Homicidal

Released Jul 26, 1961

1h 27m

Horror

List

73%

Tomatometer

11 Reviews

67%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

Chaos and danger reign when good girl Miriam Webster (Patricia Breslin) meets her half brother's girl friend, Emily (Jean Arless), a mysterious blonde bombshell living at their family's Southern California estate. Emily serves as the nurse for the sibling's aging, wheelchair-using guardian, Helga Swenson (Eugenie Leontovich). She is not, however, as sweet as she seems. Emily soon reveals herself to be a murderous schemer who will stop at nothing to steal Miriam's extensive inheritance.

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Maxine Dowling

New York Daily News

Castle, whose specialty is turning out horror and ghost tales, has succeeded in achieving several moments of terror in this story of a homicidal maniac on the loose in a small, sleepy community.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 22, 2021

Full Review

Noel Murray

The Dissolve

What's really surprising about Homicidal is that...it's an enjoyably bizarre film, making some of the basic elements of Psycho even freakier.

Rated: 3.5/5

Oct 21, 2013

Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Mediocre to acceptable acting is plentiful and the plot, while for the most part inventive, lacks a lot of good narrative structure and yields an intriguing, but predictable ending.

Rated: 1.5/4

Nov 22, 2022

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Creative Loafing

While traveling along similar lines as Psycho, director William Castle and scripter Robb White manage to include enough originality that the shock ending still has the power to catch many viewers off guard.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 17, 2016

Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

There never was a Psycho knock-off quite as overt about it, yet at the same time as creative and effective in its own right,

Rated: 7/10

Jul 4, 2015

Full Review

Brian Gibson

Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta)

The plot's soon dawdling, a stuffy, overheated theatricality creeping in ... No pulpish curiosity but a mere footnote in the post-Psycho history of slasher movies.

May 25, 2015

Full Review

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Mary R

Total rip off of Hitchcock's PSYCHO but still loved it!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/10/21

Full Review

Audience Member

The blonde gal/guy is a treat.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Great movie! Worth the watch.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A little-known gem. Hysterical, over the top camp classic. I can't understand how this hasn't entered the "bad movie night" hall of fame.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

She's considered to be homicidal. Emily is a home aid that takes care of a young man's mother, Helga, who had an unfortunate accident that left her wheel chair bound and unable to speak. Helga and Emily have an intense relationship and the boy is in love with Emily and they are secretly married, which complicates matters. Emily can get away with anything with this cover, maybe even murder... "What do we know about her?" "What do we know about anybody?" William Castle, director of House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Rosemary's Baby, Macabre, Jesse James vs. the Daltons, and The Law vs. Billy the Kid, delivers Homicidal. The storyline for this picture is interesting and fun to watch unfold and has some unique characters. The performances were uneven and the cast includes Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, and Joan Marshall. "If you stay in this house one more minute I'm going to kill you." This was on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) this past Halloween season and I had to DVR it. This was very entertaining. There were some entertaining kill scenes and I loved the character Emily but the son's character was annoying at times. This is an above average addition to the classic horror genre. "You shouldn't do that, dear, it's impolite." Grade: B-

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

There are enoughÂ PsychoÂ knock-offs in the world to keep you busy for as long as you could possibly stand it, but there never was aÂ PsychoÂ knock-off quite as overt about it, yet at the same time as creative and effective in its own right, asÂ Homicidal. It's one of the earliest of its breed, coming to theaters in the summer of 1961, less than a year after Hitchcock's groundbreaking work, and the screenplay by Robb White is precisely the thing that you'd expect when a producer gave the order to copy this other movie exactly, but make every single detail a tiny bit different.Â

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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William Castle

Director

Glenn Corbett

Karl

Patricia Breslin

Miriam

Joan Marshall

Emily

Eugenie Leontovich

Helga

Alan Bunce

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Synopsis

Chaos and danger reign when good girl Miriam Webster (Patricia Breslin) meets her half brother's girl friend, Emily (Jean Arless), a mysterious blonde bombshell living at their family's Southern California estate. Emily serves as the nurse for the sibling's aging, wheelchair-using guardian, Helga Swenson (Eugenie Leontovich). She is not, however, as sweet as she seems. Emily soon reveals herself to be a murderous schemer who will stop at nothing to steal Miriam's extensive inheritance.

Director: William Castle
Screenwriter: Robb White
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 26, 1961, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 31, 2010
Runtime: 1h 27m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 35mm

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