The Confessional

Disappointing Pete Walker film which flirts with a variety of good ideas but manages to fumble all of them.

Story has vulnerable young woman (Penhaligon) going to Confession, where she is harassed by the priest whose fatherly concerns have a sinister element. He turns out to be a crazed killer, stemming from his mother (yawn!!) who still lives with him in a semi-vegetable state.

Plot goes into a poor-mans 'Rosemary's Baby' scenario, Penhaligon unable to convince anyone of the truth, with the Priest above suspicion because of his position.

Film labours its point that religious restrictions have fashioned Father Meldrum into a killer, while the younger Priest who tries to help is too wet for the audience to respond to. All this leaves Stephanie Beacham as the best thing here. At least the film doesn't cop-out at the end, but by then we are past caring. A film students favourite, but more interesting to study than to watch.

Coming hot on the heels of the sleazy HOUSE OF WHIPCORD and the outrageously gruesome FRIGHTMARE, veteran exploitationer Pete Walker and his puckish screenwriter David McGillivray decided to stir up some more mischief, this time aiming their vitriol at the hypocrisy of the Catholic church, with a blackmailing killer priest who uses the tools of his trade (incense burners, rosary beads and communion wafers) to deal out death to non-believers. Given the hoo-hah the Monty Python team caused with LIFE OF BRIAN four years later, you'd have expected the controversy to rage as Pete and David had hoped it would, but HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN barely raised a murmur - most likely because it's a rather dull and restrained affair compared to their earlier exercises in wonderfully hideous terror. Anthony Sharp is fine in the lead as the crazy cleric, alternating between pompous bumbling and trembling mania at the drop of a hat, whilst Susan Penhaligon makes a memorably vulnerable victim, but the film feels too much of a cut-and-paste catalogue of borrowed elements (the mother fixation from PSYCHO, Sheila Keith basically reprising her WHIPCORD role as Sharp's demented housekeeper, the dysfunctional family business from FRIGHTMARE) to really ring true. The set-piece murders are impressive, and the ending is as bleak and as desolate as you'd expect, but the film contains more padding than a cheap mattress and Walker seems to have confused tension with tedium in several scenes. Still, it's entertaining enough for a slow evening.

The charming story of a priest.....who murders people! Meet Father Xavier Meldrum from the Church of the Sacred Heart. He uses religious means to bump off his enemies such as a poisoned wafer, incense burner and rosary beads. Splendid performance by Anthony Sharp (remember him as the government minister in A Clockwork Orange?) as the obsessed vicar and a good turn by Pete Walker regular Sheila Keith as a one eyed housekeeper. A well done musical score by Stanley Myers is also featured. Remember this movie the next time you go to confession!

While crossing the street without paying attention, Jenny Welch (Susan Penhaligon) is hit by the car driven by Father Bernard Cutler (Norman Eshley). He is returning to the town to work in a nearby church and is looking for a place to live. Further, he was the boyfriend of her sister Vanessa Welch (Stephanie Beacham) in the past. Jenny is troubled since her beloved boyfriend Terry Wyatt (Stuart Bevan) has just dumped her. Father Cutler offers to listen to her in the church. Later, Jenny heads to the church expecting to see Cutler, but she ends confessing her sins to Father Xavier (Anthony Sharp). She decides to accept the invitation of her friend Robert (Jon Yule) to go to a bar, and when he brings her back, Father Xavier is stalking her and sees where she hides the key of Vanessa's store and apartment. Jenny leaves Bob in her apartment to buy cigarettes and Father Xavier brutally attacks him in the apartment almost killing him. Father Xavier becomes obsessed by Jenny, and shows to her that he has recorded her confession to blackmail her. She tells to Vanessa and to Father Cutler what has happened to her, but they believe she is emotionally affected by Terry's absence. Soon Father Xavier begins a crime spree to kill those that discover he is a psychopath deranged man of God.

"House of Mortal Sin" is almost a masterpiece of horror, with the story of a psychopath deranged priest. The plot is complex and well-written, with many details. But there is a major flaw, when Vanessa learns that Father Xavier is blackmailing her sister that is telling the truth. Why should she go alone, in a rainy night without speaking to Father Cutler first, breaking in his house to steal the recorded tape that she does not know where it is? The performance of Anthony Sharp is top-notch, and he performs one the scariest and creepiest serial-killer in a slasher ever made. I do not recall any other horror film that shows an insane priest like Father Xavier. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Casa do Pecado Mortal" ("House of the Mortal Sin")

The church is corrupt, that's what director Walker seems to be saying in a rather clumsy way with this exploitation effort. Elements of "Psycho" are mixed uneasily with "Rosemary's baby", about a mad priest who tapes his confessional sessions and keeps his bedridden mother in the attic. There is extortion, murder (by religious symbols like a rosary and an incense-burner) and an accomplice with a disfigured face (eye-patch and all!). Some scenes, ie the ones with the bedridden mother, border on the tasteless, but I somehow think that that was the point. Surprisingly good performances from a largely unknown cast, with Sheila Keith as a standout in a (too) minor role. Boy, can she give a murderous glance! It's not a stunning tour-de-force like "Frighmare" by the same director, but still manage to pack a punch or two, despite some dreary bits (most of them involving the hero-priest who is too goody-goody to be interesting). For those who is familiar with Pete Walker and his movies, the ending will come as no surprise, but to others it will be shocking/frustrating in about equal measures.