| Composer David Winter (Finch) stays up late scoring a horror film, one which stars his own beautiful wife, Mary (Gee). But while he works at their home in the country, she’s off in London sleeping with physician friend Charles (McCulloch).
With a thunderous storm on the horizon, David goes to batten down the horse stables when he discovers a cloaked woman amongst the bales of hay. She claims to be Lucinda Jessop, a witch from the 17th century who escaped her puritanical persecutors through magic.
She soon makes David her own tortured servant and attempts to extricate his harlot wife from this existence.
Hammer’s first outing into TV land is an enjoyable twist on some of the very themes that the studio made their staple in the 50s and 60s. Gone is the dark masculine presence of Chris Lee’s Count Dracula, here replaced with the feline evil of witch Lucinda (an intense Patricia Quinn).
Not only that, but we get a real treat in seeing Mary show some real final-girl nerve by breaking free of her hypnotized spouse’s clutches and dunking the housebreaking sorceress in true medieval fashion. Now that’s girl power.
The episode may be a little light on the horror, but it’s got enough spunk that ensures that it’s always a good time. A promising start to a solid genre series.
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