Hammer House of Horror: Visitor from the Grave

 "Be a good girl, and do exactly what I tell you!"

Trigger warning: violent sexual assault is very prominent here.

This is, on a storytelling level, a good episode. The twist at the end is superb, the performances are good and it pretty much acieves what it sets out to do. The direction from Peter Sasdy is particularly magnificent.

And yet there's something uncomfortable about the basic concept: a man breaks into a woman's home, tries to rape her, is shot dead and appears as a ghost to attract "revenge". This is the use of violent stranger rape as entertainment without any real social subtext, something that wouldn't be done these days.

On the other hand, Harry is creepy, and that's done deliberately. It's not overdone, but I think we're meant to see his relationship with the much wealthier but mentally ill and vulnerable Penny as one of coercive control. There's a subtlety to the characterisation here which is impressive. Kathryn Leigh Scott and Simon MacCorkindale are both superb in portraying this dynamic.

This is a disturbing episode, mainly to do with the treatment of rape, but I can't deny it's impressively written and made.