House Of Mortal Sin

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Rape—A person who commits rape violates the respect, freedom, physical and moral integrity of the victim. It is a brutal crime of violence that can physically and psychologically scar a person for life. It is thus a grave sin (CCC 2356). This is another decent directing effort by Pete Walker with a captivating premise that is well executed and maintains a dark & macabre interest throughout (mostly), although the pacing does lag in a few places, but the brooding atmosphere & intriguing performances does enough to keep you interested until the chilling climax. The film's tone is relentlessly bleak and grim, yet the effective and really quite compelling, with some decent & chilling death scenes throughout. Sheila Keith, a veteran of Pete Walker's movies, gives another superb chilling performance. This time she plays the priest's housekeeper and takes care of his elderly mother. She is given one of the best lines in the movie and it can be found in the memorable quotes section.

Have you heard of a British horror film called House of Mortal Sin by director Pete Walker? Well maybe its one you should give a look, it’s available now on blu-ray released by Screenbound Pictures. So without further ado here’s my House of Mortal Sin blu-ray review. Greatly harming someone’s reputation. St. Ignatius of Loyola writes, “ If I reveal a hidden mortal sin of another, I sin mortally. If I reveal a hidden venial sin, I sin venially; if his defect, I manifest my own.” That means that if I gossip that my neighbor committed adultery, it puts me in mortal sin, as I have revealed a hidden mortal sin. But key to this phrase is the word “hidden” because if you reveal, for example, that your mother no longer goes to Mass or your father left the Catholic Church, these are public mortal sins. Not that they should be talked about a lot, but discussing a public mortal sin, say of a politician, where it is not good practice for the Catholic, is not mortal sin. Another exception to this is intervention. For example, if your neighbor is sexually molesting his children, you are required to call the police. If your uncle is an alcoholic, you may need to have an intervention. It is not a sin to discuss these things, but it always must be for physical safety and eternal salvation of others. Also, be sure to avoid couching the gossip of mortal sins into prayer: “Yeah, that gal in our Bible Study really needs prayers because she keeps flirting with the priest.” Again, St. Ignatius of Loyola: “If I reveal a hidden mortal sin of another, I sin mortally.” Is this merely a concerned priest or is he maybe struggling with his own demons as he seems somewhat taken with Jenny. Meldrum's relationship with his mother has echoes ofPsycho("Oh mother… I need your help so badly. The old temptations have returned…") and the scene where mum hands Vanessa a note stating simply "Help me, my son is mad" is enough to bring the house down. And as for that ending…Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Voluntary doubt of faith —Voluntary doubt of faith is disregarding the revealed truth of God and his Church (CCC 2088). Those who do this risk spiritual blindness and loss of faith. well-executed and maintains a dark interest throughout, supported by interesting performances (especially Sheila Keith as Meldrum's devoted love)." ~ The Terror Trap [8] House of Mortal Sin is a film that seems to have been somewhat forgotten I can’t ever remember seeing on television at least. And yet it’s a very good horror film that plays on peoples natural instincts to trust anyone from the church (maybe not so much these days but certainly when the film is set) and how even the suggestion that a priest could be involved in anything sinister is simply brushed aside. That leaves only Jenny knowing the real truth but no one including her sister is willing to believe such an outrageous idea. Immodesty, Including Wearing Leggings and Short Shorts. I could quote countless saints here, but the most succinct description is what the Mother of God said at Fatima: “ Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much.”—Our Lady of Fatima, 1917. What are these certain fashions? If not leggings and short shorts, then what? Strangely, many Catholic women know this quote from Fatima, but they only apply it to women who wear less than themselves. Ladies, when you hear that quote from Our Lady of Fatima that certain fashions will lead you (and the men who look at you) to hell, are you imagining some imaginary time in the year 3022 when some fashion gets worse than leggings and short shorts? What could be more revealing than something that shows every nook and cranny below your waist? What would this magical outfit be that could be worse than that? There is nothing. Rather, let me assure you: The Mother of God very much meant that short shorts, leggings and bikinis will lead you to hell, including letting your little girls wear leggings. If you wear these things to Mass, you should also confess sacrilege. Or, if you don’t believe my interpretation of Mary’s words, then go for it. Wear it and let your daughters prance around Target in short-shorts and leggings. But might I suggest Pascal’s wager for this one: If your parish priest is right and Fr. Nix is wrong on his interpretation of Fatima, then the most you have lost is a little “comfort” in avoiding leggings for believing me in an erroneous state. But if Fr. Nix is correct in his interpretation (that Mary meant nothing worse than leggings and short-shorts) then just meditate on your first 15 seconds in hell. As Fr. Z says, just meditate on your first 15 seconds in hell. Meditate on that 7000 degree furnace for fifteen seconds and the realization that you just lost God forever because you thought leggings (again, that showed every nook and cranny of your nether-regions to every man around you) led you and countless men to hell for the sake of “comfort.” Am I using fear of hell to get you to stop wearing leggings and short shorts? Hell yes, I am.

