11 October 2024
How Awful About Allan (1970)
73 min.
Directed by Curtis Harrington.
With Anthony Perkins, Julie Harris, Joan Hackett, Kent Smith, Robert H. Harris, Molly Dodd, Billy Bowles, Trent Dolan, Jeannette Howe, Kenneth Lawrence.
Good early TV horror from genre director Harrington and starring Anthony Perkins.

Blind Allan (Perkins) returns to his home after a damaging fire that killed his father and tragically maimed his poor sister (Harris).

But soon, the emotionally unstable Allan begins to hear beckoning voices in the deep of night, dark hands reaching for him in the shadows.

Could Allan simply be imagining all the intrigue? Is the unfortunate guy slowly going insane?

Or is there someone very real who wants to make Allan lose any last vestiges of sanity?

Director Harrington's hand is confident here, the suspense is well-crafted; clearly, Perkins and Harris are consummate professionals who are simply a joy to see together in the same vehicle, while the underrecognized Hackett is a welcome face as their helpful neighbor.

An excellent '70s addition to the grand guignol cycle started in the 1960s.

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