Hammer Thrillers “The Snorkel” (1958)

Hammer is known for its horror films. It also had plenty of good psychological thrillers. Even now, some 50-70 years later, they hold up amazingly well. They remind me of the stories I used to find in the old “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” magazine. Not quite as “out there” as the Twilight Zone, but all hinging on a plot twist that provided a thrill.

“The Snorkel” is perhaps their earliest one. A young girl has seen her father killed by a man who became her stepfather. Then, as the film begins, she is convinced he has killed her mother and made it look like a suicide. However, no one will believer her. We know she is right though, because we have seen him do it. The rest of the film is a tense wait to see if he will get away with these murders, and kill the daughter in order to do so, or whether he will be found out.

We see the twist coming just moments before it arrives, and it is very satisfying. Part of the reason we love these crime thrillers, is that we love to see evil deeds exposed, and evil people get justice. Or at least that is the way it used to be. It sometimes feels like today, we simply create stories that relish and thrill solely in the evil itself.