How Awful About Allan (DVD)

A fire burns out of control, disfiguring Katherine and causing her brother Allan to go literally blind with guilt. Eight months later, neither sibling can escape the shadow of their domineering father who died tragically in the blaze. After Allan is released from the State Hospital and returns home to care for his scarred sister, his mind begins to crumble. Unstable and volatile, Allan struggles to distinguish reality from imagination, as madness eats away his sanity.

Anthony Perkins and Julie Harris team up for terror in How Awful About Allan, an expertly acted atmospheric shocker from Henry Farrell, author of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Originally broadcast on ABC TV in 1970, How Awful About Allan was directed by Curtis Harrington, the creator of such fondly regarded genre exercises as Night Tide (1961), Games (1967), Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) and What's the Matter With Helen? (1971). With a cameo from Kent Smith, underling its affinity to the RKO-Val Lewton masterpieces of the 1940s, How Awful About Allan is a grotesque, claustrophobic suspense yarn.

• horror