Not a very good script, but thanks to a decent cast and Chabrol's equally dramatic and reserved execution, it ends up quite engaging. He's done better though both before and since.

Chabrol directs with his habitual understated elegance, and the story has the usual Chabrol themes of violence and hypocrisy beneath the mask of the bourgeoisie. Unfortunately neither the actors nor the story itself is compelling.

"The not-so-wicked melodramas that ensue bring to mind a tame revue of V.C. Andrews' garden-themed Flowers in the Attic series." - Ed Gonzalez