Filmic Friday 238: The Shuttered Room

The Shuttered Room 1967

So we got together last week with the promise of "games and karate" attached to Movie Night at Film and Editing Friendo's place. Mom of FEF had prepared a bingo game with Swedish Fish as markers, and we were to watch this movie, one of her favorite's (in the same way that Arizona Werewolf is a favorite of mine), very closely to see who would win.

It was a blast!

Now, don't get me wrong, this is not what most might consider a "good" movie - it's not particularly beautifully lit or shot, the actors aren't at the peak of their careers, and the story is, frankly, silly - but it's a fun movie.

This is one of the more accurate posters I found for this movie.

Set off the coast of Maine (!), The Shuttered Room is the story of a beautiful woman who has been given her parents' old home (a defunct mill) and whose big-shot magazine editor husband insists on it being a vacation home, despite her misgivings. They arrive on the island and are, predictably, completely warned off from the house. Luckily, the husband is a New York guy, so common sense is a foreign concept for him.

"Oh wife, I don't know why you're so resistant to coming back to a place where you were so traumatized as a child that your entire childhood has been erased and you have no recollection of even your own parents. You're being unreasonable."

And since this is a small island supposedly off the coast of Maine, the locals are scumbags. Especially one guy who was promised the mill by his "ANT ARGATHAR" (Aunt Agatha). He's 100% awful.

Hello, I'll be your stalker for the duration of this movie.

This denim dude is the worst. That being said, there is nothing that can beat how... stupid the reveal is at the end. Seriously. It's something you'll both see coming a mile away and also never expect.

This is where the ending takes place.

All told, this is a really silly and fun movie that's somewhere between slasher and haunted house. There's a lady with a drugged up golden eagle, crazy island hillbillies, justifiably angry women, and a fetishization of stockings. There's also a hilariously huge 1960s vehicle that somehow made it across the bay on a tiny ferry, a comically huge dollhouse, and more cobwebs than a Spirit of Halloween.

As for the "karate", there was a hilarious fight scene of Pushy-Ineffectual Husband vs Denim Doofus and it was awesome.

Well worth the sugar high from a quarter pound of Swedish Fish lol.

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