The story concerns a best-selling author named Paula Martin who’s suffering writer’s block on her latest book, and goes to an old house in the country to get her creative juices flowing again. Paula requests her agent to send her an assistant, who turns out to be a young woman named Linda. At first the two get along great—but then Linda becomes manipulative, then violent, then homicidal.

“The confirmed cast includes Jane March from THE LOVER and COLOR OF NIGHT, British TV actress Anna Brecon, Jennifer Matter, who just had the lead in the Spanish horror film PAINTBALL, Danny Young and newcomer Triana Terry,” Sothcott tells us. “Cinematographer James Friend and I met when he was an operator on my first film WISHBABY [see item here]; he also shot my last film THE RAPTURE [starring Danny Dyer, Alison Doody and Colin Salmon; see the trailer below] and is one of the best DPs around. We are using a lot of the same crew from RAPTURE, including the massively talented production designer Alison Butler, costume designer Millie Sloan and sound designer Nigel Albemachie, with Sangeet Prabhaker, who did the effects, handling all the prosthetics.

“The tone of the new version is very much chilling and sexy, rather than gory and sleazy,” he continues, noting that the original is the only British film still banned in the UK, “but I believe it will still have an impact. It has taken me some four years to get this to the screen, and I am thrilled silly. Martin, Anna, Jane and I had a bit of lunch yesterday, and none of us can quite believe it is happening!” We’ll keep you posted on HOUSE updates; the ’76 version will be hitting DVD later this year from Severin Films.