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7
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
A
deranged priest (Anthony Sharp) takes it upon
himself to punish his parishioners for their moral
transgressions...
Before
he left the film industry to pursue a life in
real estate, Pete Walker carved a niche for himself
as Britain's resident shock specialist. Embracing
controversy far more openly that the films Hammer
were producing in the 1970s —
all of which look positively staid in comparison
to Walker's output —
his movies often got by on sheer enthusiasm, though
his competence as a stylist grew steadily as he
made more films. The Confessional
(AKA House Of Mortal Sin) is possibly his
best work, though it has never attained the same
notoriety or cult appeal of, say, Frightmare
or House of Whipcord.
Forever
looking to offend polite British sensibilities,
Walker here turns his eye towards the Catholic
Church. The idea of a killer priest was certainly
nothing new in the international film scene —
Lucio Fulci had already tackled this topic in
Don't Torture
a Duckling (1972), with other gialli
following suit —
but it was something unusual for a British film.
The expectant controversy never arrived, however;
as grim and nihilistic as the film is (and the
ending is enough to make your blood freeze) it
simply failed to raise the hackles as Walker had
hoped. Why this proved to be the case is open
to speculation, but the film delivers on the promise
of the director's earlier works. As in Frightmare,
Walker gets a lot of mileage out of contrasting
extremes — in Frightmare
it was darling old Sheila Keith darning socks
one moment, and going ballistic with a power drill
the next; here the emphasis is on the seemingly
proper and upright priest who uses the instruments
of his profession as murder weapons, whether it
be using rosary beads to strangle a woman, or
poisoned communion wafers to kill another. The
explicit use of religious paraphernalia as weapons
of destruction was something Walker and screenwriter
David McGillivray showed some audacity in using
— not even the shocking
gialli of the period had dared to be so
on the nose, as it were.
In terms of its execution,
the film is a marked improvement on Walker's previous
films. Looked at as a complete body of work, his
films, without exception, builds on one another
— some are less effective on the whole than others,
but the technical smoothness of execution gets
better and better with every film. Peter Jessup's
cinematography is still a bit on the bland side,
but the use of drab English locales makes for
a nice contrast with the sensationalist subject
matter. The pacing is far better than usual for
Walker — there's very little padding, and scenes
move smoothly from one to the next. The shock
scenes are handled with as much gusto as ever,
but compared to Frightmare
and Whipcord, in
particular, the film is relatively restrained
when it comes to gore. Even so, some of the sequences
manage to be legitimately unsettling, notably
the infamous death-by-poisoned-communion-wafer
scene.
The cast
is also more consistently satisfying than usual
for the director. The majority of the roles are
well-cast and performed. While the mind toys happily
with the idea of Peter Cushing playing the demented
priest (he turned the role down because of prior
commitments), Anthony Sharp does a fine job in
his place. Sharp, an accomplished character actor
commonly used in snooty bureaucratic roles in
bigger films (he's likely best remembered for
his role as the Minister in A
Clockwork Orange), strikes just the right
balance of gravity and lunacy. He also manages
to make the character somewhat sympathetic, thus
lending the film a touch of pathos to accompany
the shocks. The supporting cast includes a juicy
role for Walker staple Sheila Keith, impressive
as the priest's doting housekeeper, and a pair
of appealing damsels in distress in the form of
Susan Penhaligon (The
Land That Time Forgot) and Stephanie Beacham
(Dracula
A.D. 1972). While none of the other characters
are as well developed as Sharp's, the actors do
a commendable job and help to keep the film interesting
throughout.
Though
Walker never shows tremendous style or creativity
as a director, The Confessional
is good enough to make one regret that he didn't
stick with it longer —
his grasp of technique continued to grow in his
remaining films, and his gleeful rejection of
'good taste' made his films stand out amid the
more stoic British horrors of the period.
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Shriek Show's release of
The Confessional,
as part of their Pete Walker Collection,
is in fact identical to the Anchor Bay U.K. release.
SS have opted to use the more familiar U.S. title
in favor of the on-screen title House
of Mortal Sin, but it's otherwise the same
as the AB release, bearing in mind the obvious
downgrading to NTSC from PAL. The 1.85/16x9 transfer
looks OK, nothing more. The source print is a
little battered, albeit fully uncut, but the image
looks a bit softer than the AB release. On the
whole, however, it's an acceptable way of seeing
the film and the transfer is never hard to watch.
Audio tracks include the original mono, as well
as a remixed 5.1 track ported over from the AB
release. As with most of the AB 5.1 remixes, the
track is a gratuitous addition that adds nothing
to the film. The original mono track is preferable,
though it is a little soft and has some instances
of background noise.
Extras are where the release really shines —
SS has ported over the audio commentary with Walker
and author Jonathan Rigby, as well as the documentaries
Courting Controversy: An Insider's Look at
the Films of Pete Walker and Sheila Keith:
A Nice Old Lady? The commentary is a good
one, with only a little bit of dead air —
Walker comes off as a likable down-to-earth individual,
and Rigby does a good job of prompting him for
information. The documentaries are fascinating
and well-produced, featuring ample comments from
many of Walker's key collaborators. Walker's final
film, The House of the Long
Shadows (a still-unavailable-on-DVD campfest
starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter
Cushing and John Carradine) gets only passing
mention due to rights issues, but the Walker piece
gives a good sense of his short-lived directorial
career, and the Keith segment is a fun tribute
to the late actress. Talent bios and production
notes, a theatrical trailer and trailers for other
titles in the Walker collection (including The
Flesh and Blood Show, a title not included
in the AB Walker set) round out the package. 4/19/06
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