Daughter of Darkness – 1949 | 91 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Daughter of Darkness is an odd chiller based on the play They Walk Alone by Max Catto. Siobhan McKenna a young woman whose delicate exterior masks a brutal murderer. McKenna gives a convincingly disturbing performance as the seductive psychotic killer.

Young Irish girl Emily Beaudine (Siobhan McKenna) is an emotional and highly-strung assistant at her local Parish Church, but her supposed promiscuity and creepy nature causes the local womenfolk to demand Father Cocoran send her from the community. When the Fun Fair arrives at the small village, flirtatious Emmie meets slimy circus boxer ‘Battling’ Dan (Maxwell Reed), but during a passionate embrace she attempts to claw his eye out.

Emmie is subsequently relocated to England with the Tallent family on a Yorkshire farm. Despite her innocent demeanour, once again the men are attracted to her and the women, notably Bess Stanforth (Anne Crawford), are unaccountably wary of her. More ghosts from the past return to haunt Emmie when the travelling funfair arrives in town with the now facially-scarred Dan amongst their showmen. After the opening night, Dan is found murdered in a nearby barn. Further dark deeds occur when local villager David Price goes missing and his body is discovered in a fire-ravaged Tallent barn. Emmie is soon unmasked an a homicidal seductress and Bess sets about trapping her.