Unlike director Riccardo Freda's previous gothic styled film I vampiri, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock was made in a climate where there were more gothic horror films being produced in Italy. The film began when Luigi Carpentieri phoned screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi to write a giallo story that _he_liked titled Spectral. <sep>, Pronoun: he <sep>, A: Luigi Carpentieri <sep>, B: Ernesto Gastaldi