¿Por qué lloras, Susan?

I too watched this film as an elderly child/young adult. Up to about the late 1970's, 'The Shuttered Room' was staple late-night stock on BBC 1 and ITV, usually on a Friday or Saturday night. Then, for some reason it has never shown again to date in this country, at least to my knowledge that is.

From memory (it is a long time ago, so forgive me, for any inaccuracies!)the movie(based on a story by HP Lovecraft) is supposed to be set in a small and isolated New England fishing village (it's really shot Cornwall in England) and concerns a young well-heeled woman (Carol Lynley), returning to her roots from a posh life in the big city, with her new husband (Gig Young), fter inheriting a (supposedly) abandoned and creepy old millhouse, that she used to live in as a child. Within that house, at the very top, hidden from normal view, is a heavily locked/bolted/nailed/chained mysterious room, that within contains a dreadful, appalling secret!!!

Back to the village, which appears to contain a lot of backward old yokels/hicks putting on dodgy American regional accents - as Lynley and Young appear to be the only actual American actors in it! Also there, lurks a gang of country bumpkinish uneducated thugs, led by a young and smouldering Oliver Reed. Reed and his cronies take an immediate and intense sexual interest in Lynley, and dislike to the monied, well-dressed, big car driving city boy Young.

Without spoiling the main plot (as one day, hopefully, the movie may be shown again), events progress with Lynley meeting up with her old Aunt (Aunt, I think) (Dame Flora Robson) who lives at the top of big tower, and who makes Norman Bates's mother appears sociable and outgoing! Robson is overseer and controller of what is in the shuttered room, that all too soon, the overly inquisitive Carol, will discover to her and everybody else's cost!

The climax to the film, is genuinely terrifying (well it was when I was 12!) and involves the nasty Reed and his cronies, pursuing Gig Young in a thrilling drive-you-off-the-road car chase, through Cornish country lanes, as he races back to try to get to Carol.

The actual end of the film centres on........on..... well, I can't tell you that now can I???

Suffice to say, many may mock the quality of director David Greene's Sixites flick, as typical of the sort of low(er) budget horror shocker movies that were made in great number then. But I think 'The Shuttered Room' had/has a lot more going for it than that, and if somebody would release it to the world again, would even today, be seen by many, as a well-made, well-acted (apart from the accents!) and genuinely scary piece of work.

Carol Lynley as a woman who returns to her childhood home on the British isles with her American husband in tow and is perplexed by the mysterious presence residing there. Screen-treatment of an H.P. Lovecraft story has too many sordid supporting characters, the heavy threat of rape, and an idiotic action sequence wherein hubby Gig Young takes down a few of the local toughs. Still, it offers a few suspenseful scenes, interesting parallels to the later "Straw Dogs", and a fine cast. Oliver Reed, sweaty and indecipherable as the most obnoxious of the villains, must've been heartsick at playing this same role again and again (he's offered no new opportunity to stretch), but Lynley and fatherly Young have a nice rapport. Overall, it's rather a lackluster thriller jazzed up with artistic cinematography and an overripe score, but the location shooting on the Norfolk Coast is good and the wrap-up satisfying. **1/2 from ****

Creepy! This is an unfairly unappreciated and extremely effective Gothic horror flick from the late 60's. It is also one of the better attempts to bring literary mastermind H.P. Lovecraft to the screen. The acting is magnificent! Carol Lynley and Gig Young are in top form as the bewildered young couple whose arrival in the small, tranquil village seems to trigger off a series of bizarre and ultimately deadly occurences. Veteran character actress Flora Robson is genuinely affecting as the strange old lady who seems to know a great deal more than she's telling about the secret that's hidden away in THE SHUTTERED ROOM. Oliver Reed is appropriately menacing as a young roughneck. This one is a little tough to find these days. It's not readily available in video stores, and though once popular on late night television, they rarely run it on TV. But should you be so fortunate to come across it, don't pass it up!

I saw this film years ago when it used to air on independent TV stations in the afternoon & haven't seen it since. Pity because this is a good film. Unfortunately, it never made it to video.

In the early years of Reed's career he did mostly horror films where he was the "true Phantom Menace". He had a distintive glare that became his trademark. Well, he shows all that & then some in this film. This story centers around insanity, murder & family skeletons in the closet or in this case, in the shuttered room.

If you like "Jane Eyre", I think you will like this one.

Outstanding and seemingly ignored horror film, based on a Lovecraft story. The creepy, intense POV shots (with accompanying weird background noises) predate Black Christmas by some five years. Also, "Shuttered Room" was almost certainly a big influence on "Straw Dogs"- a bizarre link to draw I know, but trust me, it is there. Although the film does have flaws (such as Reed's dodgy US accent, and the unintentionally hilarious karate-chopping husband), the compelling direction more than compensates. A real quality genre film.