This movie is one I heard about years and years ago so I only had vague ideas of what it was about. Something about children in an orphanage who are having horrible nightmares because people are preying on their minds. I didn't remember anything about the cast, but when I saw that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were in this movie, I knew I had to see it. As you can probably tell from my previous posts, I'm kinda obsessed with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, so I have to see every movie they're in.
It turns out this movie is about a mysterious organization that runs an orphanage on a secluded island where the children seem to be happy, but are also troubled in their minds, and have almost an unhealthy obsessionwith and love for the staff of the orphanage. It reminded me almost of Stockholm syndrome, how the kids would rather stay in the orphanage than be reunited with their families. When members of the board of trustees in the organization start dying, no one takes it too seriously until an accident almost takes out more prominent members of the organization as well as a child from the orphanage named Mary. Mary is very troubled after the accident, and she begins to have horrible nightmares and an obsession with fire. Her doctor is determined to find out what is troubling Mary and causing her nightmares.
I feel like people should have been more suspicious of the orphanage right off the bat. Just because the kids don't appear to be physically hurt, it's not exactly healthy for them to want to stay on an isolated island with no contact with the outside world. Once it's revealed that the mysterious deaths didn't start until the child Mary was brought to the orphanage, I would have been even more suspicious, but only like two people seem to see a problem with this. A reporter and a doctor (of course). I get that the mysterious organization that seems to run the world in this movie has a lot of money and power, but it's still bullshit that they think they're above the law. Especially where children are concerned. Money shouldn't buy you a free pass to do whatever you want, especially when you want to harm children.
You have to be some kind of fucked up to mess with the minds of children like the adults in this movie. Movies where people are using kids like this always piss me off. It's not clear right away exactly what the organization is doing to the kids, only that they're messing with Mary's mind somehow, and her nightmares are her way of lashing out at what she's afraid will harm her. It takes a long time for the evidence to pile up and the true plot to be revealed. It's really twisted and sick once it becomes clear what's going on. I can't believe this movie hasn't been slated for a remake yet, because all of these themes seem pretty topical and relevant even today (a rich cult exploiting children? Where have we heard about that in the news lately?) This movie is like a slow descent into madness, and it's pretty chilling, even today. Definitely worth checking out.
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