Séance on a Wet Afternoon

The medium is the menace in this hair-raising suspense classic. In one of her precious few screen roles, stage legend and renowned Method actor Kim Stanley delivers an electrifying, Academy Award–nominated performance as an unstable psychic who coerces her husband (Richard Attenborough) into kidnapping a young girl as part of a scheme to achieve fame by helping the police investigation. Moody cinematography and an ominous Victorian house setting lend a surfeit of atmosphere to this tour de force of psychological tension.