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The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
A widowed doctor has gruesome plans for his new wife in this lush, Hitchcockian Italian gothic horror.
Director: Riccardo Freda
Overview
The year is 1885, and Dr Hichcock (Robert Flemyng) goes too far with his necrophiliac tendencies and accidentally kills his wife with an overdose. Bereft, the doctor leaves his house, returning years later with new wife, Cynthia (Barbara Steele). Unaware of her husband’s gruesome plans to re-animate his ex-wife’s corpse, Cynthia starts to hear strange noises in the house.
Released at the height of the Italian horror boom that was produced in the wake of the influence of Hammer’s era-defining horror productions, director Riccardo Freda (The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (The Whip and the Body) create a dark and wicked gothic horror that brings in sly allusions to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while the period detail of Victorian London provides a lush backdrop.
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