1976 Pete Walker Production
Jenny (Susan Penhaligon) goes to a Catholic church to look for Father Bernard (Norman Eshley), an old friend she had just been reunited with. 
While there she goes to the confessional where insane priest Father Xavier (Anthony Sharp) becomes obsessed with her and a whole series of events lead to a ghastly end.
The House Of Mortal Sin is a really strange film, but I like it. There is nothing like seeing a Catholic priest going about doing insane things, let me tell you! Some of the actions of the characters don’t make much sense and some of the direction is weak, but it is a good time. As with other Pete Walker films it is shocking on purpose and strives to disturb the viewer.
The screenplay for this film is by Pete Walker and David McGillivray who also collaborated on the films House Of Whipcord and Frightmare, so if you have seen either of those two movies you pretty much know what you are in for. I really do like the idea of a mad priest being a total fanatical maniac, but if he has been this way long before this film even takes place then why hadn’t he been thrown in a mental institution by then? I guess you can get away with a lot of things if you are part of the Catholic Church, right? The reason why Father Xavier becomes obsessed with Jenny and his actions at the very end of the film don’t really make much sense to me. What he tells his housekeeper Miss Brabazon (Sheila Keith) during this pivotal point is either a total lie or he goes even more nuts than he is already. Considering how mad he is in the first place I don’t know how the character goes about without drooling and laughing maniacally. The way that people are killed in this film are pretty funny, I mean how many times to you get to see somebody get murdered by a swinging incense burner, or by a poisoned communion wafer? I’m really
suprsied that Walker and McGillivray didn’t get a lot of flack for all of the anti-Catholic sentment in this film, because it’s kind of easy to tell that they were sort of aiming for that.
Of course, Pete Walker directed this and as usual there are some useless closeups and some cuts that make no sense. I think that is part of the charm of his films though, because they are usually not entirely badly made so the flaws can be cancelled out by something else. In this case I think the death scenes are probably the best filmed. He really focuses on the character’s face while they are dying which could turn into a comical type of thing but it doesn’t. Okay, being chocked by a string of rosary beads is kind of funny in a macabre way, but the look on the victim’s face is actually quite disturbing and blood trickles from the corner of their mouth. This makes me wonder if you can actually do that, because wouldn’t the beads themselves break? Then there is a scene in which a character has boiling coffee thrown into their face and blood flows from between their fingers as they cover themselves in pain. I have been wondering if the blood is coming from the eyes or nose, but no matter it looks quite gruesome!
Father Xavier is played quite deftly by Anthony Sharp who may look familiar because he was in a ton of BBC productions. He actually makes the character kind of sympathetic through the way he plays him, and it really creeps me out how lecherous he is. Sharp may look like some sort of typical English country gentleman but he plays the sexually repressed preist rather well! Both Stephanie Beacham and Susan Penhaligon who play sisters Vanessa and Jenny seem a little weak but I think it’s because of the way their characters are written. Beacham is usually pretty good in the horror films she has been in so I am just going to consider her whole part in this a fluke. I don’t think she really knew whether to play the 
character seriously or more hip. Lastly I would like to mention Sheila Keith’s turn as Miss Brabazon. No matter what part this woman plays she freaks the crap out of me. I don’t know whether it’s because of her physical appearance or her gestures or what, but she always creeps me out. That’s a very good thing!
If you like English horror films this one is worth watching and it may even cause you to watch even more Pete Walker films. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
You can buy House Of Mortal Sin at Horror Movie Empire.
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