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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Micheal Gough (Alfred from Batman '89) does a good job at making his character unlikable. You do root for the two damsels as they bungle their way (at first) towards his murder. Speaking of the murder scene, I wasn't sure if this was played for laughs or if the the director was trying to build tension. I suppose it could have been both, in either case I enjoyed the build up. The actress who plays the daughter is very cute. We get some blink-and-you'll miss it nudity from her. The ending was a bit trippy, and felt a bit out of tone with the rest of the film. Overall, it's an enjoyable enough movie to recommend.

Growing tired of his controlling behavior, a woman and her daughter conspire to kill her husband and hide the body away but get into trouble when he disappears from his hiding spot and sets out to avenge their behavior.There's not a whole lot about this one that really works. The main thing going for this one is the fact that there's a rather fun set of scenes in the later part of the film that really sells how possible it was that he was never affected by the poisoning attempts. The varying matters of trying to escape the potential return are the film's sole interesting areas with the two constantly trying to get over the idea that he has indeed returned not being dead originally, so their efforts to reassure themselves come against the concept of whether or not what they're seeing and experiencing is true. Running around the house closing doors and windows, barricading themselves in rooms across the house or trying in vain to keep each other sane through the countless interrogations and questioning from their friend that adds a classic sense of paranoia and freak-outs that run wild in old-school Gothic horror which really gets worked out here due to the classic style layout of the house and the actions at that time. The fact that all this good stuff occurs at the end, and is really all that matters for it anyway, means that there's not a whole lot about the rest that works at all, oftentimes being flat-out intolerable. The business with the manager appearing at the house for as long as he does here, the rather innocuous segments with the brother and the interactions with the two at the end while they argue about the different ways to get away with the death is where this goes off-track by filling the first half with such absolutely banal plots that this becomes so hard to get into. This series of scenes is such a hard intro to the film that it feels like a banal drama/thriller at times and only occasionally feels like a horror film during these parts, which is the biggest issue weighing this one down.Rated R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.

The sadistic and domineering Walter Eastwood (splendidly played to the nasty and menacing hilt by Michael Gough) rules over his household with the proverbial iron fist; his browbeaten painter wife Edith (a fine performance by Yvonne Mitchell) and rebellious teenage daughter Jane (an excellent portrayal by Sharon Mitchell of "Raw Meat" fame) join forces to kill him. However, disposing of Walter's body proves to be easier said than done. Director Viktors Ritelis, working from an intriguing script by Olaf Pooley, does an expert job of creating and maintaining a profoundly grim, depressing, and claustrophobic atmosphere and firmly grounds the downbeat premise in a thoroughly plausible drab workaday reality. Moreover, Pooley's screenplay offers a compelling and provocative feminist subtext on how men do their best to control women through both physical and psychological torture and the impossibility of abused women to successfully overthrow the cruel male hierarchy. The startling moments of sudden brutal violent and underlying themes of incest and spousal abuse give this picture an extra potent emotional sting. The sturdy acting from the able cast rates as a real substantial plus: Gough excels in a tailer-made hateful bastard role, Mitchell and Gurney are both deeply sympathetic, and Simon Gough impresses as Walter's smarmy suck-up son Rupert who's completely indifferent to the women's pain and suffering. The cinematography by John Hotchkis boasts several neat stylistic flourishes. While this movie does suffer a bit from slow pacing, an overdone score, and a rather frustrating ambiguous ending, it nonetheless manages to be genuinely chilling and hence is worth a watch for fans of out of the ordinary fright fare.

...oil and water, ice and fire, who knows...Crucible of Horror also known as The Corpse has Michael Gough as a supremely mean, sadistic, patriarchal father who treats the women in his life as servants on his best days and slaves to be beaten when they displeasure him on his bad days. Gough is always good as a hammy performer who doesn't just say his lines but barks them out with precise umph! Whilst I agree with some that Gough seems to have made a mark playing wildly misogynistic men, his performances are always a treat to see for he gets your attention to be sure in just about any film he is the headliner. Crucible of Horror is indeed no exception. Gough plays Walter Eastwood, a wealthy upper-class Englishman with a beautiful wife (Yvonne Mitchell), a son Rupert, and a daughter Jane. Rupert is played by Gough's real-life son Simon and his daughter by Simon's real-life wife Sharon Gurney - okay, that is odd in and of itself. Well, things are bad in the Eastwood home: Mrs. Eastwood spends all her time locked in the room painting bizarre and grizzly caricatures of her husband who she understandably loathes. Jane has taken to petty theft and doing whatever she can to get her father's attention so that he can beat her. What about Rupert? He stays alone in his room with headphones on or visits friends when he can to not see the pain in his home. Mom and daughter cook up a scheme to eliminate Dad and then...well, I could tell you all about it but let's just say things do not remain as they should be. There are shades(very large ones) of Diabolique here. Crucible of Horror has lots of problems, yet Gough is always interesting, the other actors generally good, and the tension runs how early on to end as we see disturbing scenes in what we consider normalcy as well as when things get supernatural on us.