Starring Joan Fontaine, Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen, Ann Bell and Ingrid Boulting
Written by Nigel Kneale, based on the novel by Norah Lofts
Directed by Cyril Frankel
A teacher suffering PTSD from a frightening experience in Africa takes up a new position at a small school in an equally small village in England, where everyone in town seems to be slightly off and concealing something, particularly when it comes to a seemingly innocent budding relationship between a couple of her students.
So right off the bat, from the title, we can safely assume some witchcraft is involved? There's a black cat hanging around, emphasis on dolls, a guy who calls himself a reverend and wears a clerical collar but isn't associated with any church or religion and other suspicious stuff.
This is interesting for about the first half hour but then suspense runs out and things slow down a little too much. Eventually the teacher is sent away to an asylum and everyone attempts to gaslight her into thinking nothing weird's going on, but she perseveres in her investigation, which leads to a weird and orgiastic witchcraft ceremony in a "surprise" ending that comes a little too late.
I wish this movie was a little more interesting because it is notable among Hammer films for having an adult woman protagonist. I'm sure others do, too, but they're rare, so it's sorry to see the character and performance sort of go to waste.
This movie features the acting debut of a young ballerina/model named Ingrid Boulting (credited as Ingrid Brett), and she puts some of her dance skills to use in the climactic ending sequence, so that was sort of interesting but again, a little late.
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