University student Scotty (Rebecca Balding) finds campus housing is full so she secures a room in a creepy house overlooking the beach. She makes quick friends with the other three students there but is a bit creeped out by teenager Mason and his mother Mrs. Engels (Yvonne DeCarlo). The night she moves in, one of her newfound friends is murdered on the beach. While the police investigate, Scotty stays in the house to fall in love with Jack, unaware that the killer is lurking between the walls.
For some reason, I never saw this early slasher flick despite a pretty wide video release on the Media label. Checking it out 27 years after its debut, it is a pretty effective little horror film that mixes the old dark house scenario with the popular slasher trend of the time. The first hour or so is pretty standard stuff. It is in the last half hour that the film really makes it point. Once Scotty discovers the hidden path in the walls, it is a pretty good freak out with a deranged family. Best of all, you have a wonderfully deranged (and wordless) performance by Barbara Steele as the psychotic killer Victoria. Despite her character having a lobotomy, she is still hot!
Cameron Mitchell and Avery Schrieber (!) have small supporting roles as the cops investigating the case. Director Denny Harris handles the scares well with the end in the attic being rather suspenseful. Sadly, this is his only feature to date. Composer Roger Kellaway delivers a really nice score as well. Writers/producers/brothers Jim and Ken Wheat went on to direct EWOK: THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR and the horror anthology AFTER MIDNIGHT. They then took sequel writing duty, churning out THE FLY II, parts of ELM STREET 4, THE BIRDS II, THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE II. They also wrote what eventually became PITCH BLACK.
For some reason, I never saw this early slasher flick despite a pretty wide video release on the Media label. Checking it out 27 years after its debut, it is a pretty effective little horror film that mixes the old dark house scenario with the popular slasher trend of the time. The first hour or so is pretty standard stuff. It is in the last half hour that the film really makes it point. Once Scotty discovers the hidden path in the walls, it is a pretty good freak out with a deranged family. Best of all, you have a wonderfully deranged (and wordless) performance by Barbara Steele as the psychotic killer Victoria. Despite her character having a lobotomy, she is still hot!
Cameron Mitchell and Avery Schrieber (!) have small supporting roles as the cops investigating the case. Director Denny Harris handles the scares well with the end in the attic being rather suspenseful. Sadly, this is his only feature to date. Composer Roger Kellaway delivers a really nice score as well. Writers/producers/brothers Jim and Ken Wheat went on to direct EWOK: THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR and the horror anthology AFTER MIDNIGHT. They then took sequel writing duty, churning out THE FLY II, parts of ELM STREET 4, THE BIRDS II, THE STEPFORD HUSBANDS and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE II. They also wrote what eventually became PITCH BLACK.