A psychological thriller from Britain. “It isn't often you see a melodrama that sends you forth with a lump in your throat, as well as a set of muscles weary from being tensed for nigh two hours. But that's the condition you may expect to be in after watching Seance on a Wet Afternoon. Although it embraces a topic that is exceedingly touchy for the screen--that is, the abduction of a child--it is so interlaced with a strain of pathos and is so exquisitely done, with the brilliant young Brian Forbes directing, that it is free of any exploitation taint. Furthermore, it is played so finely by Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough as the middle-aged London suburban couple who audaciously kidnap the child that one's attention and, indeed, one's anxiety is centered more upon them than upon the kidnapped youngster, who is generally treated well. It is the mystery of these two people, she a medium and he her spouse, living in a gruesomely cluttered and shabby old suburban home, which becomes the predominant fascination and psychological study of the film... Mr. Forbes has directed so that action and atmosphere blend in a flow of sensuous experience that has the eeriness and tension of a spell.” Bosley Crowther, New York Times