Voices (1973)

After their son (Adam Bridges) dies in a tragic accident, the mother (Gayle Hunnicutt) has a nervous breakdown and attempts suicide. Her husband (David Hemmings) has her temporarily committed to a mental hospital. When they visit an old house left to her from a deceased Aunt, she hears mysterious voices and eventually sees the prior tenants of the house. Based on the play by Richard Lortz and directed by Kevin Billington (LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD). Although the film is opened up a wee bit (especially in the pre credit opening sequence with the son), the bulk of the movie takes place in the living room of the old house secluded in the woods. The core of the film is the back and forth stage bound wrangling of the unhappy couple played by Hemmings and Hunnicutt (replacing the play's Julie Harris and Richard Kiley). With a compromised marriage because of a drowned child at its center, the film presages DON'T LOOK NOW which would arrive several months later. It also presages THE SIXTH SENSE and THE OTHERS. The movie was shot on both film (exteriors) and video (interiors) by Geoffrey Unsworth (2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY) which gives the film a schizophrenic look. The effective underscore is by Richard Rodney Bennett (MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS). As a psychological thriller, it's erratic but not without interest. With Lynn Farleigh and Eva Griffiths.