The film stars Richard Burton as a priest who teaches at a boys' school and finds one of his favourite students is playing a nasty practical joke on him.

He sets out to investigate the prank and stumbles upon a dead body, leading to his life spiralling out of control.

[1] The film centres on schoolboy Benjamin Stanfield and his unpopular friend, Arthur Dyson; their form master, Father Goddard and a travelling motorcyclist named Blakey.

At the site where the body is supposedly buried he digs and finds what at first he believes to be a head but later turns out to be a pumpkin.

The priest refuses to give absolution, fearing another joke, but again goes to the woods where he actually discovers Blakey's dead body.

He returns to the chapel, where he hears Stanfield's voice in the confessional expressing a desire to kill again and that Arthur will be the next victim.

When he sees the boys heading for the woods, he becomes concerned for Arthur's safety and sets off in pursuit but loses sight of them.

Later, in confession, he is heard apologising for denying the murder earlier, saying he wants to keep it to the confessional, and tells Fr.

The priest turns to discover Arthur, who tells him how he imitated Stanfield's voice in the confessional and how it was he that killed Blakey, and later moved the body to another site.

[2] The co-stars Sharon Duce, who played the girlfriend of Connolly's character, and Dominic Guard later married.

Rather than reveal Dyson as the murderer, Shaffer wanted the film to retrospectively show the boy's actions throughout, thus gradually leading the viewer to the terrifying conclusion.

Paul Taylor of the Monthly Film Bulletin called Absolution "[a] dire slice of clever narrative trickery”.

Leslie Halliwell noted that it was interesting and suspenseful but ultimately too complicated and The Guardian reviewer called it a "second rate murder mystery".

Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide referred to the film as "[a] straightforward melodrama [that] loses credibility towards the end".

He also found the film to be unexpected and believable and went on to say, "Absolution takes place in isolated yet realistic setting, and the real source of tension is within the characters.

Shaffer never takes sides and until the very end the audience is left to sympathise with different characters, never quite certain who among them is good or bad.