Emmanuel Hildern

Emmanuel Hildern

Background

Emmanuel Hildern is a physical anthropologist in London, England. His daughter is Penelope, and his wife is Marguerite. Emmanuel's half-brother is James Hildern.

During the events of The Creeping Flesh (1973) played by Peter Cushing

Emmanuel is painting a picture of a hooded creature surrounded by fingers. James tells Emmanuel that a Young Doctor is there to see him. Emmanuel tells him that he needs help with his research on studying the existence of evil as a living organism. He says that evil can be cured like any other disease, but it is spreading. He continues that he is guilty of unleashing evil onto the world 3,000 years early. He shows the Young Doctor his notes which started three years ago, on February 21st, 1893, when he returned to London from New Guinea. He brought back a skeleton which he thought was of primitive man.

Emmanuel walks into the house and hugs Penelope and then greets Emily and Waterlow and promises to eat breakfast with Penelope. The box with the specimen is brought to the laboratory by Carter and another man and Emmanuel excitedly tells Waterlow that it might win them the Richter Prize. Carter waits for a tip, but Emmanuel ignores him. Emmanuel shows Waterlow the specimen and compares the skulls of primitive humans to the large skull of the specimen. Emily tells Emmanuel that breakfast is ready, but he tells her that he is too busy. Waterlow and Emmanuel figure out the specimen must be older than Neanderthal, but seems more advanced. At breakfast, Penelope tells Emmanuel that she had to fire some servants, because they could no longer afford them. Emmanuel starts going through his mail and opens a letter from James that informs him that Emmanuel's Wife has died. Emmanuel goes to The Hildern Institute for Mental Disorders and James tells him that Emmanuel's Wife is buried on the institute grounds and asks Emmanuel when he is going to tell Penelope the truth about Emmanuel's Wife. Emmanuel tells James that he is worried the Emmanuel's Wife's mental illness was hereditary and Penelope might develop it. James shows Emmanuel a manuscript he has written which he is presenting for the Richter Prize and then tells him that he will no longer subsidize his expeditions. As Emmanuel is leaving, he stops and watches as Doctor Perry administers shock treatment to a patient.

Emmanuel catches Penelope reading a romance book from Emmanuel's Wife's room and gets upset. As Emmanuel is using water to clean the specimen, it suddenly grows flesh on the part that water touched. Emmanuel then cuts off the finger. He tells Waterlow about a myth the people of New Guinea had in which their giant ancestors fought a war between good and evil and how, by removing the specimen from the ground, he sped up when the next war between good and evil will happen. Emmanuel looks at the specimen's blood under the microscope and sees living blood cells. He mixes the specimen's blood cells with his own and thinks evil could be prevented by inoculating people with a serum made from the specimen's blood. Emmanuel injects a monkey with the serum he just made. He looks at the monkey's blood and notices the serum has formed a protective film around the blood, and protects it from the specimen's evil blood. Emmanuel catches Penelope in Emmanuel's Wife's room and gets upset and she says he only wants to keep her a prisoner like Emmanuel's Wife. He remembers back to when Emmanuel's Wife started to go crazy and was taken to the institution. He later injects Penelope with the specimen's blood.

Waterlow goes to the laboratory and then calls Emmanuel and they find the monkey has gone crazy. He goes to look for Penelope, but she is missing. James takes Penelope back home and sees the specimen and looks at the blood sample, which matches Penelope's. He reads Emmanuel's notes and when he sees Emmanuel, threatens to expose him. James and Karl go to Emmanuel's house and Karl kills Waterlow while escaping with the specimen. James finds Waterlow's body and notices it is going to rain and rides after James and Karl. Emmanuel finds the carriage and sees Karl dead and the now Creature walking around and he rides away. Emmanuel returns home and burns the finger sample he took from the specimen. The Creature knocks on the door and Penelope lets it into the house. The Creature destroys the lab and attacks Emmanuel and rips off one of his fingers. James and Perry arrive at Emmanuel's home and find Penelope dancing in the front yard and Emmanuel laughing and humming.

Back to the present, Emmanuel warns the Young Doctor of the Creature and the evil it is spreading. Emmanuel asks James and the Young Doctor for help as they walk away.