The Shuttered Room (1967)

THE SHUTTERED ROOM, also known as BLOOD ISLAND, was released in 1967.THE PLOT: A well-to-do man and his young wife (Gig Young and Carol Lynley) visit an island off the coast of New England, which was the childhood home of the wife. They are hassled by lunatic ruffians and learn that her now-dilapidated family estate is haunted or cursed. Although warned to leave by all the locals they decide to stick around. Havok ensues.I hadn't seen this one since I was a kid until I bought the DVD recently. Certain scenes were effectively burned into my memory for decades, like the wacko gang gravel-surfing and the surfer thrust into the barbed-wire fence, the old crone eerily rocking on her perch and the spooky POV shots of the unseen presence in the old mill spying on what's happening below.Oliver Reed is very effective as the head ruffian likely because he was a drunken brawler in real life. He has that captivating aura like Brando, but with a more sinister bent.Carol Lynley (from 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure") was in her mid-20's at the time and she's breath-taking. It's strange that she's married to Gig Young in the story since he was in his early 50s, but it happens.The film features a cool jazzy score.The story takes place on an island off the Coast of New England but it was shot at Hardingham, Norfolk, England. Although this is a fine location you can tell it's not a New England isle. Why didn't they simply have the story take place in England? Some complain about the revelation of the unseen presence at the end, but it worked for me. In fact, I found it surprising. I also found it realistic. Real life is creepier than fantasy. That's all I can say without spoiling it.BOTTOM LINE: Although it may be kind of boring to younger modern viewers, "The Shuttered Room" works well because it effectively creates an eerie mood, has striking characters played by great actors, and has a handful of memorable scenes that burn into the viewer's psyche. It's a horror film not in the sense that it's uber-scary, but rather creepy, weird and disturbing.RUNTIME: 99 minutes GRADE: Borderline B+ or A-

"The Shuttered Room" is a Lovecraftian classic based on one of the 'joint' stories that August Derleth wrote from Lovecraft's unfinished notes after his death.It certainly uses 'Dunwich' and 'Whately' pretty often.The action takes place on a remote island.The old mill hides deadly secret in the attic.Sarah(Carol Lynley)brings her husband to visit her childhood home,but the community of the island is hostile and not very welcoming."The Shuttered Room" reminded me Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" with its central theme of sexual assault in a remote village.The air of menace is well-captured,the acting is impressive and several scenes have a strange,almost ethereal quality.The 'Old Mill' was an actual mill near Norwich in south-east England.On 30th May 1966 the mill was burnt to the ground for the film "The Shuttered Room".I can't believe that the filmmakers did this to such unique fantastic-looking watermill.9 out of 10.

There's a schism at the heart of most every aspect of this nonetheless compelling film. It feels like it ought to be a period piece, but it's not. It feels like it ought to be set in England, but it's not (it was filmed there, however, with mostly British actors!) The music is atypical, the lead couple has a nearly thirty-year age difference and most of the horror scenes take place in the daytime. Lynley plays a young lady who has inherited an old mill house on a New England island. She and her recently wed husband Young drive up to the place to see if it would make a suitable summer home. That they are not made to feel welcome is an understatement. The local toughs, led by Reed, try to bang them off the road and Lynley's aunt Robson, who resides in a drafty lighthouse, tells them to leave immediately! They stick it out, but it isn't long before they are tormented by, not only the local hoods, but by some strange, stalking presence within the mill. Eventually, Lynley must confront not only the title locale, but her own past as well. Lynley is pleasant and attractive and does fairly well as a woman in peril. Both her and Young's characters come off as a wee bit dense as a result of the script and direction, which keep making them respond rather benignly to the events around them. Young, who simultaneously seems too old and yet just right as a husband for Lynley, is amiable as well, but is asked to perform some pretty unbelievable martial arts moves. He does have one memorably gritty scene in which he's tied up on a dirt road. Reed is a little old for his role and overacts wildly, though he somehow makes it work. His attempt at an American accent is decidedly more southern than northern, however. Robson, an actress who elevated any project she was in by merely showing up, is appropriately mysterious and spooky. It's just a shame that the makers didn't just go ahead and set it in England, with the couple flying over to claim the inheritance. The efforts to make it seem American do not come off at all. The discordant score is a matter of taste. While some folks welcome the unusualness of it, others find it intrusive and/or inappropriate. In either case, it is loud and prominent! Once a TV staple, which endeared it to a generation of fans, the film then virtually disappeared for many years until recently being released to DVD and being shown on TCM on Halloween of 2008.

"The Shuttered Room" is a severely disappointing entry.**SPOILERS**Receiving an inheritance, Mike, (Gig Young) and his wife Susanna Kelton, (Carol Lynley) return to her home on Dunwich Island after inheriting an old mill on the island. Meeting with the locals, they all warn them away from the mill for fears of an unknown curse from her childhood nightmare that still haunts her. When her Aunt Agatha, (Flora Robson) finds that they're desire to stay there and turn it into a summer-house, she feels it will unleash the curse again, and as they spend more time together, they start to believe in the curse and try whatever they can to get away before it becomes too late.The Good News: This was an incredibly disappointing effort. That it can go so wrong after it's brilliant opening moments is a mystery, but only sporadic moments afterward are any good. The opening here is classic, where a young child is attacked menacingly, then begins to fight off the parents before being dragged away and locked in a strange room, all done through the attacker's POV. It's brutal, shocking and intense, which is a fantastic way to open the film and get some good points going. There's also the fact that it's all pre-credit, so nothing is known of what's happening, making for a better scene. After arriving on the island, they are harassed and tormented by the locals, including a crazy, imaginative, and highly memorable part where one is pulled along behind a truck by a metal chain while standing on a wooden box as he's dragged over the pavement, with their car caught in the dust and flying debris behind them. All of this is done in the opening half of the film, and manages to be it's best part. Though it does play up the haunted-house style of scares nicely, there's a nice and sleazy undertow to the last half and it concludes with a Gothic-standard burning house, all of which are watchable, but can't really compare to the opening.The Bad News: There was a couple of flaws to this. Perhaps the biggest is that the film isn't a haunted house film at all, which is a huge cheat. It's hard to be able to take the hauntings seriously when the revelation occurs, which is such a cheat that it takes the viewer right out of the film, and are forced with a redundant back-story explanation after we all ready know everything anyway that gives way into the twist which, playing off that we already know what's happened, comes as no surprise at all and feels there simply to add to the chase through the house at the end and tie up the loose threads. Also, the focus away from the haunted house story and make it about the psychotic family torturing them through some of the lamest means possible for the rest of the time. The scenes with the brothers out on the highway are just terrible and don't have any sort of thrills or chills to them, and the fight is a major disappointment. These are just plain irritating and don't really do much of anything to help the film. Also rather hurtful is the fact that the film is just deadly dull and boring during the middle segments. While there's a few single, short scenes of the haunting going on, there's just way more scenes in here that are just so boring that it's hard to stay interested in them. They're just so low-key that it's hard to stay all that interested in them at all, as they consist of nothing more than just never-ended scenes of them wandering around the house while she freaks out over nothing and it all seems to just blend together one scene after another of the same thing. It's not exactly the fastest moving film, and combined with the cheat, really knock this one down.The Final Verdict: This was a hugely disappointing effort, mainly because it should've been much better than it really was and becomes a huge missed opportunity. Really only see this one if you're into the type or find some kind of enjoyment from these types, otherwise steer clear of this one.Today's Rating-R: Violence, children in danger, themes of incest and Brief Nudity