Dark Places

Plot synopsis:
Libby Day, the novel's narrator and protagonist, is the sole survivor of a massacre in Kinnakee, Kansas, a fictional rural town. After witnessing the murders of her two sisters and mother, in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she escapes through a window and later testifies in court against her teenage brother.
Twenty-five years after the massacre, Libby, in need of money, meets with a group of amateur investigators who believe that her brother is innocent of the crime. At their coaxing, she meets her brother, Ben for the first time, but is not convinced that he didn't do it. She also meets with her father, now homeless, but is not convinced he played a part in it either. Through her investigation, she learns of her brother's secret girlfriend, as well as accusations against him for child molestation.
Interspersed with the modern day investigation are flashbacks to the day of the massacre. These flashbacks are told from the points of view of Libby's mother, Patty, and her convicted brother, Ben. Patty's viewpoints discuss the difficulties of trying to keep the family farm while raising four children alone; Ben tells the story of a troubled teenager as he falls in with a bad crowd. These viewpoints paint a picture of a grim life of desperate poverty, marital abuse and abandonment that characterize life on the farm prior to the murder.

Tags: paranormal, insanity, murder

Review:
"Dark Places" tells of a man who inherits a house that is reputed to contain a stash of money hidden somewhere by the original owner.
The new owner moves in, despite warnings from local people that the house is cursed, and enthusiastically begins hunting for the loot.
Unfortunately for him, there are other people trying to get to the cash before he does, but worse still, the house really is haunted."Dark Places" is a moderately successful film that does a good job of weaving a mystery with it's storyline.
The acting is also all pretty good, and with such star names as Christopher Lee and Joan Collins, it's amazing that this isn't one of the major British horror films of the 1970's, but once it gets going you'll soon realise that, as with a lot of other UK horror films of this period, the chances of something significantly exciting happening are pretty slim.What doesn't help is having the lead character played by Robert Hardy, who, while being an excellent actor and playing the character well, just does not have the "leading man" quality required to carry the entire focus of the film.
Joan Collinsd and Christopher Lee look great in their supporting roles, but then again, they always do.
What does work well is the way the film starts to move between present day and flashback as Hardy starts to uncover more of the truth about what went on in the house before it's original owner died, and what the truth is behind all the stories of murder.
The flashback scenes are great, and they reminded me the great things some 1970's films from the UK could do with a period setting.
Look out for a fantastic cameo from Jean Marsh as the wife in the flashbacks, although many men may be more entranced by the young Jane Birkin as the governess, even though she doesn't do very much.Sadly there's no real meat on this bony story, but it does have a couple of mildly grisly scenes and a kind of surprise ending, so it's fairly enjoyable..
Dark Places is not a very well known seventies British horror movie; probably owing to the fact that it's not a Hammer movie, but it features an interesting story and a great cast, and overall this is certainly a very decent little thriller!
The story has some fairly strong horror themes running throughout, but personally I wouldn't say this is a horror flick; Dark Places is a thriller, and the main focus is on the thing that makes the world go round - money, and a huge stash of it.
At the centre of the film is a spooky old house, once owned by a mental patient who died.
This is bad news for a few different people in the village - mostly notably scheming couple Dr Mandevile and Sarah.
The reason being that before he died, the owner of the house hid a huge sum of money somewhere within the walls and the pair have been on the trail of it ever since.
Not wanting to risk losing their cash, Sarah and the doctor hatch a plan to turn the situation to their advantage...The key thing about this film is the old house at the centre, and therefore the chilling atmosphere stemming from it.
Director Don Sharp has a history in horror, with a handful of films made for Hammer, as well as the excellent cult trash classic 'Psychomania' to his name, so it's quite unsurprising that this film has a horror atmosphere.
The plot is well done also, with many different characters having a stake in the money at the centre of the story, and thus ensuring that the film remains interesting and varied.
Dark Places features a very good cast, which makes it even more surprising that this film isn't better known.
