First things first, I must make a brief break from the subject of movies in order to make the following statement. THE FALCONS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL! Now, back to the business at hand. I must offer an apology for the lateness of the post. I had accidentally turned off my alarm yesterday so I ended up sleeping in this morning. Had it not been for a pretty messed up dream involving a over-sized turtle that had been pried out of it’s shell and then proceeded to chase me, I probably would have been late for work. Now I will admit, that is a pretty messed up dream, so I am hoping that today’s movie, Crucible Of Horror, will not be a complete let down.
The plot: Walter Eastwood watches as his daughter returns home and notices a young man watching her from beyond their gate. He asks her why she is late then heads outside and notices the man attempting to scale the gate, then grabs Jane’s bicycle seat before quickly heading back inside and washing his hands. Meanwhile, Jane heads up to her room, where she mixes some perfumes before trying on some clothes and a wig that she bought. After washing his hands, Walter heads up to the attic to put some things away, then goes and knocks on the door where his wife Edith is painting, telling her not to be late to dinner. At dinner, Walter talks briefly with his son Rupert before questioning Jane about where she was. Jane says that she was with her friends but she will have to get new ones becuase they are getting tired of always paying her. This starts an argument on why Walter won’t let Jane get a job which is only broken up when someone rings the doorbell. Jane answers the door to find Mr. Gregson there, who asks to see Walter and as Jane escorts him to the study, he grabs and kisses her. Jane tells Walter that Gregson is there and Walter goes to talk with him and learns Gregson is there because Jane stole some money from his store’s safe. Walter pays Gregson back and then warns him to stay away from Jane. After dinner, Walter heads up to Jane’s room and asks if she took the money, then proceeds to beat her with a riding crop, while Rupert ignores it by putting on headphones and Edith simply listens and cries. The next morning at breakfast, Rupert goes through the mail and finds a love letter for Jane which he keeps from her. When he leaves with Rupert, Edith suggests to Jane that they kill her, and Jane wonders if she is serious. When Walter and Rupert return home, Walter tries to get into Edith’s drawing room but she has the door locked and says Jane is in there with her. Later, Walter asks Rupert to get Jane to come downstairs but when he tries to bring her down, she fights him off. She does come down later and Walter says that they should go to the cabin for the weekend but Edith says she is staying in town with Jane and Rupert says he has plans with someone else that he can’t change. Walter heads to the cottage by himself but after he leaves, Edith grabs one of his hunting rifles and heads up there with Jane. The two women try to sneak in but accidentally knock something over, and Walter is surprised to see them. As Walter goes to rest in his chair, Edith sends Jane to make some tea, then heads into the room with Walter. When Jane joins them, Edith has Jane shut the door, then grabs Walter’s hunting rifle and threatens to shoot Walter. Edith has Jane pour Walter a drink and he grabs the bottle from her and proceeds to pour his own drink and keeps drinking. Edith demands her freedom from Walter and to take Jane with her but Walter refuses to allow her to take Jane, saying she is incapable of instructing her. As Walter continues to drink, he ends up passing out due to some drugs Edith placed in the bottle. Jane then pours out the bottle and Edith prepares another drink with some more drugs and forces it down Walter’s throat. Jane and Edith then drag Walter upstairs and place him in his bed, then head back home. When they return home, Jane receives a call from Benjy, who asks Jane out but she ends up turning him down. That night, they worry about getting caught and Edith ends up having strange dreams. The next day, they decide to head back to the cabin and get rid of Walter’s body but they quickly hide the body when Reid, and architect friend of Walter’s shows up. Reid talks with them a bit and tells them about a strange call he received asking to check out the place but he doesn’t know who called. The phone rings but when Jane picks it up, nobody responds when she says hello and she hangs it up. As Jane and Edith go to fix Reid a drink, he snoops around and discovers the bottle of poison in the bedroom. Reid says his goodbyes to the two women, then heads off and the two women decide to load up the crate into their car and leave. The drive out to a cliff and proceed to throw the crate off the edge of the cliff, where it crashes to the water below. The two return home and try to figure out what to do next when they hear a door close and figure it must be Rupert. Edith goes upstairs to see if it is him but sees no sign of him, then hears a crash down below. She races down to find a window had broken from the oncoming storm and as she and Jane try pushing a dresser to block the window, Rupert calls and when he learns that there has been no word from Walter, he decides to stay out. After having nightmares through out the night, Edith wakes up and goes to look around. When she hears a strange noise, goes to investigate and finds Walter’s body hanging from a rafter. She runs screaming for Jane and Walter chases after her, causing her to collapse and begin screaming out. The next morning, Walter gets the mail and reads it as he as coffee with his family. After reading out loud a letter Benjy wrote Jane asking to meet, Walter tears it up and says Jane won’t be meeting him. As he goes to leave, Walter asks Edith what she plans on doing that day and Edith is shown to be somewhat catatonic, driven mad by the dreams she had.
Man, I am completely baffled by this movie. The acting was ok I guess, with Yvonne Mitchell (Edith) and Sharon Gurney (Jane) doing good jobs in their roles. The story was pretty confusing, with a lot of strange camera angles and weird side stories that don’t seem to go anywhere. The scene with Walter beating Jane with the riding crop was pretty brutal and honestly a little hard to watch. The camera work in this movie was really weird, and I know that they were trying to make things appear more suspenseful but it honestly just made it confusing. All in all, this is a strange movie but I would avoid the headache if possible.
Rating: 1 1/2 out of 5
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