Symptoms through Madhouse

SYMPTOMS – A young woman is invited by her girlfriend, who lives in an English country mansion, to stay there with her. The estate, however, isn’t quite what it seems – and neither is the friend who issues the invitation. The reclusive Helen invites her friend Anne, a writer, to stay the weekend with her at her family’s estate. The large manor, located near a lake in the forest, is overgrown with foliage and has mostly been untouched for an extended period of time. Helen, a translator, has recently returned to her native England after working abroad, and had lost touch with Anne. The two have dinner, start a fire in the hearth, and talk over tea before going to bed. The next morning, Helen stops by a drugstore in town, where the clerk Mr. Burke asks about her friend, Cora Porter, she tells him she is not with her. Back at the manor, Helen and Anne go for a walk through the woods. At the lake, Helen tells Anne that someone drowned themselves there. The two women take a boat out onto the water, which unnerves Helen. En route home, they encounter Brady, a handyman who lives in the stables on the property; Anne comments that he was staring at Helen, and Helen responds by saying he disgusts her. Later, Helen spies on him with binoculars from the house. Helen has continuous trouble sleeping at the house, and hears voices emanating from the attic one night. The following morning, Anne borrows Helen’s car to drive to town. One the way home, she stops by the lake and smokes a cigarette, where she is confronted by Brady, who introduces himself. He mentions Helen’s friend Cora, whose photograph Anne recalls seeing in the house. Anne returns to the house where she finds Helen distraught over her absence. She confides in Anne that she is ill, and Anne suggests they return to London, but Helen refuses, and then kisses her. That night, Anne is awoken by moaning noises. She asks Helen if someone else could be living in the house, but Helen dismisses the idea. John arrives at the house to pick up Anne, but Anne insists on staying a few days longer due to Helen’s fragile emotional state. That night, Helen’s attention is drawn to an attic door in her bedroom, and she begins to masturbate furiously; simultaneously, Anne goes to investigate a noise coming from the attic and is startled by figure who stabs her to death. Hannah, the house keeper, arrives in the morning, and find Helen asleep on the couch. Helen asks her not to return for several days, saying she needs solitude. Later at the drugstore, Hannah tells Mr. Burke about the interaction and recalls that she once saw Cora having sex with Brady in the stables and has not seen her since. While walking through the woods, Helen is confronted by Brady, who asks her about Anne’s whereabouts; when he intimates that she murdered Anne and Cora, Helen runs away in a panic. At the house, Ann’s dead body sits in a chair in Helen’s bedroom, and Helen is plagued by disembodied voices and other phenomenon. During a rainstorm, John arrives looking for Anne and enters through an unlocked door. Upstairs, Helen stabs him in the head and neck numerous times, killing him. That night Brady stops by Helen’s house to confront her about Cora, whose decomposing body he found in the lake. He tells Helen he witnessed her push Cora in, but she cooly denies it. When he threatens to blackmail her, she stabs him repeatedly in the face and the back of the head, killing him. The next morning, Hannah, Burke and his protégé Nick arrive at the house. In the living room, they find Brady’s corpse. While searching upstairs, they find John’s body in the hallway and Helen staring blankly through the window. In the yard, she watches as Brady and Cora embrace.

SEE NO EVIL – This riff on Wait Until Dark is a mixed bag but still manages to offer a few surprises. Brian Clemens’ script starts with a clover premise and offers some solid moments of suspense. Unfortunately, See No Evil begins to drift in its final third, when it introduces one too many plot complications to keep the identity of the killer a mystery. As a result, it loses track of its heroine (the viewer will lose track of how many scenes Mia Farrow spends stumbling around and shouting for help during the latter part of the film)). That said, Farrow makes a likeable heroine and is surrounded by a professional cast turning in solid performances. Better yet, director Richard Fleischer gets plenty of opportunities to show off his directorial skills during the many set pieces and he’s definitely up to the task: The scenes where Farrow faces off with the killer in her deserted house are staged effectively and make great use of sound as a tool for suspense. Ultimately, See No Evil is a second-tier thriller material but is made with enough skill to make a decent time-killer for anyone in the mood for a few thrills. After being blinded