The great Christopher Lee is the biggest standout in his role as the doctor with an ulterior motive, while Joan Collins gives good support and provides some nice eye candy as his accomplice.
The film also features performances from fellow British stars Robert Hardy and Herbert Lom, who also do well.
Overall, this might not be a masterpiece; but it's certainly a good film and comes recommended to fans of British horror!.
It surprised me, i didn't expected much from it, but it's very skillfully done, the way the flashbacks (or dimensional passages) start and stop are a masterwork.It's a sort of a cheesy film but somehow, at the same time, is an excellent piece of cinema.
Here's the scariest scene of all my investigation: the one where our hero is knocking on the house's walls to find the place where the money is hidden, as he is tortured by the children voices, and they go "no, no ,no, no , no..."You should see it if you didn't.
DARK PLACES (Don Sharp, 1974) **1/2.
This 'haunted house' movie is not very well-known (and, whenever mentioned, it is generally dismissed) despite the star cast and name director it attracted: both of these have ties to Hammer Horror (Don Sharp having helmed, among others, KISS OF THE VAMPIRE {1963}, and the former including Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Robert Hardy) but the style is not necessarily reminiscent of their output (especially since the company never actually dabbled in this particular subgenre).Anyway, I quite liked the film if ultimately emerging as nothing special: that said, the plot does provide some novelty to the formula of ghosts haunting the current owner of some old mansion in order to expose some long-ago crime.
In fact, here we not only have the protagonist (played by Hardy, from Hammer's DEMONS OF THE MIND {1972}) being a dead-ringer for the man who previously lived there (though the probability of both being, concurrently, in the same mental asylum is very unlikely) and who gradually has his personality overtaken by him, but his actual goal in possessing the property concerned is to find the old man's fortune hidden behind one of the walls!
The handful of people who make it a point to befriend him (doctor Lee, his sister{!} Collins and solicitor Lom) all know about the money and are understandably miffed that the house was ultimately bequeathed by the dying former occupant (not played by Hardy in this guise!) to a casual acquaintance.
Collins, typically playing a man-eater, actually decides to seduce the stout Hardy (by first volunteering to clean up the place for him) in order to 'follow' the search for the loot first-hand – which displeases Lee, who constantly berates his sister for her loose morals (incidentally, he and Collins do not look favorably upon Lom either, whose interest in the 'financial' matter is more subtly deployed).Eventually, as already intimated, Hardy starts to re-live his predecessor's experiences within the household: it transpires that he was unhappily married, with a couple of apparently fiendish children in tow, but he finds solace in the arms of the latter's much-younger nanny (Jane Birkin).
This, of course, sends the poor man off the deep end and he takes to his family with a pick-axe, though none of the bodies were actually found.
Towards the end, as the modern-day Hardy identifies more and more with his 'doppelganger', he begins to see the obstacles to his contentedness everywhere so that, during a country stroll with Lee and Lom, he physically assaults (leaving his companions perplexed) a couple of children he takes for the ones tormenting his love Birkin!
Later still, when Collins turns up ostensibly to comfort him, he sees her in the image of the wife the previous owner loathed and strangles her to death – just then, Lee himself happens along and, rather bloodlessly, ends up on the wrong end of Hardy's pick-axe!
When Lom turns up there too and is about to meet the same fate, a couple of cops he had called arrive just in time to take the deranged Hardy away.
The double twist here involves Hardy being not an employer of the asylum as he had let on but really a patient, and that his attempts to unearth the cache' of money by tearing down the walls also reveals the resting-place of the former murdered victims.
Lom being responsible for the house offers to take charge of a couple of bags the cops come upon, conscious of course as to their actual contents, but the latter insist they be checked first and, once they are, these are naturally confiscatedso that, predictably, nobody gets anything after all!
For the record, this is the third and last film genre icons Lee and Lom appeared in together after the ludicrous 'female Tarzan' adventure THE FACE OF EVE (1968) and Jess Franco's interesting but unsatisfactory COUNT Dracula (1969)..
