MALPERTUIS

****

Directed by Harry Kümel.

Starring Mathieu Carrière, Susan Hampshire, Orson Welles.

Horror, Belgium, 125 Minutes.

Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - Uk Premiere of the 4K Restoration 

The other half of the pair of Harry Kümel’s fantastical films may not be as celebrated as his vampiric classic DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS, but is more than overdue for reappraisal. Now remastered in 4K, this dark fantasy with its occultist leanings, released two years after DAUGHTERS in 1973, can now be seen as far more than a cult curio of Euro fantasy cinema or a mysterious entry in Orson Welles vast filmography.

At the centre of this sometimes overpowering gothic mystery is young sailor Jan (Mathieu Carrière), returning to the Belgian town he calls home to visit his much-missed sister. After a hectic barroom brawl, Jan wakes up within the vast labyrinth of his titular ancestral home at the behest of his bed ridden uncle Cassavius, (Orson Welles) who is on the verge of death. Called to his uncle's bedside, Jan, along with the rest of his eccentric family, is told that they all stand to inherit a large fortune, the catch being that none of them can leave Malpertuis until only one of them is left alive.

Running at over two hours, the film is overstuffed with detail and incident. Plot lines and characters are set up, only to disappear and never be mentioned again. However when the plot eventually comes together, lining up with the film's dark, gothic atmosphere rooted in a certain European mythology, it creates a spell over the viewer that is hard to shake off after viewing. Aided in no small part by veteran cinematographer Gerry Fisher’s ability to make Malpertuis itself a character with its near infinite winding staircases, large attics housing mysterious creatures, and huge gardens shrouded in a perpetual mist. The use of colour is striking too, with darker than dark blacks sharing the screen with bursts of bright vivid colour making the film vibrant, especially in this long overdue remaster.

Thrilling, atmospheric, obscure and fun, MALPERTUIS is a superior example of vintage Euro-horror that has you wishing that Kümel visited this type of filmmaking more than he did. At the very least we have these two examples, that couldn’t be more different than each other, proving what he was capable of.

Iain MacLeod