The Ghoul

Plot synopsis:
In 1920s England, a group of upper-class people take part in an automobile race to Land's End. One couple, Billy and Daphne, get lost in heavy fog and run out of petrol. Billy goes to look for fuel, but takes so long that Daphne strikes out on her own. She eventually locates a rural estate owned by Dr. Lawrence, a former priest. He receives her kindly and sends his disturbed gardener, Tom, to find Billy. Tom finds and murders Billy, and pushes the car into a ravine; it is implied that he acted on his employer's orders.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lawrence tells Daphne about a trip his family took to India; his experiences with certain cults there so horrified him that he renounced religion in general. This decision was heavily influenced by the fate of his wife and son, who were converted to a new faith by a local nobleman. The former was afterwards so horrified by the things she had done that she committed suicide. Still waiting for Billy, Daphne falls asleep in a guest room. Seeing this, the doctor's Indian housekeeper, Ayah, goes to the house's attic and lets out a bloated, bloodstained man in a priest's mantle. He kills Daphne with a sacrificial knife, and Ayah ritually cooks the girl's flesh for him to eat and burns the girl's clothes.
The first couple's friends, Geoffrey and Angela, learn of Billy's death from the police and set out on a private mission to find Daphne. They too wreck their car in the fog and are separated in the search for help. The local police refuse to search the marshland as it is too dangerous. Angela locates the Lawrence estate first, and is abducted by Tom, who obviously hopes to rape her. When Dr. Lawrence discovers her presence, he reluctantly decides to offer her as another sacrifice to the ghoul in his attic. She is saved from molestation when Tom is sent out to get rid of Geoffrey, who also found the house and was convinced by Dr. Lawrence that Angela and Daphne were both conveyed safely back to town.
Tom botches the attempt to kill Geoffrey, and is half sucked into a bog in his attempt to flee. Ordered to explain himself before he is rescued, he admits that Daphne was fed to something living in Lawrence's house. Geoffrey returns to the estate and confronts Lawrence, who admits that the ghoul is his own son; the man has been a cannibal ever since his conversion, and Ayah is another cult adherent who came from India to prepare his food. The agonized Lawrence has tended to and protected his son because he promised his wife he would do so.
Geoffrey barges into the attic and confronts the ghoul, who kills him. Meanwhile, Tom sneaks into the room where Angela is imprisoned and again tries to assault her. He is interrupted and killed by the ghoul, who has gotten out of control. The creature rounds on Angela, but Lawrence enters with a pistol and fatally wounds it. Angela runs screaming from the house. Dr. Lawrence, his heart broken by what has happened, goes to his study and shoots himself through the head.

Tags: murder

Review:
I have noticed a lot of rubbish written about this movie: its NOT a Hammer production (it's from Tyburn) although a lot of Hammer-regulars are involved in it; director Freddie Francis is NOT the brother of producer Kevin Francis, but his father; the only similarities between Alfred Hitchock's Psycho and this movie are a female lead-actress (Veronica Carlson of Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Frankenstein Must be Destroyed-fame) who is killed halfway through the movie after we have become to root for her and who's disappearance is investigated by people who knew her, and an atmospheric house which contains a supposedly hideous secret.
Peter Cushing gives a great performance, mixing real-life emotions with acting (his sadness about his departed wife of which he show photographs to Veronica Carlson and which are photographs of his real wife who had died in 1971, is really hard to watch if you are familiar with the background-information); John Hurt is also great although his character is nothing more then a red herring; Gwen Watford gives a nice performance of a Hindu-housekeeper which is not sinister in herself but treated as sinister because Hindoes were considered sinister in the time-period the movie is set in.
"The Ghoul" was produced by Tyburn Films - one of the British Horror Companies that spurted up in response to Hammer Studio's worldwide Gothic horror movie success.
This one should be of immediate interest to anyone who likes those films as it stars Hammer veteran Peter Cushing, Hammer starlet Veronica Carlson and is written and directed by Hammer stalwarts Anthony Hinds and Freddie Francis.
Ghoul begins at a roaring 1920's party where four bored guests decide to go drag racing and wind up at a strange mansion in the forest where a former priest (Cushing) resides with his creepy Indian housekeeper (brilliantly portrayed by Gwen Watford), and sadistic groundskeeper (a very early role by John Hurt).
This is the first film from Tyburn Productions (a supposed latter-day successor to Hammer and Amicus; they also had Peter Cushing starring in Legend of the Werewolf(1975) and Masks of Death(1984)).This has to rank as one of Peter Cushing's most memorable performances - his role is portrayed with such dedicated nervousness and emotion, that the viewer immediately gets his sympathy.The female photographs used in the movie are of his real wife Helen, who had passed away in 1971.