I have been looking a long time on the internet for this one and the only copy available is a DVD-r made of a video rip so I guess this is probably as good as it gets.
Wonderful Hammer-style gem, creepy deserted house, hidden money and a tragedy from long ago that lies hidden in the walls.
Robert Hardy (also active in similar flicks like Psychomania) lives up to his name of being an actor of versatility and depth.
As if Joan Collins as femme fatale (and Jane Birkin!) isn't enough to make this a top notch cast, Christopher Lee plays her untrustworthy brother.
I always love they way how Joan Collins manages to make being strangled look to sensual, it makes you think she has done it before - which she did in Tales From The Crypt but there it was Santa.
It would be great if this movie became more widely available on DVD in good quality..
This 1973 UK thriller sees Robert Hardy (who had previously starred in Hammer's "Demons of the Mind") play Edward Foster, the former Head of an Asylum who gets called to a patient's - Andrew Marr's - death bed, and ends up inheriting his house where a significant amount of money is hidden.
This prompts certain interested parties to become part of Foster's life, namely a scheming brother and sister and the estate's solicitor; however, the house's murderous past comes back to haunt them all....Despite some clichéd elements to the script (cynical townsfolk; noises reverberating around the house etc.) this is a film which clearly had a lot of potential on paper but it really doesn't get out of first gear until the last half hour when the central themes of the plot become clearer.
The interweaving of past and present with Hardy interchanging between both Foster (present) and Marr (from the past) in certain sequences is hardly seamless and is patchily handled.On reflection, the supporting cast don't really get that much to do considering that the 3 of them (played by Christopher Lee, Joan Collins and Herbert Lom) are all hell-bent on finding the money.
Lee in particular seems to be more of peripheral figure than you would have expected.Perhaps another thing to undermine it's psychologically thrilling aspirations is the script-writers' under-appreciation and under-usage of the story's more substantial "horror" or "thriller" elements occurring at night.
It clearly dilutes the central thrills of the film.Hardy does a decent job of portraying the gradual decline in sanity of his characterisation; and due to its little-known status this film might well be worth a look at, but to my mind, it could have been handled and executed a lot better..
Plot Summary : A former mental patient inherits the old house of a man who had killed his wife (Jean Marsh) and children and died nut .
As he (Robert Hardy) lives in the mansion , but the insane spirit (also Robert Hardy playing a double role) of its previous owner seems to overcome him with a need to repeat the murders .
Meanwhile, a scheming couple of brothers (Joan Collins , Christopher Lee) and the manor administrator (Herbert Lom) plot to rob a hidden cache of stolen money from its rightful owner .
The only problem is that the house they plan to hide it in is haunted .
There is more than death waiting for you in Dark Places.This is a thrilling film including horror elements taken from Edgar Allan Poe and with plenty of chills , familiar drama , suspense and grisly killings .
Filmed in low-budget though starred by an all-star-cast ; it's acceptable but no memorable picture and generally chilly clutch .
Director Don Sharp has got other horror films for which has achieved a certain cult following .
Good acting by Robert Hardy as a man who masquerading as a hospital administrator inherits a ruined mansion and nice support cast , such as Joan Collins as intriguing as well as seductive woman , Christopher Lee as astute brother ,he worked six times for director Don Sharp , Herbert Lom as a mean business attendant , Jane Marsh as wife and Jane Birkin as a young lover .
The motion picture was professionally adapted and directed by Don Sharp , though with no originality .
He became a filmmaker in the mid-1950s and turned out some low- and medium-budget musicals, such as the Tommy Steele vehicle ¨It's All Happening¨ (1963).
In the mid-1960s he was hired by horror specialist Hammer Films and turned out some well-received thrillers, including ¨Kiss of the vampire¨ (1963), his first for Hammer , this one along with ¨Witchcraft¨ and ¨Psychomania¨ are the best-regarded .
