This is NOT a horror film. Like its "prequel," "The Killing Kind," it's more a psychological study of how nasty parents can really mess up their children's lives, and how ironically nasty life can be.Louise, brilliantly played by the wonderful, under-utilized and now-departed actress Carrie Snodgrass, is a spinster librarian with a hateful, controlling, wheelchair-bound dad played with unashamed evil glee by Ray Milland. Louise is depressed beyond belief--she's never gotten over the loss of her fiancée who disappeared 19 years ago, or an accident that led to her father being in a wheelchair. She does anything she can to cope: attempts suicide, masturbates, has a one-night stand, plans vacations she'll never have the courage to take, retires from her job and even takes care of a chimpanzee. But she's not a balanced person--she constantly fantasizes about rejecting her abusive and mean father and loses track of reality on occasion. She was admits to being involved in a library arson, and that she'd do it again. She drinks a little too. But things seem to be going her way at last when Louise makes a friend out of a co-worker, a sincere young woman who boosts Louise's confidence, and gives her hope, sets her on the road to recovering her self-esteem and her life.But, as in "Carrie," happiness is not in the cards for Louise, and it all comes to an end in a series of ironic surprises, and a stormy conclusion in a creepy attic where unpleasant truths are finally revealed.This is not a horror movie--it's not scary or gory at all. You have to be in the right mood to enjoy this movie. You have to be depressed, and feeling hateful, and old, and grief over the loss of someone or something you love to really get into this movie. You have to feel like the world is an unfair, cruel place to live, and be interested in a movie that confirms your worst fears...the world IS against you! There are some wonderful moments of black humor--the secret Ray Milland has been hiding about his health is somehow so cruel it's almost funny, and listening to Carrie Snodgrass break out of character and scream is a wonderful experience. Some of Louise's fantasies show her screaming or acting sly and seductive in that unusual voice of hers, giving just a hint of what Ms. Snodgrass might have delivered had more roles come her way. Ray Milland's hatred of the "Dicky the chimp" is hilarious, even as it degrades a once great actor in his declining years to be in such a role in, basically, an exploitation film. But I can't stop laughing when he first sees Dickey..."What in God's name is THAT!??"It's not a great film, and hard to categorize; I have no idea who would have put up money for something like this, let alone how they got the actors they did. It's more sad than scary, and you really have to be in the right mood to watch a character who's life was pretty rotten almost get better, then fall into a bottomless pit of hopelessness.Or maybe the implication is that Louise went on after this movie, and was able to start her life over, having broken the spell of the past that kept her from moving forward. Somehow, I highly doubt it though...!

Okay, the storyline here is pretty interesting. Louise is a lonley librarian who is developing a drinking habit which is about to get her fired. But if anyone has GOOD reason to be sneakin hooch its Louise. 19 years ago she was left at the altar by her true love who she's never heard from since (she calls Missing Persons on a regular basis and they are at a point where they dont think this man EVER existed anywhere but in Louise's mind!). She lives with her evil nasty belittling father who is in a wheelchair due to an accident he had trying to escape a building Louise set on fire during one of her "Crazys" episodes. Since then Louise has had to bathe him, feed him and wait on him hand and foot.As you can imagine its a real downer and Louise has even known to slit a wrist or two over it (which her father points out is just to get attention!) Louise makes freinds with a new younger girl at the library and they start a friendship that at least brings Louise a little bit of joy. Her father cant stand it. "Where were you?" he likes to yell when she comes home at night. (He listens to phone calls too.) From the point were Louise is gifted a monkey....yes, a monkey!.....the twists start hitting. Are they fast and furious? No, the movie moves slowly ...which is unfortunate because all-in-all it IS an interesting story with some cool plot twists. I really think this movie needs a re-make with quicker pacing and maybe a few more surprises thrown in. The first time I saw this movie I was a little kid who caught the last 20 minutes on TV and thought "Wow! What a mind-f***!". Renting it and watching it in full I now see that most of the action takes place in those last 20 minutes.

Louise is a poor lonely middle-aged librarian prone to odd behavior, outrageous daydreams and suicide attempts. For the last 19 years she has taking care of her abusive wheelchair bound father and hopes beyond hope that her fiancée, who seemingly stood her up at the altar, returns to take her away. I thought that the story was interesting and in many ways parallels Psycho, there's even a nod in the movie. The acting is passable and the leads seem to mesh well. The direction is a bit plain and simple with little or no pizzazz. The biggest drawback is the music. Half the time the music distracts you away from the scene and the rest of the time it lulls you to sleep. Dig that crazy chimp music. The editing draws many of the scenes out for far too long. I kept thinking to myself that the story interested me but the script needed to be fleshed out some more and a bit of the fat trimmed coupled with a decent music score and a little vision, they could have pulled off something interesting.I even liked the obvious twists. Remake anyone?

Plot is a little slow Storyline varies too much, too many scenes that have nothing to do with the actual story. Some of the acting is not that great, but this is a 70's movie so it's about par for the course. Not too bad of a movie overall...