The snake-tressed, petrifying spirit of the Greek mythological creature haunts a German village by possessing one of its inhabitants in director Terence Fisher's most poetic and underrated fearful fairy tale. One of the House of Horror's outings that is totally unclassifiable, it relies less on its absurd story and more on provocative imagery. But, while it may fall short of the monstrous mark, the period atmosphere is powerfully evoked, made headier by the peerless Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee at the height of their dramatic authority, and Hammer's best ever femme fatale Barbara Shelley.

In the early 20th century a village experienced a series of inexplicable murders. All the victims were young men who had been turned to stone. The perpetrator of these deaths was a being so repulsive that she transformed the onlooker using the power of her deadly stare. Much of the time the creature took the form of a beautiful and seductive woman, but during periods of the full moon she becomes a living horror, vicious and deadly. A professor has come to investigate the deaths, bringing with him his beautiful assistant whose knowledge of the Gorgon is more intimate than anyone would ever realise.