- Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
- Written by Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Hill
- Stars William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
- Full Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Pp1WYmeXbw
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
A tale of death, inheritance, murder, conspiracy, insanity, and maybe a ghost. It’s short, creepy, and quite good.
Synopsis
A man and woman walk out onto the dock. They get into a small rowboat and take their little radio with them. Louise wants John to talk to his mother about changing her will. His mother wants to leave the fortune to some charity. She thinks John is rowing too hard for his bad heart. He laughs “If I die before mother, you’re a stranger. If I die, there’s nothing in it for you.” Then he keels over, dead.
Seeing her meal ticket dead, she gets rid of the body by rolling him overboard. She throws the annoying radio in after him as well. Credits roll.
Louise gets in the car. She writes a letter to John’s mother, where “he” explains his need to return to New York. Then she forges his signature. She packs his clothes and other things he would have taken. She thinks she can get his mother to change her ridiculous will. She throws the suitcase and typewriter in the lake.
Richard explains about his sister Kathleen, who died long ago. She drowned in the small pond, and supposedly, she still haunts the house. They go to Castle Haloran, where she meets Richard, the artist brother.
Old lady Haloran wonders how long Louise will be staying with them. Until John returns, she explains. Richard is annoyed with his mother’s obsession with Kathleen; he wants to marry Kane. His mother doesn’t like Kane. He doesn’t much care for Louise.
Billy explains to Kane about how Kathleen was missing all night before they found her body. They recreate the funeral ceremony every year out of tradition. They run into Simon the poacher, who runs off.
Richard, Billy, and Mother do the funeral routine as they do every year. Mother faints at the same time every year, on schedule. Louise helps her out to get on her good side. Louise tells Mother that she hears things at night; maybe it’s Kathleen.
That night, Louise steals some toys and things out of Kathleen’s room, which hasn’t been touched in seven years. Someone sees her come out. She then ties the toys together with cord, coats the cord in something, and takes them to the bottom of the pond. She swims way down in the pond and she sees a grave down there and freaks out. As she tries to climb out of the pond, someone kills her with an axe.
Mother’s doctor, Caleb, thinks repeating the funeral every year is nonsensical, and her fainting has to be purely psychological. Mother calls for Louise, but the maid says she didn’t sleep in her bed last night.
They all have luncheon on the terrace, but Louise doesn’t show up, which annoys Mother. They all see bubbles in the pond, and then the toys float to the surface. Billy has a flashback about playing with Kathleen.
Simon the poacher is out hunting that night, and finds Louise’s body. He then gets beheaded.
Arthur the groundskeeper starts to drain the pond, but it’ll take some time. Mother is cracking up, and she goes out to put her diamond tiara in Kathleen’s old playhouse. While she’s in there, someone with an ax tries to cut through the wall. She runs away but passes out in the courtyard.
Billy tells Kane about his recurring dream of Richard climbing up the wall to his room.
Arthur finishes draining the pond, and he finds something. They all go out to see what, and it’s a headstone that reads “Forgive me Kathleen.” Richard used to work in stone; Caleb blames him. Caleb thinks Louise has been trying to steal things, and maybe she’s hiding in town.
The next night, Kane follows Richard down into the castle dungeon, where he used to work on his sculptures. He explains that he came down here to find out who made that monument.
Caleb confronts Billy and says he knows that Billy pushed Kathleen into the pond. He asks Billy what happened to Louise, and Billy answers with a nursery rhyme.
Richard and Kane are married. Caleb tells Kane that he’s going to get to the bottom of the whole affair with this messed-up family. He says Kane may be in danger. She thinks he’s crazy.
Richard and Kane go out for a literal roll in the hay, and Caleb goes out for a smoke. He realizes where Louise’s body is and finds it. He also finds the Kathleen doll that the killer has been moving around. He puts the doll on the fountain and everyone comes out.
Kane reaches for the doll, and Billy charges her with his ax. We get the full flashback of Billy throwing Kathleen into the pond. He was the killer all along. Someone shoots Billy, and he dies.
Commentary
Billy’s flashbacks make it pretty obvious that he pushed Kathleen into the pond, so it’s clear that he’s unbalanced from early on. Since the film doesn’t focus on that, it seemed likely to me that he was the killer. They try to imply that it was Richard, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Louise and Kane were very similar-looking, and the first few scenes with Kane were a little confusing because of it. Louise was clearly the main character until her surprising death, then Kane took over. It was just a little weird.