This film bears comparison with the similar Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971; dir. John D. Hancock), but has stylistic parallels with a number of European films in the horror genre at the time, notably Les lèvres rouges (1971; dir. Harry Kümel) and Operazione paura (1966; dir. Mario Bava). Helmer Blackburn, who also appears as a perverted reverend, takes his cue from the abstract, subjective masters of fantasy cinema and weaves a gothic nightmare that spits in the face of lesser, more obviously stateside efforts like Night of the Living Dead (1968; dir. George A. Romero) or Targets (1968; dir. Peter Bogdanovich). By ignoring convention and reason, Blackburn’s film seems to be an attempt to restore oneirism and grand guignol to a cinematic style that, even today, is littered with people who would rather dot their i’s and cross their t’s than disturb their audiences.

With a colour pallette of blues, reds and browns, recalling not only Bava’s lighting effects but the traditional shades of children’s fairytales, Blackburn tells a simple yarn that reeks with corruption and ambiguity, capturing the ethos and implicitness of H. P. Lovecraft (with whom the work shares many familiarities) much more effectively then the dire The Resurrected (1992; dir. Dan O’Bannon) – reviewed here. Although the filme comes a little unstuck during its climactic moments – and this possibly reinforces Hitchcock’s adherence that, in suspense or narrative cinema, the proverbial bomb should never explode – the first two thirds of Blackburn’s achievement not only surpass the best supernatural or horror traditions, but remind us that a simple, child-like wonder is essential to the construction and success of the cinematic spectacle.

Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural at the IMDb