With his roots deeply planted in sexploitation cinema, British director Pete Walker became a horror film (or “terror films” as he likes to call it) specialist by the mid 1970s with offerings like HOUSE OF WHIPCORD and FRIGHTMARE. Both films were scripted by the talented David McGillivray, and the successful collaborations lead to THE CONFESSIONAL (aka THE HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN). Walker and McGillivray created something far removed from the classically structured efforts of Hammer and Amicus, amalgamating controversial and tabloid-ripped issues with the conventional gruesomeness that the decade was known for.

Jenny Welch (Susan Penhaligon, THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT) goes to a church confessional to converse with her old friend Bernard (Norman Eshley, THE LOST CONTINENT) who is now a Catholic priest. Since Bernard is not there, Jenny ends up confessing to Father Xavier Meldrum (Anthony Sharp, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) about her devotion to her constantly straying boyfriend and that she had an abortion. Obviously mad, Father Xavier Meldrum – who lives with his invalid mother (Hilda Barry) and sinister one-eyed housemaid Miss Brabazon (Sheila Keith) – becomes obsessed with Jenny, and has tape-recorded her confession for blackmail purposes. His fanatical ideals lead him to a bloody trail of murder he sees as deserved punishment, and to throw more fuel on the fire, colleague Bernard decides to leave the priesthood after professing his love for Jenny’s sister Vanessa (Stephanie Beacham, DRACULA A.D. 1972).

Basing the screenplay on a story by Walker, McGillivray’s script is full of inventive ideas which were obviously meant to shock and stir up controversy. Having the villainous murderer a repressed and crazed Catholic priest in modern times brought a new and different kind of monster to the catalog of British horror, and he’s marvelously played by Sharp. A lapsed Catholic in real life, Walker uses the film as a comment on organized religion, as extreme and satirical as it may be, with Father Meldrum mauling his victims via poison holy wafers, flaming incense burners and rosary beads. The film’s characterizations are well thought out, and showing that there are two sides to every coin, Norman Eshley’s Father Bernard, and to a more fleeting extent, Mervyn Johns’s Father Duggan contrast Father Meldrum’s malevolence by being sympathetic and human. Susan Penhaligon is well cast as the assertive damsel in distress, and her desperate attempts at convincing everyone of Meldrum’s true nature is opposed with rampant disbelief, much like what Mia Farrow faced in ROSEMARY’S BABY. Stephanie Beacham, always the fetching scream queen, is effective as the concerned sister overcome with love for a man exiting the priesthood, and Walker’s frequent star, the incredible Sheila Keith, is properly menacing as usual. Since this is a Pete Walker film, the Grand Guignol type thrills are on display, as is the atypical unhappy ending which makes his genre efforts so unique.

The uncut print source for THE CONFESSIONAL bears a Columbia logo at the beginning, and the original British title, THE HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN. Presented letterboxed at 1.85:1 and anamorphic, it looks good for the most part, with correct (if not overly vivid) colors and a nice level of detail. The print source does suffer from some damage, so blemishes in the form of speckling and a few missing frames are spread throughout the presentation. The English audio options are a 5.1 track, as well as a standard 2.0 mono. In particular, the 5.1 track nicely boosts the precedings with some scary sound effects, including loud bursts of thunder hit at you during the climax.