_**Gothic Hammer with muddled story and unsympathetic characters**_ A Baron in 1835 (Robert Hardy) keeps his adult son & daughter locked-up and drugged because he thinks they're insane, like his dead wife. He hires a dubious doctor known for mesmerism (Patrick Magee) to assist him, along with his assistant (Kenneth J. Warren). Meanwhile there are murders in the local area and a priest meanders ver mais...

There is a heritage of disorder in our blood. An unhinged Baron keeps his children as prisoners in the family mansion for fear they will inherit the family illness - insanity! It's one of Hammer Films' most divisive productions, some laud it as a Gothic horror with art house veneers, others say it's simply pretentious tripe! The truth is that it's a bold and ambitious picture, a tricky narraver mais...