Welcome to my childhood nightmare.
I first saw this 1973 made-for-TV movie when I was 9, and it haunted me for years. I had nightmares related to it as late as 17, even after I’d seen the movie again and was old enough to realize that its special effects were on the cheap side.
Even now, as a grown-up who’s seen it multiple times, something of that childhood fear still lingers in the back of my mind, impossible to shake. Just last year, when I pulled open an access panel in the wall for one my house utilities and gazed down into the black space between the walls, I couldn’t help thinking, “I hope there aren’t any little goblins living down in there.”
I’ve been considering on and off for years acquiring this movie on DVD and reviewing it; when I was purchasing Trilogy of Terror recently and Amazon thought I might like this too, I finally took the plunge. And here we are.
The movie starts with a hissing black cat, who has nothing to do with the story and will never be seen again. Over a shot of a large and handsome old Victorian house looking spooky in the night-time, we hear a number of creepy whispered voices having a conversation. The one who answers the others’ questions appears to be in charge:
“Will she come?”
“Do you think she’ll come?”
“She will. You know she will.”
“But when? When?”
“Very soon. It’s just a matter of time, of waiting for awhile. All we have to do is bide our time. Bide our time.”
“But it’s been so long. So many years. We wish she’d come and set us free. Set us free.”
“Patience, please. Patience. We’ve all the time in the world. All the time in the world.”
“In the world! All the time, to set us free in the world!”
Then they all laugh in a diabolical kind of way.