House of Shadows, aka. La casa de las sombras (1976) starring Yvonne De Carlo, John Gavin, Leonor Manso
A young lady accidentally stumbles into an abandoned mansion and becomes a witness to a murder. A murder that happened 23 years before. First, it should be mentioned what this film is not it is not the more-famous House of Shadows with Peter Cushing. It also has no connection to the various Dark Shadows TV series or movies. It’s an Argentinian film; I watched the dubbed American version.
Set in the 1930s, Audrey Christiansen (Leonor Manso) has begun working for the wealthy Mrs. Howard (Yvonne De Carlo, The Munsters) with other house employees. While walking Mrs. Howard’s dog, Timmy, one evening, the dog escapes into an old, abandoned mansion. While looking for the stray dog, she witnesses a murder. Retrieving the dog, she races back home, tells Mrs. Howard and calls the police. But, when the police Inspector investigates, there’s no body and everything is different; cobwebs cover everything, and the mansion appears abandoned. The police officer tells Audrey that, 23 years ago, on a night like this, there was a murder, just as she described.
From this point on, the young Audrey begins to have visions and flashbacks of the dead woman’s life. She was an unfaithful wife who was pregnant with another man’s child and she begins to unravel the murder mystery. Is she the dead woman reincarnated, being contacted by the spirit of the murdered woman, or simply having an overactive imagination? As she investigates, speaking to the different people still alive who were connected to the dead woman, more murders occur.
In short, it’s an entertaining murder mystery, but nothing exceptional and I frankly didn’t care for the reincarnation aspect. I rate it two stars out of five.