HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR EPISODE 10 - GUARDIAN OF THE ABYSS (1980)

DIRECTED by  Don Sharp

SCREENPLAY by David Fisher 

STARRING - Ray Lonnen as Michael Roberts, Rosalyn Landor as Allison, John Carson as Charles Randolph, Paul Darrow as Andrews, Barbara Ewing as Laura.

PLOT - Michael Roberts is a collector and dealer of antiques who has recently acquired an old scrying glass.

Little does Michael know but the scrying glass is the final component needed by a band of devil worshippers to complete an ancient arcane ritual that will summon up thier demonic overlord.

Allison (a member of the cult) escapes from them and finds herself drawn towards Michael and the scrying glass.

Taking the terrified young girl under his wing, Michael vows to unravel the mystery of the scrying glass and the coven of devil worshippers.

However, little does Michael know that plans are afoot and the cult and thier leader - the arch Magus John Randolph are drawing in towards him.

Who will be the cult's final victim and host for Coronzon - the deadly demon who commands the vicious band of occultists ?...

PERFORMANCES - We're firmly in the realms of Dennis Wheatley style shenanigans with this episode. To reflect this, the performance that Ray Lonnen gives as Michael almost pitches him as a traditional Wheatley-esque hero ( I say almost because unlike a lot of Wheatley's protagonists Michael doesn't actually posses any knowledge of the dark arts).

Like several of Wheatley's characters Michael is a traditional "hero" type. Flamboyant, dashing and with an eye for the ladies. If James Bond decided to quit the secret service and become an antiques dealer in a small town located within the home counties then he'd probably turn out pretty similar to Michael.

Michael is suave and quick witted, he dresses like he's a country squire and his biggest weakness is a pretty face.

When he meets up with the beautiful Allison (Rosalyn Landor) - a literal damsel in distress, poor old Michael just can't help himself. Quickly bedding her, Michael vows to help her escape from the clutches of the local band of crazy occultists, an action which ends up costing him dearly.

Lonnen is very good as Michael, he makes for a suitably charismatic lead. He also plays off Landor very well.

Landor is suitably ethereal and mysterious as Allison. She literally stumbles into our hero's life when she wanders into the middle of the road and Michael nearly runs her over with his vintage sports car (because of course someone like Michael would drive such a car).

From there Allison is shown to be slightly uptight and guarded, she seems like she's led a sheltered life, almost like she was initiated into the cult at a very early age and the cult is all she's ever known 

You'd think this would be a bit of a red flag to Michael but no, he's too obsessed with trying to bang her (and get to the bottom of the scrying glass mystery) to notice. In fact it's only when Allison becomes mystically "remote controlled" by Randolph into nearly killing Michael that he starts to take her seriously..

Speaking of Randolph, he's a great villain. John Carson played a very similar role (a voodoo cult leading aristocrat) in Hammer's Plague Of The Zombies, I think it's safe to say he's taking lots of cues from his earlier role here but it works just as brilliantly here as it did back then. If it ain't broke don't try to fix it.

Carson is full of silky menace. The best scene is when he comes round to Michael's house and magically hypnotises him - it's just the way he insinuates himself into the situation appearing suave and genial but clearly planning something horrific. Carson as Randolph would have made a great recurring villain in a series of black magic horror movies (or indeed if he'd have made a return appearance in future House of Horror episodes).

There's also a decent supporting cast in this episode that's worth mentioning, including Blake's 7 star Paul Darrow as Randolph's right hand man (and Michael's arch rival in the antiques world) -Andrews, and 60's Hammer girl Barbara Ewing as Michael's long suffering friend Laura.

SEX & VIOLENCE - A very mild sex scene between Michael and Allison.

There's very little violence in this episode except for the end scene which involves human sacrifice.

SFX - There's a pretty decent monster transformation scene where the corpse of the sacrifice victim takes on the appearance of the demon Coronzon. He's quite impressive looking for a relatively low budget TV show but unfortunately I can't find any photos of him online, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

RATING - Guardian Of The Abyss is a decent slice of occult drama. It's not the best episode of the series (as with the previous episode it has a few filler scenes which makes it come over as being slightly slow moving and talky in places) but it's plus points (a fun hero, a decent villain) help to elevate it above most of its shortcomings.

All in all pretty decent. 4 Satanic lapdogs of the mighty Coronzon out of 5.

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