Homicidal1961

Name: Homicidal
Genre: Slasher, Psychological, Gothic
Released: 1961-07-26
Rating: 6.8

“A WORD OF WARNING! Please don't reveal the ending of this picture or your friends will kill you - IF THEY DON'T, I WILL!”

Directed by William Castle

6.8

Crypt Score

Blended from 3 sources

IMDb 6.8Rotten Tomatoes 70%TMDB 6.4

✍ Review

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Year

1961

Runtime

87 min

Box Office

🏆 1 nomination

The premise

A woman named Emily checks into a hotel and offers the bellboy $2000 to temporarily marry her. We soon find out Emily is the caretaker of a wheelchair-bound mute named Helga, who was the childhood guardian of a pair of siblings: Miriam Webster and her half-brother, Warren, who is about to inherit the estate of their late father. Who is the mysterious Emily and what are her intentions?

Horror Vault's take

A strange woman named Emily arrives in a small California town with a shocking proposition for a hotel bellboy — and her bizarre scheme is only the beginning. As the story widens to encompass a wheelchair-bound mute, a pair of half-siblings on the verge of a large inheritance, and a string of brutal murders, nothing about Emily or her motives is quite what it seems. Director William Castle brings his signature showmanship to this stylish early-sixties chiller, complete with a theatrical gimmick designed to keep audiences on edge. Lean, twisty, and genuinely disturbing for its era, it stands as one of the more daring proto-slashers Hollywood produced before the genre had a name.

Content: Knife Violence, Murder Scenes, Depiction Of A Disabled And Non-Verbal Character In A Vulnerable Situation