Madhouse [1974] Movie Review

 

"Madhouse" is a movie that was released in 1974 and stars Vincent Price. There are also multiple notable actors, names, and scenes to other movies in this one which seems to be a huge homage to the Horror movie genre up to that point. 

The premise to movie is that Vincent Price's character, Paul Toombes, is an actor most famously known for the character "Dr. Death". His character and Peter Cushing's, Herbert Flay, created the character together. Toombes acted as the character, while Flay wrote it. Paul gets into a fight with his fiancee in the beginning of the film, because it turned out that she started out her acting career in adult films. Paul misinterprets this as her just using him to boost her career, though she seemed to not actually be doing this. Not long after, she goes to her room, and is murdered, seemingly by Paul. 

Paul went to trial and was acquitted of the murder, and spent about 12 years in a mental institution. He didn't plan on going back to his role as "Dr. Death", but Herbert Flay tricks him into doing so, but inviting him to his house for what was originally believed to be a different project. 

 Various people are murdered in the movie, in similar fashions to what was done in the films from "Dr. Death". Most, if not all, of these clips are from previous films that Vincent Price actually starred in during this career. 

It becomes clear that Paul was being framed, and someone was trying to kill him. At the end, its revealed that it was a combination effort between the producer Quayle, and Herbert Flay.  Herbert signs a new contract to be the "new" Dr. Death, and takes home the final film of Paul Toombes. Only, when he plays it, Paul comes off the screen and into real life, where he asks Herbert why he killed all the people and framed him. They get into a fight, and Herbert reveals that he was jealous of Paul, saying that it should have been him to play Dr. Death. Herbert is eventually killed and falls into the aquarium tank that the spider lady has. Paul is seen putting on his makeup, to become Herbert Flay, implying that indeed...there could only be one Dr. Death. 

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I found the movie instantly entertaining with a great intro. The movie is very captivating and well written. The Vincent Price/Peter Cushing combo is spectacular. I had to remind myself to write the review, because I found it so interesting. 

The movie is very gothic, based off a book released in 1969 called "Devilday" by Angus Hall. The movie has elements that remind me of many Hammer Horror films, and there is a very similar tone between this one and "The House That Dripped Blood".  

Looking at reviews of the movie online, a lot of people don't seem to care for it that much. Strangely, I really liked the film! I love all of the nuances to it, such as the weird spider lady, who was apparently Paul's ex wife. I found the use of clips from old films, giving respect to passed on names such as Boris Karloff really great! 

I think that the film was among the last of its era, mostly. By 1974, Horror films became much more violent, scary, and gruesome. Much, if not all, of this film was recorded in the UK I believe, so the rules there for showing blood have always been different from we see in the US. 

In comparison from that same year, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" was released, though in October (Madhouse was released in March in the US, and November in the UK). It seems that the 1970's really began the era of scary Horror films, where the 50's and 60's were gothic. I think that people of today might find this film boring because it's not scary. It's much more like an Edgar Allen Poe story brought to life. 

In comparison, "Tombs of The Blind Dead" was released in 1972, and while not super scary, it was freaky with their undead costumes. 

 Then in 1971, "The Other Side of Madness" was released, a movie about the Tate murders. For many people, the Tate-LaBianca murders were still in their minds, and that was a real event which scared many. 

In some ways, I wondered if "Madhouse" and even the book that it was inspired off of was influenced by the Tate murders, as the first few murders in this movie were about murdered actresses. 

And of course, "The Exorcist" came out in 1973, and still scares many to this day. I just think that in comparison to other films from this time period, "Madhouse" was barely scary in comparison. But I don't think that it's bad. 

I don't think that this is the type of movie for someone who doesn't know much about Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, and their era of movies. They became famous during a time period where violence, blood, gore, and even sex were way too taboo to talk about or depict. "Madhouse" would probably be best described as a Drama, if it were released today. 

I think that the movie has great story telling elements to it, believe it or not. But I think that because they didn't want to go overboard for things like the makeup and the deaths, it likely disappointed others. I will admit, I do think that they should have put more effort in making the spider lady, Faye, more "ugly". Faye was a character who "used to be beautiful" but was burned in a car fire. The makeup for her character still made her look slightly pretty, with just a few cuts on her face. I wish that they would have tried to make her look more like a burn victim, instead of leaving as an implication. If the viewer didn't hear her dialogue, you probably wouldn't understand why she was the way she was. 
 

The movie is definitely cheesy, but I like it for that. Vincent Price still showed why he was such a great actor. I think that Horror and Comedy go quite well, and I laughed pretty hard at he close ups of people screaming in the movie. It was just so dorky. 

 

Believe it or not, I gave this a 5/5 on letterboxd. It's more than just a cheesy gothic film, it's an art piece. I really love how it pays homage to Horror of yesteryear. 

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Looking at reviews from the newspaper archives, it seems that most people disliked it because there wasn't enough blood. 

