Robert Powell (never the strongest character actor) is a young psychiatrist tricked into interviewing four patients in an asylum in order to get a job. Each have a fairly fantastic tale to recount that might explain their current predicament - or, maybe - just maybe, their recollections are true!? My favourite of the four stories features Peter Cushing as a tailor tasked with making a suit from a particularly pliable material, but the others are interesting too with their fair share of voodoo, nasty dolls and some good old family enmity. The narrative is structured well, with each story engagingly self-contained within the asylum environment. Keep an eye out for Charlotte Rampling, and an ear on the rather effective Douglas Gamley score that does much of the heavy lifting required to compensate for some pretty ropey dialogue at times. Made in 1972, I wonder if it might have been more effective had it been a few years earlier, with the additional atmospheric benefits of monochrome?
