I honestly don't blame lesser talented scriptwriters for imitating classic genre milestones, especially not when the source material is the brilliant French "Les Diaboliques". The least they could do, however, is undertake an extra effort to make their rip-off super-entertaining and/or exaggeratedly violent and sleazy. Unfortunately, "The Corpse", a.k.a. "Crucible of Horror", is dreadfully boring and extremely poorly scripted. Writer (and co-star) Olaf Pooley and director Victors Ritelis were obviously very impressed by H.G. Clouzot's adaptation of Pierre Boileau mesmerizing original novel and wanted to make a typically British version out of it, with a tyrannical patriarch instead of a school principal, but they entirely lack the stylish and visionary capacities to do so. Luckily, there is Michael Gough. The phenomenal horror protagonist of "Horror Hospital" and "Black Zoo" marvelously depicts the loathsome Walter Eastwood with the exact right doses of aristocratic arrogance and British vanity that you hate to love. He does cross a few lines, like beating his lewd teenage daughter with a whip and morally degrade his artist wife non-stop, hence the two of them plot a scheme to kill him in country residence and make it look like suicide. Fans of the aforementioned "Les Diaboliques" know how this should end, but Pooley and Ritelis either didn't understand the finale or imagined they could still improve it. Either way, the climax of "The Corpse" is a failure regardless how you interpret it. Michael Gough is a pleasure to behold, as always, and also Sharon Gurney gives a good performance, but there is hardly any atmosphere or tension, let alone bloodshed.
Review of Crucible of Horror
