Stephen Royds arrives at an old house announcing that he intends to buy the property, much to the surprise of its solitary occupant, caretaker Mrs Parks. The house has been all but abandoned since its previous owner, Gerald Harboys had been committed to an asylum for the apparent murder of his wife Muriel on their wedding night. Harboys had been obsessive about the physical perfection of women and, discovering that Muriel had had her right middle toe amputated as a child, had murdered her. But her ghost is said to still haunt the old house.
Acting
Rosalie Crutchley's brittle, haunted caretaker steals every frame.
Direction
Rydman stretches 30 minutes into endless suffocating atmosphere.
Director
Sture Rydman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was a segment from the BBC's 'Dead of Night' anthology series, explaining its tight runtime.
The 'phantom limb' concept here predates Cronenberg's body horror—Muriel's missing toe becomes more present in death than in life.
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