The tears that Peter Cushing sheds in this film are for real and it did affect the rest of the cast quite deeply.Aside from this, the plot stumbles along with yawning gaps of pointless dialogue and actionless scenes, until the Ghoul is revealed at the end.
But then she is killed by the bald,cadaverous man that Lawrence keeps locked in an upstairs room and her companion is pushed over the cliff in the car.Their friends come looking for them and refuse to believe Lawrence's explanation that it was an accident.Interesting British production from Tyburn Films,founded by Kevin Francis.Not much is ever explained about cannibalistic ghoul hidden on the attic.The atmosphere of strangeness amid the mist-flowing moors is certainly well evoked and Peter Cushing gives a memorable performance as always.I have seen this film for the first time as a kid and it really creeped me out.8 out of 10..
I enjoyed  "The Ghoul" in the main,but felt that it pandered to some annoying stereotypes.Firstly,and most obviously I think,is that of India,or of the East in general being a home of sinister pagan beliefs and of rituals that engender evil.Now,I am aware that the film is set during the British Raj,and it would be perfectly fine if the characters in the film were to hold ignorant and arrogant views about Hinduism as being basically a kind of devil-worship,views which the character played by Peter Cushing(a former clergyman who stayed for a considerable time in India,where he encountered local religion in which he says he found only depravity) does indeed hold;but,the film was set in that age,not made during it,and these frankly racist attitudes are reinforced,as in the film it is made pretty evident that the source of the main unhappiness that has beset the household is India and Indian ways.Indeed,even the eponymous character,whenever he appears,is donning Indian clothes,when he is actually English.
Another stereotype which is perpetuated is a class one.The character played by John Hurt is a scruffy ex-soldier(although it is suggested at one particular point that he had been a deserter)  who murders people,abducts women,beats them and attempts to  rape them.By his strong West Country accent,the fact that he was a private,and other peoples' manner towards him,it is obvious that he is a pleb.The upper-class characters on the other hand,are better-looking,more self-confident,and( particularly the character played by Peter Cushing and the character of the ex-army officer),generally nobler.
The movie is worth watching if you like horror.Fourth: The sad trivia behind Peter Cushing's performance: There is a photo in the film which is/was Cushing's wife Veronica Carlson who died in 1971 - so Cushing's emotions were real at this point and not an acting job.
We get to see an exciting car race, Veronica Carlson is great to watch and listen to, the misty setting provides a great atmospheric backdrop, there's a very creepy vibe in the scenes where the ghoul appears or is about to appear and there's never a dull moment.
Along the way, they become lost and one of them finds herself in a house owned by a former Clergyman who harbours a secret.Peter Cushing delivers one of his most moving performances in this film (second only to TALES FROM THE CRYPT).
First of all let me correct some informations given in other comments : this is NOT a hammer film , but a tyburn production , produced by Kevin Francis & directed by his brother Freddie (yes that Freddie Francis).It was a refuge for disenchanted hammer regulars trying to make better films than what was being made by hammer productions.In that optical it can be considered a half failure , sure the francis patented photography is there , the sets are nice , the foggy atmosphere , Cushing's masterfull presence but the story is uninvolving and the ghoul is barely seen.It resembles a period drama with just a hint of macabre.
Founded by Freddie Francis' son Kevin, Tyburn Films clearly had the right lineage but their appearance on the scene was woefully ill-timed; by the mid-Seventies the Gothic brand of English horror was on its way out and this proved to be their last venture until briefly resuming operations during the following decade.A decent enough cast was roped in for this Edwardian-era horror piece: Peter Cushing, John Hurt, Hammer starlet Veronica Carlson, Ian McCulloch – later to star in Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE (1979) – and Alexandra Bastedo – who had earlier appeared in the cult Horror item, THE BLOOD-SPATTERED BRIDE (1972).
Despite the lamest of scripts (courtesy of regular Hammer scribe Anthony Hinds), Cushing (who even won a Best Actor award at an international Horror film festival!) and Hurt are quite good here in the roles of, respectively, an embittered, widowed and defrocked clergyman with a skeleton in his closet and his crazed, homicidal gardener.Despite the title or its alternative, NIGHT OF THE GHOUL, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the archaic, all-star British horror flick of 1933 nor Ed Wood's 1960 cheapie; the titular creature, in fact, is Cushing's inexplicably cannibalistic giant of a son whose body sports a green tinge and has something like a nappy for a costume!
