Tower of Evil (1972) is one way to describe this cheap and cheerless British horror, very much an entry in the 'thing in the attic' school, except this time the attic is more a network of caves underneath a lighthouse.

After four gruesome murders on remote Snape Island, the one survivor, a young woman, is reduced to a catatonic state. To try to get her to talk, Dr Anthony Valentine employs his cutting-edge technique combining drugs with disco lights (though not, mercifully, disco music). We learn that the deaths of her three companions involved a lot of blood-letting and screaming; in fact one of the longest, most gruelling, scream-sequences in cinematic history (thank goodness for the volume control). All the women show remarkable stamina in being able to scream piercingly on demand - and keep screaming, even whilst running at top speed. Unfortunately it doesn't help them. We learn also that the deaths were preceded by a lot of frolicking in the nude and slangy hip youth-speak: "This place is really far-out!"

As the murders involve an ancient gold sword, antiquarian Dennis Price suspects there are Phoenician burial sites and assembles a team of experts to find them. Unfortunately he did not vet them properly as the two men and two women present an incendiary mix of sexual liaisons. What their expertise is in is unclear, except in the fields of bitchy backchat and sexual suggestion. As they make their way on a tiny boat, braving unnervingly shaky rear projection, they are accompanied by a salty sea dog and a hunky free-spirited youth, the kind of cool, laconic dude who demonstrates his machismo by standing around with his thumbs hooked behind his belt.

Curiously, after the initial flurry of blood-letting and nudity the script seems quite coy about having any more until the final minutes, preferring instead to work its way slowly through the familiar diet of shadows, weird sounds, heavy breathing, and skulking. It is not, however, reticent about having the characters say helpful things: "Whoever killed those kids must be mad!"; "The entrance to the caves must be on the seaward side!" Surprisingly, the film could be seen as a precursor to the slasher flicks of the '80s as it does seem to equate teen sex with death: the only survivor is the 'good girl' who remains chaste.

The cast features a few familiar faces aside from the brief appearances of Valentine and Price. Jill Haworth, one-time doyen of Otto Preminger films, plays one of the female experts, whilst Anna Palk, a regular on British TV in the '60s and early '70s, plays the other. Robin Askwith, of the notorious 'Confessions' films, plays one of the 'American' teens (and is dubbed accordingly).