The Shuttered Room (1967)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The Shuttered Room (1967) – D. Greene

Based on a short story by August Derlath purportedly from notes by H. P. Lovecraft, the film seeks to conjure up a foreboding feeling of dread focused on an unknown (but horrible) creature locked behind a red door. A prelude shows us a toddler threatened by the (unseen) beast whose parents then meet their doom when trying to coax it back to the titular room. After the credits, the toddler has grown up to be 21-year-old Susannah Whatley (Carol Lynley), now travelling back to her remote island birthplace with her husband Mike (Gig Young) after growing up in New York City following the death of her parents. On the island, they meet a bunch of menacing rednecks (led by Oliver Reed, sporting an American accent despite the fact that filming was in the UK). Someone suggested that the film resembles Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971) and I suppose that’s not far wrong, given the threat of rape here, although Gig Young is hardly the right actor to act as though his masculinity is threatened. The film moves inexorably toward the reveal of the creature and ends with tragedy rather than horror. Dated for sure, but creepy at times.