Scalpel (1977)

Photographed by celebrated cinematographer Edward Lachman, who would go on to serve as DP on the likes of Erin Brockovich (2000) and The Virgin Suicides (1999), Scalpel is an exemplary slice of Southern-fried gothic. US television staple Robert Lansing stars as a deranged surgeon in this twisty-turny psychological thriller from Blood Rage director John Grissmer. In Scalpel, Lansing plays Dr. Phillip Reynolds, a man whose daughter Heather (Judith Chapman) has run away from home a year prior following the suspicious death of her boyfriend. When he happens across a young woman one night, her face beaten beyond recognition, the unhinged Reynolds sees his an opportunity to put his trusty scalpel to use - hatching a plan to "reconstruct" her face in the image of his missing daughter, and so claim her sizable inheritance.