jkadmire

Many reviewers have called this film "a beautiful poem", "a beautiful period piece", and a throwback to pure Gothic. It did have atmosphere, but I found it more soporific than nostalgic. Wish I had watched it after dark, as it's alleged that the true artistry is seen only without distraction. As it was, I watched it while my husband slept in the chair, both cats jumped on the couch to sleep and my dog wandered off into the other room. After the first half hour of watching, I got up to make coffee, and that action was a frenzied explosion of activity compared to the movie. I assume Polly, apparently a psychic since her clothing was that of a woman dressed sixty years into the future, was murdered by her new husband, walled up behind the wainscoting, and slowly molded away. I can't believe Lily ever earned a nursing degree, as her character was as slow-witted as she was slow moving. The beautiful Paula Prentiss, whose bone structure has at least endured, has little to do but stare vacantly at the wall. Her character is relatively mobile and apparently without stress of any type, but she isn't cared for, as you see only two interactions between her and her caregiver. Did no one ever feed her? Wash her hair? Change the sheets? Nothing ever "happened" in this movie, but if it had, it would have occurred in a vacuum. The pace is akin to watching coal turn into diamonds, and no consensus is reached about what happened in this house or to these people. Slasher movies are not my thing, but I do expect something to HAPPEN, and a reasonable resolution.