TV REVIEW : ‘House of Secrets’ Diabolically Derivative

For those in need of a post-Halloween cure, “House of Secrets” (at 9 tonight on NBC, Channels 4 and 36) is a tremulous, moody thriller with a Gothic touch.

Under Mimi Leder’s direction, style overwhelms content, which is decidedly derivative.

Set in New Orleans at Mardi Gras time, the movie shamelessly lifts key scenes from two famous films of the 1950s: the French horror classic “Diabolique” and the Brazilian “Black Orpheus.” In short, its best moments involve a clothed cadaver with glass eyes rising from a bathtub full of water, and a festooned carnival figure of death leading an innocent heroine through a crowd of Mardi Gras celebrants to a New Orleans graveyard.

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Contributing to the hoot is an old plantation manse-turned-sanitarium in which the resident mistress with a frail heart (Melissa Gilbert) and a gorgeous receptionist (Kate Vernon) conspire to murder an abusive, domineering physical therapist (Bruce Boxleitner) and dump his body among lily pads in the mineral pool.

But nothing is as it seems--unless, of course, you’ve seen this chestnut of a plot before. Written by Andrew Laskos and based on the book “Celles Qui N’ Etait Plus” by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (whose works also inspired “Vertigo” and--surprise!--”Diabolique”), the production is salvaged by its hothouse atmosphere.