THE GHASTLY ONES (1968)
Article 3669 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-16-2011
Posting Date: 8-31-2011
Directed by Andy Milligan
Featuring Veronica Radburn, Maggie Rogers, Hal Borske
Country: USA
What it is: Milligan takes on the “old dark house” genre

Three women and their husbands stand to inherit their father’s fortune if they stay for three days in his mansion. But someone is killing off the heirs in gruesome fashion…

How ghastly are they? Well, to begin with, the last few Andy Milligan movies I’ve seen I felt were redeemed somewhat by the fact that there were some good actors in the mix. They may still be there in this one, but between the wretched script (this is one of those movies where you can safely dismiss ninety percent of the dialogue as chatter), the horrible sound, the hyperactive and jerky camerawork, the awful costumes, the terrible makeup, etc., etc…. well, let’s just say that I really wonder if the movie turned out just as Andy Milligan was hoping it would. If he was actually intending to leave me with a headache and feeling rather nauseated (and not in the “ooooh, that’s really gross!” way, but in the “I think I ate something bad…” way), then he was successful. As far as I can tell, this is the goriest of his movies I’ve seen to date, though it’s hard to tell with the camera careening over all creation during the gore sequences. About the best thing I can say about this one is that, once you filter out the chatter, it’s relatively coherent (for an Andy Milligan film); I wasn’t left scratching my head at the end. Milligan would remake the film a decade later as LEGACY OF HORROR, and I’ll no doubt see that one before it’s all over.