 Other reviews for it were pretty lukewarm

 

There really wasn't much about the movie though otherwise. In the newspaper archives, it almost looks like the movie wasn't advertised that much.

 

Overall, I think that if you like Vincent Price and his movies, you'd probably enjoy this one. Just don't expect to be scared.  

[Watched on Tubi] 

THE ANTICHRIST 1974 Review

 THE ANTICHRIST 1974

 

“The Antichrist” is an Italian religious horror film that came out after “The Exorcist”. The film was surely a cash grab of sorts, to capitalize on the success of the latter’s popularity, but “The Antichrist” falls short in many ways. 

Though there are beautiful shots in the film, the movie’s greatest downfall is the plot itself. In the years since “The Exorcist”, there’s been a standard formula for ‘exorcism’ movies, but “The Antichrist” follows this too closely. In many ways, the movie is just “copying the homework”, without adding anything new at all. 

I’ve yet to watch “The Exorcist” movie, but I’ve read the book, and that is enough for me to know how much this movie shamelessly takes from it. Some of the ideas between the two medias are changed, but not greatly. I didn’t want to compare the two, initially, but it’s hard when some of the ideas are such blatant rip offs. 

A quick summarization of the plot is that the main character, Ippolita, believes that she can’t walk, in the decades since a car crash that killed her mother. Ippolita is very attached to her father, and detests the idea of him finding someone new to love. Ippolita has no reason to believe that she can’t walk, as doctors prove that there’s no actual health reason preventing this. A psychiatrist examines her, and this leads to some sort of past life recall, where it’s revealed that Ippolita is the reincarnation of an ancestor with the same exact name. This ancestor was in league with satan, having had intercourse with him presumably, at a witch’s sabbath. Ippolita becomes possessed, sexual, and able to walk again. She ends up at a sight seeing tour and has relations with a random guy, only to not remember it. She “wakes up” in a field, “normal”, and unable to walk again. 

Eventually, Ippolita becomes more possessed and vulgar. She ends up being exorcised, and at the end of the film she runs out of her home, potentially about to jump off of a building, but it “saved” by her father forcing her to hug a giant cross. At the end of the movie she seems to be normal, and walks away with her father and another character.

The movie wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t something that I’d watch again. As stated before, there were beautiful shots, with the camera work. It’s strange, because there was this high quality to the film. You can easily see everything that’s going on, the audio was quite well (though a little desynced, but that might have been due to the website I watched it on), and even the settings were beautifully decorated. You see many beautiful shots of the Italian countryside, and Italian architecture, but the story itself negates all that. 

The idea is that Ippolita is losing her faith, and doesn’t want to lose her father to another woman. The more the movie went on, I felt less inclined to care about Ippolita, because she didn’t appear to suffer from demonic possession, but some sort of mental illness. I know that we’re supposed to suspend our disbelief, but it’s hard for me to seriously believe that Ippolita had anything to do with Satan. This was established from nearly the beginning of the film, where Ippolita and her father went to a statue of the virgin mary, where the idea was to touch the statue, and it would “heal her”, and allow her to walk again. But Ippolita falls, not even reaching the statue. Somehow, this knocks down her faith, like as if God abandoned her. I didn’t understand how this would be enough for her to become possessed, when she could have gotten up and walked towards the statue with the help of her father. 

The opening scene to the movie was interesting, because it seemed like it was trying to portray how this statue really did help those that touched it, but it also showed pure religious fanaticism. One woman was brought to the statue by her family, and she spit on it, calling the virgin mary a whore. But as soon as she touched the statue, she became calm. This woman was actually one of the ones that helped Ippolita up when she fell. 

One of the people there, was a gross man with green slime coming down his face. He was obviously at the ends of life due to his possession, and he ends up jumping off a building, killing himself. This was said to cement his relation with Satan. The green screen effect of him jumping off was silly to me. While I applaud the make up for making him look gross, it was almost too well done. I had a hard time watching the green puke. 

As the movie moved on, I found it strange how we’re just supposed to care for Ippolita. She doesn’t appear to want to better herself in anyway, and nearly everyone actually cares about her. It was strange, how she insisted that no-one really loved her, despite the fact that every character’s life revolved around her. 

Near the end of the movie, Ippolita vomits green puke, very much like what you see in clips from “The Exorcist”. This was disgusting, and I had a hard time watching this part. She forced a guy to eat it, and I just wanted to barf. 

The movie is nearly 2 hours long, but strangely, it didn’t feel like a drag the entire time. There were concepts I found interesting, but I question how much I found entertaining. Were those just all of the parts ripped off of “The Exorcist”? I honestly believe that this film took from both the book and film versions of it. 

In some ways, I can see why they would want to create their own version. I felt like there was a lot of potential to create something scary, because of their location. Imagine what could have been, with their proximity to the actual Vatican! There’s a lot of wasted potential here. 

I don’t find the movie terrible, but I don’t recommend it. You can watch it once, and never again. There are other films that explore the idea of an exorcism much better than this one. 

2/5  | 1 slime

 

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