Actually one of the best of the series, thanks to an inventive plot, good atmospherics and a cool score.
The film acts as an inteligent comment on the hypocracy of Victorian family values and offers a cool revenge via the children plot. (Wes Craven later paddles is similarly Ibsonian waters in the revenge on the children plotline of "A Nightmare on Elm Street")
The score is really beautiful (and I am not generally a big fan of the Hammer scores)
The one bad element is the soppy rommance (Very common in Hammer films of this period)
Sadsy was clearly a very tallented director (Hands of The Ripper, Stone Tapes) who hasn't quite found the right challenging projects since.
Many hammer films (Although stunning to look at) lack a real subversive intelligence (beyond a lame retrotting of what Kim Newman calls the Moster and Savant theme) This one does
The film acts as an inteligent comment on the hypocracy of Victorian family values and offers a cool revenge via the children plot. (Wes Craven later paddles is similarly Ibsonian waters in the revenge on the children plotline of "A Nightmare on Elm Street")
The score is really beautiful (and I am not generally a big fan of the Hammer scores)
The one bad element is the soppy rommance (Very common in Hammer films of this period)
Sadsy was clearly a very tallented director (Hands of The Ripper, Stone Tapes) who hasn't quite found the right challenging projects since.
Many hammer films (Although stunning to look at) lack a real subversive intelligence (beyond a lame retrotting of what Kim Newman calls the Moster and Savant theme) This one does