An Old Dark House, a seance, 9 strangers and a killer make up for an interesting gothic surreal occult experience. 

• Entertainment factor: ★★★★☆
• Occult factor: ★★★★☆
• Gothic factor: ★★★★☆

Something Creeping in the Dark is an Italian horror that is Giallo-adjacent and has the vibe of the Old Dark House genre with the focus on suspense instead of gore. It stars Lucas Bosè, Farley Granger, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Stelvio Rosi, Dino Fazio. Directed & written by Mario Colucci. 

Duration: 1h 35m

Plot

Couple Sylvia and Donald Forrest are on their way to the new nose reveal party of Sylvia’s friend. At the same time Inspector Wright and his police officer Sam are chasing killer Spike and finally catch him. When a bridge is collapsed by the storm, they all have to drive back. On their way back they encounter Doctor Williams and Susan West who are on their way to perform an emergency surgery at the clinic and picked up Professor Lawrence who was stranded with his car. They tell them that the road back is flooded and they are trapped. They find refuge in a big mansion on the hill where Joe and his girlfriend are staying. 

The house belonged to Sheila Marlowe, who was rich and dabbled in the occult. She also stood trial for murdering her husband. Before she died she held a seance. Sylvia gets the idea to hold a seance now to pass the time, while Donald is an excellent medium. She, Dr. Williams and Prof Lawrence join her, while Wright and Sam keep an eye on Spike. When the lightning strikes the window and blasts it open, the seance is disturbed just when Sheila is speaking through Donald. 

Lawrence warns them that if a seance was suddenly broken up, the spirit can’t find its way back. Now the spirit of Sheila is roaming the house and possesses the people in it. While Spike desperately wants to escape and the storm outside keeps roaring and the water reaches the mansion, closing them in.

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Short Review

It starts with Sylvia and Donald who don’t have a good marriage. Sylvia fantasizes about Spike in a dreamlike sequence where he hits her but eventually she stabs him with a short knife. Very symbolic. The woman takes revenge for getting slapped and fantasizes he likes that she has power over him. The relationship between Sylvia and Donald is complicated and the fun part is that when Donald gets all worked up Dr. Williams offers him a sedative, while most of the time the women were seen as hysterics. Their relationship is at the center of the events and they both are the victims of it. 

Spike is a disturbance that makes it more thrilling and dangerous. But the real danger comes from Sheila who possesses first Susan and then Donald. Wright also has a confrontation with her in an eerie sequence where light and dark, lighting and zoom-ins on the eyes are of importance to create an atmosphere of dread. The way the camera hovers high above the ground, as if we were looking through the eyes of Sheila’s floating spirit creates a ominous effect. Also the wide angle shots give off an uncanny vibe, capturing everybody in the room and creates a feeling that there might be something else in the room with them. 

With a storm raging outside, 9 strangers, trapped by the water and a restless and malevolent spirit results in rising tensions. It reminds of the classic film The Old Dark House (1932) where a couple of strangers seek refuge from a storm in a big house that hides secrets. That movie was far ahead of its time with forward-thinking about feminism. While this film fits in the Old Dark House genre with above mentioned elements, it feels very much like a seventies movie, although it was still early in the seventies. The lighting, the contrast, the wide angle camera, the focus on the eyes, dream-like sequences and not focusing on female paranoia (a typical seventies horror trope), but instead the man who needs tranquilizers, also feels more like it was ahead of its time. And even creates some sardonic campy humor.

Something Creeping in the Dark is a seventies movie without female paranoia, but with suspense, fights, a killer and a murderous spirit that creates an eerie atmosphere and offers good entertainment.