I Watch Films: Corruption (1968)

 

Corruption

Sir John Rowan (Peter Cushing) is a brilliant surgeon; his somewhat younger fiancée Lynn is a fashion model. The two attend a trendy party at which the host, a photographer, starts an impromptu shoot of Lynn*. He encourages her to take her dress off. Sir John intervenes and in the struggle one of the lights falls and burns Lynn’s face.

He develops a new method for restoring Lynn’s face using lasers and pituitary glands that he harvests from a cadaver. However after a few weeks the scars return so he finds women to murder for their pituitary glands, hoping living ones will work better. This includes a visit to a sex worker who rather rudely takes a phone call while he’s there.

Leaving for a cottage on the coast thinking it’s worked, it turns out it hasn’t. They meet a woman on the beach, Terry. Sir John is wracked with guilt, though Lynn insists they kill her for her glands. But then it turns out that she’s not actually a runaway, she’s part of a gang of weirdos who hold them hostage while robbing the place, leading to a confusing, laser-filled, deadly finale.

Watch This: Creepy, stylish horror about a woman who doesn’t care about the cost and a man who cannot resist her due to guilt
Don’t Watch This: Silly laser nonsense, and dubious murder

* Cushing does, as intended, look out of place, but because he’s Peter Cushing and wearing a timeless blazer and tie, he looks out of place in a cool way. Why is the photographer not trying to shoot him? The reason is he’s a giant perv of course.