House of the Living Dead

(Mad Scientist/Mansion) 3***skulls

*Violent* *Blood* *No Sexual Situations* *No Nudity* *No Profanity*

*Not Particularly Gory*

1973/Color/85 Min./Interglobal Home Video & United Entertainment Inc./ South Africa/Rated PG

Director...........Ray Austin (Highlander: The Gathering, Space 1999-TV)

Screenplay......Marc De V Marais

Music...............Peter Elliot & Eric Smith

Producer.........Matt Druker & Basil Rubin

Based on an original story by John Brason

Cast:*Mark Burns (Death in Venice, The Virgin and the Gypsy)

Shirley Anne Field (Alfie, Hear My Song, My Beautiful Laundrette)

David Oxley (Met by Moonlight, Night Ambush)

William Baird Clark

Peter Geldenhuys

Critique: This real yawner of a South African horror movie could only scare an editor or a reviewer. The questionable production values are a great deal better than the boring script or the uninspired acting. You should, however, get a kick out of the liner notes on the box. The writer doesn't know the name of the family around whom the entire film slowly revolves. Its Brattling, not Breckenridge. Dreadful.

Plot Summary: In the Mansion inhabited by the brother is conducting strange experiments in an attic laboratory. Simeon, the hired hand, is suspicious and scared of "that looney up in the attic." The people of the village are more scared of the brother in the attic than they are of the local witch, Mia Kett. She's pretty scary. What must he be up to? Sir Michael, the dashing normal brother is a gentleman farmer who is liked and trusted by the plantation workers.

Annie is running through the woods hiding on Simeon and he is dragged off and murdered while she is beaten. Nina has an amulet with which she is trying to protect Sir Michael, who insists there is no evil at the farm to be thwarted - not any more, or so he thinks.

Sir Michael brings his fiance Lady Marianne to B. against his mother's wishes. There is general agreement that brother Brett is a sick man. Brett believes the soul is an organic entity that can be kept alive outside and independently of the human body. The medical community was not amused by his findings. Sir Michael and mother cook up a story about an accident that will keep Sir Breck out of the picture for the time being. Lady Marianne however has seen the limping figure beneath her window and heard the organ playing in the middle of the night. The maid tells her why the mere mention of Sir Brecks Name makes everyone at Bratling so skittish: he collects the souls of living things in the attic. With the deaths of several workers, Sir Michael loses the allegiance of the farm hands who believe that the insane brother is behind everything. The police become involved as the boring body count accrues. It is Brecks goal to contain the souls of both Marianne and Sir Michael in one container. Don't ask why. This guy is not a mad scientist because he is misunderstood, rather simply because he is a completely insane person who happens to be a scientist. Is there any hope of escape for Marianne and Sir Michael?