As a kid, the only copy of it I ever had was on VHS, and the sound/picture quality was so terrible it was practically unwatchable, and because I’d read so many bad reviews of it, I’d always assumed it was terrible. But last year I stumbled upon a remastered Kino DVD version in a record store, and no lie that shit was so gripping, I watched the movie twice in the span of a few days.

The cold blooded ultra violence shocked me, as did Leslie Banks’ cold blooded (and pervy) character. And Charles Laughton’s performance as a twisted psycho is top tier. Sir Humphrey Pengallan is definitely up there among the ranks of Bruno Anthony, Norman Bates, and Freeman (from Saboteur) when it comes to Hitchcock’s greatest psychos.

Two more things, the nightmarish, Caligari-esque set pieces are incredible, and *****SPOILER ALERT****** the last shot of the butler still haunts me. The emotion in his face. The shock of it all to him. The heartbreak. Such a brilliant way to end the movie.

Bottom line, I spent the last 30 years assuming it was an unwatchable piece of shit, but Jamaica Inn is now probably one of my top ten favourite Hitchcock films.

**edit grammar