Cushing's late beloved wife makes an appearance in the film via a photograph as his own character's deceased spouse: she had died four years earlier and the toll its death had taken on the inconsolable star is already clearly evident here in his skeletal facial features; even so, the character's similar predicament ensures that Cushing the actor is, as always, the consummate professional.After the "McGuffin-esque" opening of the old dark house variety, the film's first 20 minutes are taken up by a depiction of what England's society life was like in the Jazz Age as four well-bred socialites let their hair down during a party and, after having partaken of one drink too many, engage in an impromptu car chase in the fog-shrouded countryside.
The girl eventually ends up on the ghoul's menu with McCulloch and Bastedo consequently calling on Cushing and Hurt to look for their relatives – Bastedo almost shares Carlson's fate (a still of which I recall seeing in Alan Frank's "Horror Films"), while both McCulloch and Hurt nearly perish in quicksand!
By the way, Cushing's belligerent Indian house-keeper is also on hand to add some spice to the film with a touch of irrelevant exoticism.At least in the version I watched, the film is a disappointingly bloodless affair even during the ghoul's infrequent rampages – a notable exception occurs when McCulloch gets a meat cleaver in the face!
I'm usually a big sucker for typically British 70's horror and Freddie Francis' film perfectly features all the necessary ingredients, like multiple fog-enshrouded Moorlands and dark secrets that are kept locked up in the attic of a gigantic countryside mansion, but somehow it just wasn't good enough.
Trapped in the impenetrable Moors and low on petrol, the first couple arrives at the eerie secluded mansion owned by ex-missionary Dr. Lawrence (Peter Cushing) and his oddly behaving staff members Tom (John Hurt) and Ayah (Gwen Watford).
Francis was one of the most prominent horror directors of the British "golden" area and he made more than a dozen classics that are all a lot better than "The Ghoul", like "The Creeping Flesh", "Tales from the Crypt", "Torture Garden", "The Evil of Frankenstein" and "Paranoiac".
The film benefits from nice sets and costumes, good performances by the leads Peter Cushing, John Hurt, and Veronica Carlson, and the sure hand of Freddie Francis at the helm.
Snooty partygoers get drunk on champagne and make an ill-advised effort to "race" their cars to Land's End.It doesn't really go as planned, however, and one couple breaks down near the manse of Peter Cushing, which houses "The Ghoul"--Cushing's insane son who is into cannibalism.
But hey, it'll at least be worth including for my 'Family Un-friendly' series of reviews.It starts out quite well as a young woman we will later learn is named Daphne(Veronica Carlson) creeps through a mansion with a candle to strange screams and gurgling noises, luxurious architecture and flickering shadows build suspense, establishing a good-looking film at least(Surprise, surprise, the director is our old friend Freddie Francis), she gets closer and the cries grow louder!
After being warned, and then almost raped by a creepy handyman(A younger John Hurt) near a mansion, Daphne meets the mysterious owner of the mansion, Dr. Lawrence(Peter Cushing)and his Indian maid, Ayah.
After some drama between the Handyman and Ayah, Daphne's friends search for her and all get killed off(I do have to mention an absolutely incredible murder scene involving a hatchet to the face that is the high point of the film)before Lawrence kills the killer(The titular 'ghoul')before shooting himself.Peter Cushing had an almost masochistic tendency after his wife's death to play grieving widowers, and he clearly wasn't in a very good state of mental health, his performance is mostly routine, but eventually Cushing had a breakdown and his fit was recorded.
However, The Ghoul is an extremely disappointing horror entry in which the performances of Peter Cushing and John Hurt are the only noteworthy factors.
This film is noteworthy only because of the presence of longtime Hammer veteran Peter Cushing and a young John Hurt, who would go on to experience an unpleasant dining experience in 1979's Alien.
Peter Cushing, Veronica Carlson, make-up man Roy Ashton, Director Freddie Francis and screenwriter John Elder – all names associated with Hammer are here.
This is what happens in "The Ghoul" but the film comes out in an inferior level than that you might expect in its first half an hour or so.The secret in the attic here is the son of a Reverend (Peter Cushing) that while in India with his father has been driven into cannibalism by mysterious ancient cults followers and has to be fed accordingly.
While her date sits in the car waiting for her to return (being pushed off a cliff to his death by the deranged John Hurt), Carlson heads into a mysterious looking mansion and after a violent encounter with Hurt meets the dashing Peter Cushing who allows her to spend the night.
