Blood Rites | 1968 | USA | Andy Milligan

Renamed for its UK VHS release from Scorpion, Blood Rites is actually the 1968 film The Ghastly Ones by auteur director Andy Milligan. Three sisters and their husbands travel to their late father’s isolated mansion to attend the reading of his will, which stipulates that they must stay three nights in blissful matrimony before the property is divided. A hooded figure however is intent on disrupting proceedings and systematically ambushes and kills the guests throughout the three-day stay. Very cheaply produced and amateurish in tone and execution, the film nonetheless fell afoul of the DPP’s campaign against horror, presumably for its frequent though unconvincing splatter effects.