A Different Type Of Fetish
A young couple trigger a terrible spell in Charlie Boy, the sixth episode in the wonderful Hammer House of Horror anthology series. The episode’s “horror of the week” is voodoo and comes in the form of an African fetish doll. The episode is genuinely creepy and manages to build up a decent amount of suspense.
The story opens with the death of a young man’s uncle and then moves along to the young man, Graham, and his wife, Sarah, arriving at the deceased uncle’s home to collect their inheritance, the uncle’s art collection. They decide to sell all but two pieces of the collection. Graham chooses a favorite painting from his youth and Sarah selects an African fetish doll that she nicknames “Charlie Boy.” While driving home with the doll, the couple encounter an angry driver that attempts to harm them in a fit of road rage. After they get home, Graham playfully asks “Charlie Boy” to off the driver and while he stabs the doll, the driver is stabbed in real life.
With money in hand from the sell of the art collection, Graham and Sarah decide to talk with Graham’s cousin, Mark (who received the bulk of the estate as part of his inheritance), and their mutual friend, Phil, a film director, about finally starting up their own production company. Mark has other plans, however, and this angers Graham. Graham then goes home, stabs the fetish doll with a knife, and Mark dies in a terrible riding accident the next day. Graham and Sarah begin to piece together what they believe might be happening as more people die. Graham reaches out to the art dealer for help and finds out that he must burn the fetish doll in order to end the curse. Not only are Phil and the family housekeeper, Gwen, in line to die as a result of the curse, so are Graham and Sarah. Will Graham be able to successfully destroy “Charlie Boy” or will the evil doll finish its wicked curse? Watch Episode 6 of Hammer House of Horror to find out!
The cast of this episode is excellent. Graham is portrayed by Leigh Lawson, who has acted on stage and screen and directed as well. He has a child with Hayley Mills and is married to the famous model, Twiggy. Sarah was portrayed by Angela Bruce. Bruce has appeared in numerous television shows over the years but I’m pretty sure that my readers will know her from her work on Doctor Who, Blake’s 7 (audio drama), and Red Dwarf. Michael Culver guest starred as Mark, the cold-hearted son of Graham’s uncle. Culver is best known to my readers as Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back. He has had a prolific career in supporting and recurring roles on both the screen and the stage. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her role, Janet Fielding (Tegan from Doctor Who), guest stars as a worker on one of Phil’s film projects who answers the phone.
This was a fun episode. The fetish doll was creepy and the finale was amazing even though it was a bit predictable. The episode reminded me of a ton of other genre shows and films including Final Destination and Trilogy Of Terror. I also enjoyed seeing all of the actors from other science fiction properties, especially those that I love. Check out this episode. I believe that you’ll enjoy it.
As always, thanks for checking out my post! We are just two days away from finishing off Thirty-One Days O’Horror!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 