The murders that Meldrum commits are suggested to be a form of desublimation. His victims are those labelled by him as immoral. He pursues Jenny after she wanders into his church, looking for Bernard, and decides to give confession. During this scene, Meldrum listens patiently as Jenny tells him that she had an abortion. But his questions become increasingly intrusive and focused on Jenny’s sex life, actor Anthony Sharp investing them with a quiet sense of desperation. ‘I want to help you’, he pleads, trying to urge her into giving him more details, ‘You must let me try [….] Together we will seek God’s help’. Jenny is clearly unnerved but, having not given confession since childhood, seems willing to give Meldrum the benefit of the doubt. If all three are met, it’s mortally sinful. Otherwise, “one commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent” (CCC 1862). That’s still a problem, since venial sin “weakens charity” and “impedes the soul’s progress in the exercise of the virtues and the practice of the moral good,” and “deliberate and unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin,” but venial sin does not (of itself) “deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal happiness” (CCC 1863). The Church also tells us that the sins of anger, blasphemy, envy, hatred, malice, murder, neglect of Sunday obligation, sins against faith (incredulity against God or heresy), sins against hope (obstinate despair in the hope for salvation and/or presumption that oneself can live without God or be saved by one’s own power) and sins against love (indifference towards charity, ingratitude, and/or hatred of God) also constitute grave matter. This list of grave sins, is based on Jesus Christ’s interpretation of the gravity of the Ten Commandments. Grave sins can be classed as sins against God, neighbor and self, and can further be divided into carnal and spiritual sins (CCC 1853). With his creative foot firmly wedged in the door of feature film production, Walker soon made a name for himself as the director of feature-length softcore sex films such as Cool It, Carol!(1970) and The Four Dimensions of Greta (1972). The second of these has been claimed by Walker as the first British film shot in 3D; the picture features a handful of 3D scenes, and Walker would resurrect this effect in his terror picture The Flesh and Blood Show (also released in 1972), which featured a climax photographed in anaglyph 3D. (The 3D version of The Flesh and Blood Show wasn’t shown everywhere, however: a ‘flat’ version of the climax was also assembled, and Walker has admitted retrospectively that the 3D version wasn’t a success – most audience members misplacing their anaglyph glasses by the time the film reached its final sequences.) Susan Penhaligon gave an equally great performance as the troubled young girl, Jenny. Her fear and torment are conveyed perfectly. In addition, she gives her character a certain level of naiveté that makes both her character more convincing and the viewer sympathetic.Because a baptized Christian can still sin, Christ instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus gave the power to forgive sins in his name to the Church. He told his apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (John 20:22–23). This means that the apostles and their successors, the priests and bishops of the Catholic Church, can forgive sins in Jesus’ name. More broadly, the Catechism says that “grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments” (1858), pointing to Jesus’ words to the rich young man. When the man asks him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, Jesus answers, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother’” (Mark 10:17,19). Jesus’ clear implication seems to be that those who do commit adultery, steal, etc. shall not inherit eternal life. This is a credit to Walker who stamped his savage vision on a witch's brew of a film that is one quarter horror, one quarter suspense, one quarter giallo (the Father Cutler, Miss Brabizon, Mrs. Meldrum revelations - some dark secrets from the past are responsible for the twisted actions of the present) - and one quarter brutal social commentary. Denying your workers a fair wage. Pope St. Pius X writes in his Catechism, “The sins that are said to cry to God for vengeance are these four: (1) Willful murder; (2) The sin of sodomy; (3) Oppression of the poor; (4) Defrauding labourers of their wages.” Those last two must be highly considered by any Catholic business owners out there. These are the four most serious sins that the Church has put forth. This is not antiquated devotionals of Fr. Nix. This is the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Many more parts of our articulated faith and morals are infallible than just the two ex-cathedra statements. Receiving Holy Communion with any of the above sins on your heart. The Catechism of Pope St. Pius X says: “He who goes to Communion in mortal sin receives Jesus Christ but not His grace; moreover, he commits a sacrilege and renders himself deserving of sentence of damnation.” Furthermore, the Council of Trent (an infallible Council) says: “For no crime is there heavier punishment to be feared from God than for the unholy or irreligious use of the Eucharist.” (Trent, De Euch v.i.) Please, if you have committed any of the above sins, go to confession before receiving the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord.

