The Gorgon 1964

My husband told me earlier this week that he wanted to watch all the Hammer films. While I won't be hosting a marathon anytime soon, I did come across this gem from 1964 on the Roku channel My Retro Flix. This is less a straight horror movie and more a horror mystery that revolves around a series of bizarre deaths and the ensuing cover ups of these deaths. As the title implies, the victims have all been turned to stone. We follow Paul Heitz as he struggles to discover what has become of his father and brother. He is later joined by Professor Karl Meister (played by Christopher Lee). They find that according to local legend, the spirit of Megaera, the sister of Medusa, has taken human form and is terrorizing the town. Megaera, like her sister, is a gorgon with hair made of living snakes and an appearance so dreadful it will turn the onlooker into stone.

So is the legend true? Is Megaera haunting the town, and if she is, who is she? You'll have to watch to find out.

*fun fact: Megaera's sister, Medusa was beheaded by Perseus who, thereafter, used her head as a weapon to turn people to stone until he gave it to the goddess Athena.