Friday, July 4, 2025

The House on Straw Hill Movie Review

Trailer here.

The House on Straw Hill is a 1976 thriller directed by James Kenelm and starring Udo Kier, Linda Hayden and Fiona Richmond.

A woman called Linda(Hayden) is employed as a secretary by an author, Paul Martin(Kier). He is staying in Straw Hill. He has gruesome hallucinations. He is obsessed with locking the windows and doors. His girlfriend is called Suzanne(Richmond) and she leaves him. Paul sees himself bleeding. Linda arrives and is met by Paul at the station. Two locals are after Linda. They harrass her and Paul. He beats them up. Paul tells Linda about his routine. She has a picture of Paul and another man in her suitcase so she isn't all she seems. Linda goes outside exploring and runs into the two locals who rape her. They have a gun. She gets it and shoots both of them dead. Paul hears the gunshot. One of the locals isn't dead yet. He disappears from the field where he was shot.


The housekeeper gets killed.  Paul comes onto Linda but she rejects him. He calls Suzanne and asks her to come back. She arrives and Linda tries to seduce her. Paul catches them.  He ends up crashing his car into the river. Suzanne finds the dead housekeeper. She tries to call the police but someone unplugs the phone. She ends up dying next. Paul returns to the house and Linda is there. She wants to kill Paul as he stole a book from her husband and pretendeed that he wrote it. Her husband killed himself when he realised what Paul did to him. Linda is going to shoot him when she is stabbed by the local guy who was lingering int he field, half dead. He and Linda both die as Paul is left by himself.


This wasn't a great film. There wasn't much in the way of scares or thrills. It was interesting in some parts, but there wasn't enough to keep you entertained. The acting wasn't bad but to be honest, nothing much happens. I will give it a 4/10.