This story has it all. Set in 1795 we meet two newlyweds moving into an ancestral mansion. When the bride claims to have been raped by a malevolent spirit and begins seeing visions of eyeless corpses and disembodied hands all assume she is mad. Only until they have confronted the supernatural reality of the situation are they able to win their battle against the forces of evil threatening to swallow them.

The special effects in this film are great. And by great I mean greatly entertaining. The crawling hand is particularly well done and made me want to go and find all those other crawling hand movies from the sixties and seventies. Believe it or not there are actually quite a few.

Cushing is pretty much wasted here in an unsympathetic but not very dynamic role as Doctor who attempts to use reason and logic to combat what we already know to be a case of supernatural threat. But the rest of the cast is wonderful and the story surprisingly mysterious. You’ll probably figure it out before the end but it may take you longer than you’d think.

All the Amicus features (And Now the Screaming Starts!, Asylum, The Beast Must Die!) have been remastered and look great. This disc offers two separate actor and actor director commentaries a still gallery and liner notes. In short it’s a dream come true for anyone whose been holding their breath waiting for these movies to get the treatment they deserve.