Les Sorcières

Joan Fontaine's final film is a horror flick for Hammer. She plays a teacher recovering from a nervous breakdown after surviving a terrifying experience with witch doctors in Africa. She takes a job in a small English village and seems happy there, despite the odd behavior of some of the locals. When weird things start happening, Joan investigates and discovers a plot to sacrifice a young girl in a pagan ritual.

Joan does a fine job in her final movie. She would do some more TV work but this is it for her long film career. The rest of the cast is made up of solid British actors. Cyril Frankel's direction is good. He manages to evoke a fair amount of atmosphere for a picture that takes place almost entirely in daylight. In some ways it's a precursor to The Wicker Man. It's nowhere near as good as that film but there are some similar plot elements. The screenplay is from Nigel Kneale, best known for being the creator of Professor Quatermass and for his screenplay for the excellent 1957 Abominable Snowman film. Reportedly Kneale was dissatisfied with this film because he intended it to be a dark comedy that poked fun at witchcraft but Hammer wanted a serious horror movie so all comedic touches were removed. Well they missed a few because some of the most memorable parts of the movie, such as Joan being overrun by a flock of sheep and every scene of Kay Walsh in her pagan ritual get-up, are very funny. It's a decent movie of its type. Not really scary but interesting, particularly for Fontaine fans.