Details by Film
One day the necrophiliac tendencies of Dr Hichcock (Robert Flemyng, The Quiller Memorandum) go too far and his wife dies from an overdose. Bereft, the doctor leaves his house but returns years later with a new wife, Cynthia (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday). The house they return to is eerie and Cynthia hears strange things, meanwhile, she doesn’t realise Dr Hichcock intends to use her body to re-animate his dead wife's corpse. Released at the height of the Italian horror boom that was produced in the wake of the influence of Hammer’s era-defining horror productions, director Riccardo Freda (The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (The Whip and the Body) create a dark and wicked gothic horror that brings in sly allusions to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while the period detail of Victorian London provides a lush backdrop.
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Includes the 87-minute Export Version, the 76-minute North American Version, and the 87-minute Italian cut Raptus: The Secret of Dr. Hichcock
- Audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Annie Rose Malamet
- New interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (2023)
- Visual essay on Bluebeard in gothic film by Miranda Corcoran (2023)
- An interview with Madeleine Le Despencer on necrophilia and taboo gothic (2023)
- Trailers
- Gallery
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critics and experts including Chris Fujiwara on the film; an archival piece by Alan Y. Upchurch, Tim Lucas and Luigi Boscaino on the making of the film featuring interviews with Riccardo Freda, Barbara Steele, Robert Flemyng and others; a comparison of the different versions by Tim Lucas; and a critical overview by Cullen Gallagher