anything else and do nothing to salvage this creaking thrill-less time-waster.  Freddie Francis, a veteran of low budget horror, fails to make anything of the derivative script that someone dropped in his in-tray, and even acting giants of the calibre of Peter Cushing and John Hurt appear totally at sea in this one.  The production design isn't bad (in fact most of it is surprisingly good), but with a total lack of commitment in just about every other department The Ghoul cannot help but be consigned to the bargain basement of cheap horror flicks.

Film Synopsis

In England in the 1920s, two upper class couples decide to compete in a car race to Lands End.  Billy and Daphne are soon in the lead, leaving Geoffrey and Angela trailing behind.  When their car runs out of petrol in a foggy stretch of barren countryside, Billy heads for the nearest garage whilst Daphne explores the locality.  After a nasty encounter with a wild-looking young gardener named Tom, Daphne discovers a solitary mansion owned by the reclusive Dr Lawrence.  The latter reveals that he has recently returned to England after living most of his life in India, a country that claimed the lives of both his wife and his son after they were converted to a dangerous religion.  Dr Lawrence insists that Daphne should stay the night and instructs Tom to look for her boyfriend.  Tom kills Billy by pushing his car into a ravine, but an even worse fate awaits Daphne...