Our Mother's House

Our Mother's House is a 1967 British drama film, directed by Jack Clayton. It nominally stars Dirk Bogarde (who only appears in the film's second half) and principally features a cast of seven juvenile actors, including Pamela Franklin, Phoebe Nicholls and Mark Lester, with popular British actress Yootha Joyce in a supporting role. The screenplay was written by Jeremy Brooks and Haya Harareet, based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Julian Gloag.

Plot

The seven Hook children, whose ages range from five to fourteen, live in a dilapidated Victorian house in suburban London. The older children help to care for their invalid single mother, whose chronic illness has led to her to convert to fundamentalist religion and refuse all medical help. When their mother dies suddenly, the children realise that they may be split up and sent to orphanages, so they decide to conceal their mother's death and carry on with their daily routine as if she were still alive. They secretly bury their mother in the back yard at night, and convert the garden shed into a shrine to her, where they periodically hold seances to communicate with her spirit.