He worked on a few films as second-unit director, most notably ¨The Fast Lady¨(1962) and ¨Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris¨ (1965), before returning to directing again, and turned out a string of thrillers such as ¨Callan¨, ¨Hennessy¨, and his version of ¨The thirty nine steps¨ , although much inferior to Hitchcock ; in addition , horror films and comedies .
Ho Hum, A Haunted House...Right, Then.
Unmemorable by-the-numbers haunted house flick with a great cast (Joan Collins, Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Jean Marsh, Jane Birkin) and decent story that could and should have been better.
But unfortunately it is bogged down by its less than stellar direction, uncharismatic camera work and lame main actor Robert Hardy, who is about as interesting as a Saltine cracker...without the salt, of course.
Lee & Collins play an unscrupulous couple trying to manipulate their hands onto the money that is hidden somewhere inside of the Marr Estate mansion which has just been willed to Robert Foster (played by Hardy) by its original tenant Andrew Marr (also played by Hardy) whose family was killed inside of the house and now is haunting it.
Herbert Lom is the next door neighbor who is sort of helpful, but also wouldn't mind getting the cash into his pockets.
If you didn't know better, you'd think this was a made-for-TV film, virtually wasting its great locations by filming the goings on as you would a family reunion.
And again, there is too much Hardy and not enough Lee, Collins or Lom. But if you are a fan of haunted house films or British horror, there are certainly worse options out there.
This film is rather entertaining but the chills are pretty weak.
However, it has strong leads by Robert Hardy and Christopher Lee. I bought this video for five bucks at the Reject Shop, so what was I expecting?
A man searches for a hidden fortune in the house of a deceased maniac.
As he does so, images from the house's past begin to haunt him, and his own personality is slowly overshadowed by that of the former, homicidal occupant.
It is to the credit of Robert Hardy that he carries off the central role well (and, indeed, holds the film together) but indifferent direction ensures that the rest of a talented cast is largely wasted.
Still, worth seeing for the original story line..
(Small SPOILERS) It's such a shame that this film wasn't produced by the Hammer studios (or Amicusor maybe Tigon), because if that were the case, it probably wouldn't be so underrated and overlooked as it is now.
Dark Places has suspense, a professional director, a great cast and  especially  a truly cool plot.
Asylum administrator Edward (Robert Hardy) 'inherits' the large mansion of a deceased patient.
The legend says he hid a fortune somewhere in the walls of this house but he also went mad there after the murder on his wife, his two children and the governess.
The town's doctor (Christopher Lee) and his ravishing sister (Joan Collins) constantly try to intrude the house and even the seemly honest notary (Herbert Lom) becomes greedybut then, the house itself becomes the biggest threat.
As you can read, this film offers great excitement.
Asylums, treasure-hunting and haunted houses!
The tense climax is terrifically built up and the film features quite a lot gore considering the time it was shot.
'Dark Places' was directed by Don Sharp, who previously made the Hammer classic 'Rasputin: the Mad Monk' and several other great horror titles, such as 'Psychomania' (very underrated as well), 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' and 'Kiss of the Vampire'.
Robert Hardy plays an excellent double-role, while Lee and Lom look as ghoulish as ever.
The nearly perfect cast is completed by two stunningly beautiful actresses: Joan Collins and Jane Birkin.
In case you're a devoted Hammer fan, or just an admirer of ghostly 70's stories, Dark Places is the ideal film for you.
Despite a plot line that is not only obvious and predictable, but somewhat slow-moving and even worse - overburdened with dialogue and directed in a multitudes of TV-style close-ups by Don Sharp - this is a film that is still worth viewing.
And although he is not called upon to be outrageously villainous, audience favorite Christopher Lee has a fairly meaty role - of which, needless to say, he takes full advantage.
Also to be applauded are Robert Hardy, Herbert Rudley and most especially, Joan Collins!