As Walker, Sheila Keith arguably steals the show, out-villaining the film’s chief antagonist, Mrs Wakehurst. It’s easy to see why she was given a more prominent in Walker’s next terror film, Frightmare. Frightmare (1974)

Adultery—Adultery is marital infidelity. A married person who has sexual relations with anyone but their lawful spouse, even transient sexual relations, commits adultery (CCC 2380). Everyone knows—or almost everyone does—that there are morally good actions and morally evil actions. But when is an action not only wrong, but sinful? And particularly mortally sinful? After all, as St. John says, “all wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal” just as “there is sin which is mortal” (1 John 5:16,17). A mortal sin is one that “destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible. Unrepented, it brings eternal death” (CCC 1874). That’s what makes it “mortal,” or deadly: it cuts us off from God forever, unless it is “redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness” (CCC 1861). Abortion—Human life begins at conception in the mother’s womb. For God tells us, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew thee, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). Abortion is therefore murder. The oldest Christian book (besides parts of the Bible) is the Didache, a book composed by the twelve apostles or their disciples. The Didache proclaims the ancient teaching of the Catholic Church, “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish” (Didache 2,2). All Catholics who procure a completed abortion or participate in execution of an abortion are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church (CCC 2272 and CIC Canon 1314). Frightmare was criticised by those who felt Walker’s film was validating the idea that those responsible for extreme criminal acts, like Dorothy in the film, cannot be rehabilitated and that in most cases, recidivism is inevitable. (One might remember Margaret Thatcher’s 1961 defence of birching, quoted above in discussion of House of Whipcord). ‘The liberal press just took it [the film] apart’, Walker has said[8]. The next day, Meldrum telephones Jenny and tells her that he has her keys, which he claims she left in the church. He invites her to come to the presbytery to collect them. There, she meets Meldrum’s housekeeper, Miss Brabazon (Sheila Keith). Brabazon is responsible for caring for Meldrum’s elderly mother (Hilda Barry); but each time Meldrum leaves, Brabazon treats the old lady cruelly.

Divination, magic and sorcery—This is a grave sin which includes attempting to command the powers of the occult, control or speak to demons or spirits (especially Satan), attempting to divine the future, and the use of magic charms (CCC 2116). Deuteronomy 18:10-11 speaks against this grave sin. For dealing with the psychological aspects of the movie, Walker relies on the actors to carry the story. And there are superb actors here. Note from the author: For those of you who do not understand why these particular sins are of grave matter, I would suggest that you refer to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas. He does an excellent job of explaining why these sins are of grave matter, and also explores the counter-arguments and objections that some people have regarding these grave sins. Finally, the capital sins are also considered grave matter. These sins are vices and are defined as contrary to the Christian virtues of holiness. They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth (acedia). House of Mortal Sin sees British exploitation legends David McGillivray and Pete Walker having fun at the expense of Catholicism, depicting the murderous antics of a sexually frustrated Catholic priest with a mother complex whose mind has been twisted by a lifetime of repressed carnal urges. It should be a whole lot of salacious silliness, but sadly falls short of the mark.

Walker fails to bring any sensibility, other than the merely exploitative, to the grotesque material, this must be considered pretty irredeemable stuff, even for a horror film." ~ TV Guide [9] It is vitally important that Catholics confess sins on a regular basis, especially if we are in the state of mortal sin. A person who dies in mortal sin cannot enter the kingdom of heaven and is doomed to eternal suffering in hell. Even when we have not committed mortal sin, we are still obliged to confess our sins at least once a year. Christ, in perfect love, laid down his life so that we may be forgiven of our sins. The sacrifice of the cross should not be neglected or taken for granted. Jesus died for the life of the world and is thus the light of the world. “He that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12) Ultimately, House of Mortal Sin is anchored by a seemingly throwaway line delivered by Brabazon. After killing Terry (in the church, with the thurible), Meldrum takes the body into the graveyard and buries it in a freshly-dug grave. He enters the presbytery, wet, with dirty shoes. ‘You should wipe your feet if you’ve been to the graveyard, Father’, Brabazon says, ‘You’ve trailed mud into the house’. Perhaps all three of these films – House of Whipcord, Frightmare and House of Mortal Sin– may be regarded as parables about the trailing of mud into various houses (the penal system, the family, the Church).