An offbeat curiosity, this laid back, quirky suspenser is based on a HP Lovecraft story set in New England but was shot, more or less convincingly, in (Old England) Norfolk. Apparently Ken Russell was originally slated to direct but the job fell to Canadian TV graduate David Greene. While intriguing to imagine what Russell would have made of it, Greene has endowed this underwritten yarn with a strange, dreamy quality that sustains the interest enough to transcend the slight story. And he uses landscape well - bare sandy heathland and rocky coastlines - to give the setting a rather other-worldly feel. Carol Lynley's doll-like beauty makes the vulnerable heroine seem even more fragile, but Gig Young as her older husband is just too square for the Swinging Sixties. Oliver Reed seems strangely subdued; he never quite gets a chance to really get to grips with his character, a menacing backwoods psychotic. Flora Robson also underplays her part as local witch, but her restraint is more effective. Greene stayed in Britain to make the equally original The Strange Affair with Michael York.
Review of The Shuttered Room