It suffers from a few pacing issues and the script owes more than a little debt to Hitchcock's Psycho, but despite the odd lull in action and lack of originality, I can't help but like The Ghoul, an atmospheric chiller set in the Roaring Twenties that stars Hammer/Amicus stalwart Peter Cushing, and Ian McCulloch, hero of Italian horror classics Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie Holocaust.The film kicks off in fine style with beautiful blonde Daphne (Veronica Carlson) being lured to a gloomy attic by eerie voices where she is confronted by a corpse with a meat hook through the neck hanging from the rafters; this turns out to be a macabre jape perpetrated by the woman's playful socialite friends, who proceed to party like its 1929, downing copious glasses of champers and kicking up their heels to the Charleston.
But none of them make it to their intended destination, instead winding up at the fog-bound marshland estate of Doctor Lawrence (Cushing) who keeps his son, a crazed flesh-eating ghoul, locked in the attic.Daphne is the first to arrive at the doctor's creepy house, Billy having vanished into the fog only to be dispatched by wicked gardener Tom Rawlings (a pre-fame John Hurt).
They split up & Daphne meets a sinister guy named Tom Rawlings (John Hurt) who tries to stop her going to a large isolated house deep within some marshland owned by one Dr. Lawrence (Peter Cushing) but to no avail, at first Dr. Lawrence seems nice enough but that night Daphne discovers that there is something nasty lurking in the attic which feeds on human flesh...This English production was made by the short lived Tyburn Films who only ever made three films all of which were horror, Persecution (1974), the cool Legend of the Werewolf (1974) & this The Ghoul in '75 before they went out of business, if I'm honest that's not actually a bad resume of films.
Directed by Freddie Francis for some reason I have always wanted to see The Ghoul, I recently admitted defeat in trying to see it for free & actually spent some of my hard earned money on a copy & while it's a decent little horror film for sure it did end up disappointing me although I suspect a large part of that is down to the fact I had high expectations for it.
The script by Anthony Hinds as John Elder has all the necessary ingredients to be a top British period horror film, the fog enshrouded marshes, the period setting & the attention to detail, the large ominous isolated house that holds a gruesome secret, evil religious ceremonies, some killing & the fabulous Peter Cushing.
Having said that it moves along at a nice pace, is certainly watchable with some effective scenes & unusually has the balls to unexpectedly kill off one of it's stars about halfway through.Director Francis knows how to turn in a decent horror film with plenty of atmosphere & fog, the house sets are also excellent & very detailed with great attention to period detail.
Peter Cushing is great as always & the rest of the cast is good to that includes John Hurt & Ian McCulloch who would both go on to arguably bigger & better things...The Ghoul is good film & I won't say it isn't but the story & it's ideas are never really tied together in any sort of convincing way, it's worth a watch but I think my expectations were just too high..
Peter Cushing gives an okay performance as an affable gentleman with something to hide and John Hurt makes for a skin crawling villain and perhaps the relative lack of gore is a nice change from the type of torture porn we've become used to in the 21st Century but anyone who can remember this film with childhood affection will be disappointed by it in 2012.
But, Geoffrey will not stop until he finds answers..which could place his life in jeopardy as the thing in the attic isn't done killing just yet.Mean-spirited and cruel, I was surprised at how director Freddie Francis goes right for the jugular with this one..the way characters are dispatched, having the misfortune of leaving the party atmosphere of sophisticates enjoying bubbly and music, to wind up in the creepy, malevolent environment of this mansion in the marshland moors with characters harboring ugly secrets, willing to commit evil acts to innocents without worry because the local police and citizens are too frightened(..the marshlands have dangerous quicksand, fog that's difficult to see through, and a devastating cliff)to come anywhere near.
John Hurt, Peter Cushing and Don Henderson have certainly seen better movies.
Well we find out this dark secret is John Henderson dressed as a Krishna and proceeds to kill all the yuppies that went to the mansion when finally Cushing blows his own head off.I didn't think too much of it because it was just really dumb, with all the buildup to the actual Ghoul, I was laughing at it because it was such a let-down, like this movie4 out of 10.
However, if you are a fan of hammer, peter cushing or john hurt then you will most probably enjoy this film.
john hurt features as a thoroughly weird groundskeeper who wouldn't be out of place in "the league of gentlemen" the film looks great, all of the sets are very convincing the ever present fog really adds to the feel.in conclusion - if your'e a fan of hammer, hurt or cushing - give it a chance, if not - give it a miss..
He saves the movie of total disaster with a pretty good performance as Doctor Lawrence,who lives in a house in the middle of nowhere with an Indian(!) housekeeper and another help Tom Rawlings(John Hurt,not bad either in this movie).