"A Judgment in Stone", aka "The Housekeeper" perhaps isn't the greatest horror movie/thriller ever made, but it definitely is one of the most original, unique and unconventional films you'll ever see in your lifetime! Based on a novel nobody knew it existed, let alone read, the plot revolves around a timid and extremely introvert middle-class British lady - named Eunice - who never learned how to read and who takes care of her ailing but domineering father. When he obliges Eunice to go back to school to finally learn how to read, she's so terrified to relive her primary school traumas that she kills her father. At the advice of a friend, she applies for the job of family housekeeper in America. Eunice finds work in the home of a prominent doctor, his kind second wife and the teenage son and daughter they both have from a previous marriage. Everything goes well at first, but Eunice desperately must hide the fact she cannot read. When she befriends the nosy and hysterical bible-freak neighbor Joan, and come more under her influence, the situation dramatically escalates.
The strongest asset of "The Housekeeper" is undoubtedly its unpredictability. From sequences earlier in the film, we know that Eunice is capable of murdering, but it's nevertheless difficult to imagine she will go on another and far more intentional killing spree. I can guarantee, however, that the denouement is brutal and genuinely shocking, and it more than widely compensates for the admittedly rather boring and uneventful middle section (even though the uncanniness level is maintained throughout the entire film). Evidently, and this is a big weakness, you can't help wondering the whole time why Eunice simply doesn't confess to her employers that she's illiterate. What's the worst that could happen to her, really? Rita Tushingham, the actress playing Eunice, is stupendous, but Jackie Burroughs is possibly even more genius as the totally derailed Joan. Furthermore, the story touches upon certain delicate themes that were still very much taboo in the mid-80s, like romances between stepsiblings. Good film, very obscure, but worth tracking down.
The strongest asset of "The Housekeeper" is undoubtedly its unpredictability. From sequences earlier in the film, we know that Eunice is capable of murdering, but it's nevertheless difficult to imagine she will go on another and far more intentional killing spree. I can guarantee, however, that the denouement is brutal and genuinely shocking, and it more than widely compensates for the admittedly rather boring and uneventful middle section (even though the uncanniness level is maintained throughout the entire film). Evidently, and this is a big weakness, you can't help wondering the whole time why Eunice simply doesn't confess to her employers that she's illiterate. What's the worst that could happen to her, really? Rita Tushingham, the actress playing Eunice, is stupendous, but Jackie Burroughs is possibly even more genius as the totally derailed Joan. Furthermore, the story touches upon certain delicate themes that were still very much taboo in the mid-80s, like romances between stepsiblings. Good film, very obscure, but worth tracking down.