THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK (1962)
(a.k.a. L’ORRIBILE SEGRETO DEL DR. HICHCOCK)
Article #1185 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-12-2004
Posting Date: 11-9-2004
Directed by Riccardo Freda
Featuring Robert Flemyng, Barbara Steele, Harriet Medin

A necrophiliac doctor’s first wife dies from an overdose of an anasthetic that the doctor used on her to simulate death. 12 years later, the doctor returns to his ancestral home with a new wife. However, strange things are happening…

How horrible is he? There’s certainly no doubt that the doctor’s main fetish being necrophilia adds a truly perverse and unsettling touch to the proceedings. Oddly enough, the theme of necrophilia isn’t really used as mere exploitation. It’s not only essential to the plot (in particular as it plays a part in the death of the first wife), but it’s also the factor that gives Dr. Hichcock a more complex character than he might otherwise have. Without that element, this movie would largely be just another example of the standard Italian horror plot; newly married wife returns home with new husband and is terrorized for the length of the movie. As it is, I find this movie a lot more interesting than NIGHTMARE CASTLE, for example.