Lionsgate Home Entertainment, out now

A widow deceives her late husband’s mother and brothers into thinking he’s still alive when she attends the yearly memorial to his drowned sister, hoping to secure his inheritance.

Also known as The Haunted and the Hunted, this 1963 Roger Corman production is Francis Ford Coppola’s feature debut, and it’s a smart gothic thriller.

Originally released as the lower half of a double feature with X: The Man With X-ray Eyes, with a hokey introduction where a doctor gets audience members to answer 13 questions to determine if they are fit to watch the film (it’s included as an extra), this is now restored as a director’s cut, and it’s a lovely crisp transfer.

When Louise Haloran’s (Luana Anders, The Pit and the Pendulum) husband dies, she discovers that she’ll lose any of her mother-in-law’s inheritance, and so concocts a ruse to trick her family members into thinking he’s still alive. Family includes Richard Haloran (William Campbell, Star Trek), and it’s not long before Chekhov’s gun has manifest itself in the form of an axe, and various family members are being dispatched. Corman was looking for a variation on William Castle’s Homicide (itself a cash-in on Psycho) and Coppola delivers something that distinguishes itself from those two.

The disc includes a short intro by Francis Ford Coppola, as well as a commentary by the director and the aforementioned prologue.

Verdict: A mature first work from a significant filmmaker that elevates itself from its cheaper exploitation roots. 8/10

Nick Joy

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