SPOILERS

This one bears such a striking resemblance to the 1974 film "Black Christmas" that I have to ask myself which of them came first. I'm assuming this one, since it was released a year earlier, but each of the films has something going for it. In this movie's case, it's the utter cheapness of the production.

Much like "Night of the Living Dead" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," this flick manages to create its own claustrophobic world within its muddy reels. The story, although a little convoluted, unfolds with an eerie inevitability, beginning with a narrated setup, a violent axe murder, and a group of disparate individuals who gather at a creepy mansion. It's admittedly contrived, but it doesn't really seem that way while you're watching it.

Like "Black Christmas," this one uses a number of effective point-of-view shots, and the murderer makes a series of ominous phone calls. Unlike "Black Christmas," the focus is not on the people in danger but rather on the reasons for the murders themselves. This movie gives us no real protagonists until the final reel, where an extended flashback sequence reveals the motive for the killing: a twisted mess of insanity, incest, and a group of lunatics who literally take over the asylum.

But the thing that lifts it above the trashy material is the way the director plays fair and gives consistent clues to the outcome. For instance, the story reveals most of the protagonists to be escaped lunatics who have been living in society as normal people for many years. The scene at the beginning where Patrick O'Neal arrives to meet the people who wish to buy the old mansion, the four buyers all look at him with zombified faces that are echoed much later in the flashback sequence. Also, watch the scene where Jeffrey Butler is left stranded in Tess's house amid all of her birds. I mean...what the heck was she doing with all those birds in the first place? She was obviously a little obsessed.

The biggest liability here is the resolution, in which the killer's identity is left unrevealed. It's a creepy moment, but more than a little muddled. Could it have possibly been the long-thought-dead Wilfred? Or was it another homicidal maniac who was delusional? Why didn't we get to see the face?

This unsatisfying element is a small price to pay for a great little film. The movie is greatly enhanced by the performances of the actors, especially Mary Woronov and James Patterson. Woronov never lapses into "damsel-in-distress" mode, and Patterson is delightfully ambiguous and understated to an exaggerated degree. In fact, there are many nods to "Psycho" in this, like the shifting protagonists and the unraveling of the plot.

Another reviewer complained a lot about the darkness of the film. I bought a copy of the DVD from Diamond Entertainment, and the only places I found this to be true were in the point-of-view shots of the highway while people were driving in their cars. Although this DVD print is by no means definitive, it's certainly watchable, and I found the flashback sequences to be absolutely beautiful. I think the murders were concealed in darkness for budgetary reasons, and the director tried to use well-placed lighting that was ultimately washed out by the cheapness of the film itself. No matter...the effort is definitely there, and it shows in the final product. I highly recommend it for viewers who are as fond of 70s horror as I am.