The Black Torment

The Black Torment (a.k.a. Estate of Insanity) is a 1964 British gothic horror film directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and starring John Turner, Heather Sears and Ann Lynn. The film is set in 18th-century Devon and was scripted by brothers Donald and Derek Ford. In terms of plot and setting it shares many similarities with the Hammer Horror productions of the 1960s, but was made by a smaller studio, Compton Films (see Tony Tenser). The Ford brothers later scripted Corruption (1968), also directed by Robert Hartford-Davis. Plot The film opens with Lucy Judd, a young woman, running in panic through a nocturnal wood. She is tracked down and cornered by a figure in black who puts his hands around her throat. The scene then switches to daytime and a horse-drawn carriage containing Sir Richard Fordyke and his new bride Elizabeth, who is being brought from London to meet her new father-in-law for the first time. Elizabeth is nervous and anxious, hoping to make a good impression but worried that she will not pass muster. Sir Richard assures her that his father will love her just as he does, but warns her that his father is "a shadow of the man he once was", having been crippled by a stroke and now able only to communicate by sign language. A complicating factor is that the only person who can interpret his signing is the devoted Diane, sister to Sir Richard's first wife Anne who died by her own hand four years previously after becoming deranged over her inability to bear a child. On arrival in his home village, Sir Richard, having expected a warm welcome after his absence and marriage, finds himself treated with rudeness and barely disguised suspicion by his tenants, such as Black John, the local blacksmith. His coachman Tom asks a villager the reason for the sudden hostility towards his previously well-liked master and is told that shocking events have been taking place, culminating in the rape and murder of Lucy who, before she died, screamed out Sir Richard's name. Sir Richard and Elizabeth's arrival at Fordyke Hall is met by an oddly stiff and formal welcome from the staff and Diane. When challenged, steward Seymour tells Sir Richard of wild rumours circulating in the village about Lucy's last words.