House of Whipcord, made in 1973, is one of the most significant British horror films of the 1970s, a bleak, grim and unsavoury slice of cinema that helped signal the end of the gothic and the rise of a decade of nastiness. It was roundly hated by the horror establishment, then – as now – suspicious and contemptuous of anything new and challenging. But for a new generation of fans, this was much more exciting than the old-fashioned films being made by the likes of Tyburn at the same time.
Opening with a cynical dedication to the hanging and flogging brigade, the film tells the story of Anne Marie (Penny Irving), a French model who meets a young man at a party, and despite his name being Mark E. Desade (Robert Tayman), agrees to leave with him. Before long, she’s captive in a disused prison, where Mark’s parents (Barbara Markham and Patrick Barr) run a quasi-judicial punishment regime for girls who have strayed from the path of righteousness. Along with psychotic warder Walker (Sheila Keith), they strip, torture and abuse the girls in a hypocritical attempt to punish them for their sins’. But things soon start to fall apart, as Anne-Marie plans her escape…
With a sharply savage screenplay from David MacGillivray – his first horror film and first movie in what would be a sometimes fractious relationship with director Peter Walker, who delivers solid, no-nonsense direction. House of Whipcord rises above the exploitative nature of the material, without compromising on the sleaze factor. Irving and hardened exploitation starlet Anne Michelle get to take their clothes off, there’s some gratuitous whipping and an overwhelming air of grubbiness, but the film nevertheless makes its point smartly, skewering the double standards of the so-called Moral Majority.
Of course, that same Moral majority was out to get the film, and the film suffered cuts at the hands of the BBFC – though less than you might expect, BBFC head Stephen Murphy apparently appreciating the film’s attack on ‘moral reformers’. The movie then received a couple of positive reviews, but was more memorably dismissed by Russell Davies in The Observer as “a feeble fladge-fantasy”. In more recent years, however, the film has built a substantial fan following, and for many remains the definitive Pete Walker film.
The film was re-released in the USA as Photographers Models, with a misleading ad campaign that made it look like a soft porn film.
“I’ve always thought that this film was going to be one of those seedy, underground 1970s sexploitation films with no plot and lots of naked women being whipped left right and centre. However, I’m pleased to say that while it is low budget, with the odd flash of unnecessary flesh it is also quite a reasonable little horror that at times can be quiet harrowing.” www.spookyisles.com
”An above average sexploitation/horror that has been put together with some polish and care from a fairly original script. The film is dedicated ironically to all those who wish to see the return of capital punishment in Britain, and it’s about a senile old judge and his wife who are so appalled by current permissiveness that they set up a gruesome house of correction for young girls. The only trouble is that the film undercuts its potentially interesting Gothic theme by some leering emphases, and the final result is likely to be seen and appreciated only by the people who will take the dedication at its face value” David Pirie,Time Out
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