I first saw this when I was about 10. Yikes! Creep city. I can still remember the effect (if not the melodies) of Basil Kirchin's acid jazz music, Gig Young's Thunderbird and martial arts, Carol Lynleys' soft-edged innocence and beauty, the thugs led by oily Oliver Reed, and the mystery of the house itself (what is IN that room?). Years later, I see it as a middle-aged man, and unlike so many other films from my youth that fall flat, this holds up as a brilliant work of fear making, the kind of horror film that keeps enough in the shadows to keep one guessing but reveals enough to make one uncomfortable and on edge. IMHO, a classic.
Review of The Shuttered Room