After being blinded in a horse-riding accident, Sarah (Mia Farrow) visits her uncle’s home. Out on a date with her boyfriend Steve (Norman Eshley), she escapes the fate of her relatives (Dorothy Alison, Robin Bailey, and Diane Grayson), who are murdered at their home by a psychotic killer. Sarah returns from her date and spends the night in the house, unaware that three of her family members’ corpses are strewn about the house. She eventually discovers the bodies, as well as a bracelet containing the engraved name of the killer. The killer returns, searching for the lost bracelet and discovers Sarah, who manages to flee on horseback. Sarah encounters a family of gypsies and shows them the bracelet with the name “Jacko” inscribed. One the gypsies concludes that his brother, Jack must be responsible. In an effort to save Jack, the brother pretends to take Sarah to the police, but, instead, locks her in a secluded shed. Sarah eventually escapes from the shed and reunites with Steve. Steve and his stable boys leave Sarah at his house and begin a search for the killer. They come across the two gypsy brothers and are about to kill them, when Jack reveals that he wants a bracelet with the name “Jack” and not “Jacko” inscribed. Steve, upon learning that the real killer’s name is “Jacko” doubles back to the house where it is revealed that one of the groomsmen, Jacko (Paul Nicholas) had been left behind to tend to Sarah. Back at the house, Jacko attempts to drown Sarah in a bathtub, but Steve returns just in time to rescue her.

MADHOUSE – Many people visit… No one ever leaves. Julia (Trish Everly in her only film role0, a young teacher for deaf children living in Savannah, Georgia. Julia has horrid memories of her childhood, which was scarred by her sadistic twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers). At the urging of her uncle, Father James, Julia visits Mary, suffering from a severe skin disease, in a mental institution. The meeting does not go well, and Mary vows to make Julia “suffer as she had suffered,” As their mutual birthday approaches, several of Julia’s friends and neighbors begin to die gruesome deaths, some of which committed by a mysterious Rottweiler dog that has some sort of connection to Mary. But is Mary really the killer? Julia thinks she’s lives alone. She doesn’t! In this routine slasher film, a young woman’s twin sister shows up to ruin her birthday party, and mayhem results. Before her birthday party, Julia starts dreaming about a twin sister she has never seen or met – meanwhile, Mary, the actual twin who is the subject of her dreams, has just escaped from a mental institution and is horribly disfigured. Mary is bent on vengeance and after she escapes, a series of murders begins – but is Mary really the killer?

Julia is a young schoolteacher for deaf children living in Savannah, Georgia. She has horrid memories of her childhood, which was scarred by her sadistic twin sister Mary. At the urging of her uncle, James, a local Catholic priest, Julia visits Mary, suffering from a severe skin disease, in a mental institution. The meeting does not go well and Mary vows to make Julia “suffer as she had suffered.” As their mutual birthday approaches, several of Julia’s friends and neighbors begin to die gruesome deaths in the house she lives in, some involving a mysterious Rottweiler dog who attacks its victims, mauling them to death. One of Julia’s students, Sasha, is killed in a park by the Rottweiler one afternoon. Meanwhile, Julia becomes increasing unnerved that someone—possibly Mary—is hiding inside the large house she lives in. One evening, when being dropped off by her psychologist boyfriend Sam, she witnesses a light come on the second floor of the house but finds no one there. Helen, Julia’s friend, offers to spend the night with her. In the middle of the night, she is attacked by the Rottweiler on the staircase; the dog attacks and kills her, tearing open her throat. Julia awakes the next morning and finds Helen gone. Given there is no evidence of the attack, Julia assumes she went home early. Sam visits her and tells her he is forced to take a business trip to San Francisco over Julia’s upcoming birthday. Later the same day, Julia’s uncle, Father James is carrying things into the basement of Julia’s home. A local parishioner, Amanda Beauregard, passes by and offers to help him carry a large bag, he tells her he is throwing Julia a surprise birthday party. Once in the basement, Amanda realizes she has just helped James carry a corpse, he then chases her through the house and stabs her to death in the attic. The next day, on Julia’s birthday, James meets her after work and takes her to her house, blindfolding her for a surprise. In the basement, he removes the blindfold, revealing a table seated with corpses. When she attempts to escape, Julia is confronted by Mary, who James murders shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Sam’s taxi to the airport is stalled by a flat tire and he returns to the house, where he is attacked by the Rottweiler. The dog attempts to break through the door and Sam kills it by driving a power drill into its head. In the basement, Sam is able to free Julia, who then murders her uncle James by repeated blows with a hatchet. The film ends as Julia sits on the basement stairs next to her dead sister.