The Finishing School (The House That Screamed) (The Boarding School) (La Residencia) (1970)

• 74% of users liked it
  (465 ratings)

This stylishly eerie Spanish production stars elegant Lili Palmer as the severe headmistress of a French boarding school for young women, where the rigid constraints of 19th-century social conditioning have turned the place into a hothouse of barely contained sexual urges (leading to lots of gauzy… More This stylishly eerie Spanish production stars elegant Lili Palmer as the severe headmistress of a French boarding school for young women, where the rigid constraints of 19th-century social conditioning have turned the place into a hothouse of barely contained sexual urges (leading to lots of gauzy shots of the girls slinking about in their nightgowns). Into this heady mix is introduced Palmer's deranged son (John Moulder Brown), whose frustrated desires have forced his latent psychotic urges to the surface, compelling him to stalk the hapless boarders in the hope of acquiring body parts for a horrific human jigsaw puzzle. Quite intense for its time, this film represented a new boldness in style among European thrillers which would reach its peak during the 1970s. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi