12 Classic British Horror Films You Need To See

Leave it to Robert (middle name: “Author Of Psycho”) Bloch to concoct this bizarre tale of a killer who leaves dolls with each of his victims, which marked a highpoint in Freddie Francis’ otherwise patchy career as a director.

Intended to capitalize on Hammer’s psychological thrillers such as Taste Of Fear (which, because it’s a small world, were trying to capitalize on the success Psycho), The Psychopath could easily have been just another hacked-out thriller loaded with pop psychology, but there’s enough weirdness and gallows humour in Bloch’s script (he also wrote The House That Dripped Blood and Asylum) to keep it from becoming routine.

Weirdest of all is the sequence where one of the lead characters disappears and is discovered dressed in make-up and baby clothes, having been transformed into a human doll. Incidentally, the film’s American tag line (“Mother, may I go out to kill?”) inspired the Misfits song of the same name.