Lovely young invalid Meg Kinderly (a strong and credible performance by the beautiful Jenny Seagrove) has to fend for herself after she gets trapped in her spacious family mansion with a vicious killer who has just butchered most of her family and all of the servants. Director Carl Schenkel, working from a tight script by Bruce Jones and April Campbell Jones, milks plenty of nerve-wracking claustrophobic tension from the simple, yet gripping premise. Seagrove's impressive portrayal of a resourceful and resilient disabled protagonist who's anything but a helpless cripple really holds this episode together. Patrick Houser lends solid support as Meg's jerky brother Jonathan. Comely brunette Lisa Foster provides the requisite tasty gratuitous female nudity as Meg's ill-fated sister Patty. Reginald H. Morris' sumptuous cinematography takes full advantage of the gorgeous and sprawling mansion location, with especially nice use of a smooth gliding Steadicam and a few equally nifty overhead camera shots. Michel Rubini's shivery score further adds to the overall harrowing tone. The surprise twist ending is rather predictable, but still chilling and shocking just the same. A real nail-biter.
2 Reviews
What this show should have been
LuvSopr27 April 2011
This episode is superb. Brilliantly acted, scary on several levels, taut. Not a wasted scene. Free of the morality plays and clunky exposition that dragged down many other episodes. So many chilling scenes and the emotions, such as her shock and grief, are shown to us without heavy-handed emphasis. The scene where she finds her father, for instance. The murder scenes are very effectively directed - none of the OTT gore that takes you out of a scene. Jenny Seagrove gives an incredible performance in what is, aside from a few moments, a one-woman show.
If more episodes were like this I think the show would be more remembered. Hats off to the director, writer, and cast.
If more episodes were like this I think the show would be more remembered. Hats off to the director, writer, and cast.
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