Quote:
Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet
hammer house of horror
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They had some crackingly scary films in the Hammer series.
Do you remember 'Hitchcock's Half Hour' LT? It was a weekly series of half hour films by Alfred Hitchcock and when I was a really small kid, I saw one which haunted me for months.
It was set in an isolated small Private Hospital in the American 'backwoods' and one night, the hospital were awaiting a new matron from 'out of town' arriving, when there's a bad storm which takes down the phone lines.
The last thing that a young male orderly, the old male janitor and three nurses - one of whom, is a beautiful blond called 'Stella' - hear on the radio, before that too is down, is that a very violent, deranged serial killer has escaped from a Men's Prison in one of the neighbouring counties.
The middle-aged Matron duly arrives at night - having battled her way through the storm in her car - and is alarmed to hear that a psychotic killer is on the loose, but she settles into her duties.
It's not long before a door blows open in the storm and upon investigation, the janitor finds it's been forced from outside. Then, amid some great 'spooky' effects - the lights failing, then flickering back on, the lightening flashes casting eerie shadows, shutters banging in the gales - a very deep and chilling male voice can be heard coming from somewhere down a darkened corridor; "Such a pretty neck".
When the janitor and orderly investigate, one of the bed-ridden patients has been strangled but there is no sign of the killer.
The Orderly is sent out into the storm to walk to the nearest town and alert the sheriff, and one by one, both patients and staff are bumped off as the chilling words; "Such a pretty neck" is heard in the darkness of distant rooms.
The Orderly does not return and the janitor elects to go to bring the Sheriff leaving just the terrified Matron and Stella.
The show ends with Stella and the Matron coming into a room where the half glazed outside door is opened back to the wall. As the storm outside rages, a lightning flash briefly shows the figure of someone standing behind the door.
Stella and the Matron hide behind some furniture as the door swings closed again, revealing that the 'figure' hiding behind it, was really the dead body of the freshly strangled janitor, who has been 'propped up' against the wall.
Finally, with Stella and the Matron clinging to each other in fear in the darkness, a man's deep voice pierces the blackness; "Such a pretty neck".
Illuminated by the lightning from outside, we see Stella's terrified face as she realises that the deep,voice has just issued from the 'Matron'.
As the 'Matron' strangles her to a chorus of; "Such a pretty neck, Stella", Stella pulls off 'her' wig and the psycho killer is revealed.
The 'Matron' was totally convincing as a woman, and I don't think that ANYONE saw the 'ending coming, and I found that episode much more shocking and scary than many of the films which were contemporary, or which have followed since.