The Gorgon

One of the few Hammer films with a female monster, this very English slice of Grand Guignol is undermined by failings in the make-up department. The Gorgon, a harridan with a snake-encrusted wig, would be hard pressed to frighten the proverbial mouse, let alone turn anyone to stone. Barbara Shelley's the young woman who acts ghoulish whenever there's a full moon. (The actual monster was played by Prudence Hyman.) Given that so many thrillers are predicated on the idea of the murderous male gaze, it's a novelty to have the woman staring back. Fisher directs in his usual brisk style, as if he's making a public information documentary, not a baroque horror pic. The settings are disconcerting (we're in Vandorf, an imaginary country somewhere between Transylvania and suburban Surrey) and Christopher Lee's scientist always looks uncomfortable in his tweed suit.