The Psychopath

You know, between Die! Die! My Darling! and the poster for this, which shows the killer asking, Glenn Danzig sure found plenty of ways to be inspired by British horror films. Directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus, this is the story of a series of murders that all have a doll — that looks exactly like the victim — attached to the dead bodies! It's a nascent giallo and has a really great scene of a room filled with dolls that is quite stunning. All that's missing is some fashion, a jazzy soundtrack, a few bottles of J&B, some nudity and this movie would completely fit in. You could also consider this a slasher and I would be find with your decision. Patrick Wymark (Blood on Satan's Claw) plays Inspector Holloway, the mysterious wheelchair-bound doll maker Mrs. Von Sturm is Margaret Johnson (Sebastian, Night of the Eagle) and her obsessive son Mark is John Standing (The Elephant Man). If you're reading this and think "A movie where a man with mommy issues becomes a murderer sounds kind of like Psycho," this was written by the same person, Robert Bloch.

Any lover of Hitchcock's Psycho will easily guess the psycho bumping off various German refugees in this bonkers but very enjoyable Amicus production, also written by Robert Bloch. The acting is wildly variable - but Patrick Wymark's wheezy chain-smoking detective and John Standing's jaunty mama's boy are terrific and the short running time has a number of effective shocks and creepily surreal touches, like the doll shop and the shadowy boatyard. A cultish gem.

An entertaining murder tale scripted by Robert Bloch. Some reviewers compared it unfavorably with Hitchcock's adaptation of Bloch's novel Psycho but there is really little similarity except for one stabbing scene that resembles the shower scene from the more famous film. Others compared it more fairly to the Italain "giallo" crime films. By far a better comparison is to the series of German B movies based on the novels of Edgar Wallace and his son Bryan Edgar Wallace. It has a similar style and pacing to those films but a rather more coherent story than most of them had.

Creepy Brit horror mystery tale that involves a series of grisly murders in London.

An Amicus film from yet another screenplay written by the ubiquitous Robert Bloch, th