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Girly (Vanessa Howard) and Sonny (Howard Trevor) like nothing more than
to play childish little games, even though both are well into their teens,
and Mumsy (Ursula Howells) and Nanny (Pat Heywood) even support that and
encourage them to bring friends home - mostly bums lured here with a
bottle of liquor, as it turns out. Of course, Girly and Sonny sometimes
turn homicidal towards their new friends during their games, but Mumsy and
Nanny don't mind as long as the kids stick to the house rules.
One day, the kids bring home a new friend (Michael Bryant), a drunk they
convince of having killed his own girlfriend (Imogen Hassall) - actually
it was Sonny who killed her -, but they promise to hide him at their
place, and while he feels totally estranged by all the rules everybody in
the house seems to follow, he soon figures he has no choice but to become
a part of the household, especially after an escape attempt almost costs
him his life and he sees another of the kids' friends (Hugh Armstrong)
killed for running away. The new friend isn't one to easily give up
though, so he deflowers Girly in hopes of getting her support, then
seduces both Mumsy and Nanny in order to play them off against one
another. Sonny is the first who realizes what's going on, and he suggests
to kill the new friend, but getting Girly's support works only all too
well, as she instead kills Sonny and later Nanny as well. Mumsy acts as
if nothing has happened, since murder is not specifically against the
house rules, and she and Girly ultimately agree on sharing the new friend,
who in turn prepares to poison Mumsy and then take his chances with Girly
- but little does he know that Mumsy and Girly have already agreed on
finding a replacement for him and send the new friend "to the
angels", as they put it. Now this is one weird movie, a
movie that (just like the inhabitants of Mumsy's house) creates rules all
of its own and doesn't care much about realism and plausibility - and yet,
in the context of the movie, everything makes perfect sense (and a
terrific cast certainly has something to do with that, too) in an absurd,
macabre and dakrly humourous sort of way. Unfortunately, the film is not
the masterpiece it could have been, the a bit too ambivalent ending sees
to it, and so does the direction of horror veteran Freddie Francis, whose
effort is solid in an old-fashioned sort of way but not as imaginative as
the story would have deserved. But even as it is, the film is great fun.
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