Pete Walker, after leaving sexploitation for horror, made a few memorable shockers in his time before going into early retirement at the age of 41 in 1982 and while maybe Frightmare and The House Of Whipcord are his best remembered, few are as well made as The Confessional (how it was released on DVD years back by Media Blasters), better known under its alternate title, The House Of Mortal Sin (how it's been reissued now that it's with Redemption/Kino).

The film follows one Jenny Lynch (Susan Penhaligon) who heads out to an ornate old Catholic Church one day to meet up with Father Bernard (Norman Eshley), who she has been friends with for years, and to give confession. When she arrives, she finds that Bernard is out and so instead she winds up giving her confession to Father Xavier (Anthony Sharp). During her confession she admits to having some problems with her boyfriend, who she believes to be cheating on her, and that she once had an abortion, obvioulsy a big no-no in the eyes of the Catholic Church. What Jenny doesn't know is that Father Xavier has a tape recorder with him on the other side of that booth and that he's recording each and every one of Jenny's sins.

As the movie moves on, we find that Father Xavier is quite insane. He lives in an old house with his mother, who is bed-ridden, and his housekeeper, a strange one-eyed lady named Ms. Brabazon (Walker regular Sheila Keith who pops up in a few of his movies, notably as the warden in House Of Whipcord). Slowly but surely becoming obsessed with Jenny, Xavier, with Brabazon's help, begins killing off people who he believes to be guilty of great sins against Christ, using the symbols of the Church as his weapons of choice. Meanwhile, Father Bernard has started to fall in love with Jenny's foxy sister, Vanessa (Stephanie Beacham) and is going to leave the priesthood so that he can revoke his vow of celibacy and marry the girl. Guess who finds himself on Father Xavier's list…?

Norman Eshley steals the show in this one, playing the deranged priest perfectly. He's pompous, he's condescending, he's ever so much holier-than-thou and he just looks the part. His turn as Father Xavier is pretty creepy stuff, as he delivers some of his lines with such conviction that you should have no problem suspending your disbelief and accepting him in the part. Walker's film gives him ample room to creatively and blasphemously off his prey, and the film seems to be flying the middle finger in the face of Catholicism for its entire running time. Walker has stated in more than one interview how he was raised Catholic and attended a Catholic school, and furthermore how he did not like what was forced upon him or how the priests dealt with some of the male students during his tenure there. Seeing as David McGillavry's script is based on a story that Walker originally conceived of on his own, the film is very obviously a reaction to those feelings of anger and frustration on Walker's part.

As a social commentary the movie is alright. It points its finger at the Church and criticizes some flaws though it offers no suggestions as to how they might be fixed, it merely blames (although Father Bernard is shown as a genuinely good man, possibly as a way of saying that not all is lost with the Church). As a horror film, however, the movie is much more effective. It takes a person we trust and who is in a position of some power and subverts the expectations we have for someone in that position, which makes for a chilling premise. Add to that some very atmospheric sets and a few really grisly, sacrilegious murder set pieces, and you've found yourself with a recipe for mayhem that succeeds on pretty much every level it needs to.

Video:

House Of Mortal Sin debuts on Blu-ray framed in its proper 1.66.1 widescreen aspect ratio in AVC encoded 1080p high definition. Transferred ‘from the original 35mm negative' the movie looks very nice in its high def debut. There's very little print damage here to note, just a few white specks here and there, and there's no evidence of noise reduction or edge enhancement. The film's grain structure is left completely un-tinkered with while color reproduction and skin tones both look quite nice and natural. Black levels are solid and the movie's frequent darker scenes show decent shadow detail. This is a gritty looking picture but this transfer would seem very true to the movie's roots and it offers quite an impressive upgrade in detail, texture and color from the previous DVD release.