The Victim is a 1972 made-for-television thriller with Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) in the lead role.
Kate Wainwright (Elizabeth Montgomery) goes to her sister’s house after a distressing phone call from her sister Susan Chappel (Jess Walton from The Young and the Restless television series). She is feeling down because she’s divorcing her husband Ben Chappel(George Maharis, The Desperados). While talking to her sister, Susan is killed and hidden in the basement. Kate drives looking for her sister to see her and wonders where she is for the rest of the film. Kate spends the night in her house. Of course, she’s visiting on a day where a heavy rainfall is occurring, and lots of creaking noises are heard while she’s there, plus the lights went out and the landline is dead. The maid Mrs. Hawkes (Eileen Heckart, The Bad Seed) shows up even though Susan fired her and has a few things to say. Susan’s husband, also absent and supposedly is off to Los Angeles appears and suddenly all is revealed to a somewhat predictable but effective climax.
The Victim is a solid thriller chiller albeit nothing scary really happens until the last few minutes, but if you stick with it, you will find it to be a satisfying film. Elizabeth Montgomery is excellent as the strong, but vulnerable Kate Wainwright. Eileen Heckart is incredibly creepy as the housemaid.
Kino Lorber releases The Victim on Blu-ray, which is advertised from coming from a 2K master. Overall, the image looks terrific which bold colors, rich black levels, and great details to the scenery, of which 95% of it is at Susan’s house.
The English DTS-HD Master Audio dual-mono track is loud and clear, with nothing coming in all that aggressively. The dialogue is easy to understand, the excellent musical scores by Gil Mille are also clear and robust.
This release features an audio commentary by Film Historian and Author Amanda Reyes who talks in great lengths about the film and the cast. Elizabeth Montgomery and Eileen Heckart get a lot of attention in her commentary.
TV spots for Scream Pretty Peggy, Fear No Evil, Ritual of Evil and Kolchak the Night Stalker (Demon in Lace) are also part of the supplemental package.
The Blu-ray also has a slipcover with artwork by Vince Evans.
With the tagline “The Phone Is Not the Only Thing That’s Dead in Susan’s House!”, you know you’re in for a creepy but fun time as The Victim is a suspenseful movie with a great cast. The audio and video on the Blu-ray are excellent, to go with a commentary track. I can easily recommend this release.
The Victim
Director- Herschel Daugherty
Cast- Elizabeth Montgomery, Eileen Heckart, George Maharis
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/13/2021