"Twice Told Tales" is a Gothic Horror Anthology Film starring Vincent Price, who shockingly plays 3 different evil characters in the stories depicted. The three stories are loosely adapted from the originals by author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who is most famously known for the book "The Scarlet Letter".
The three stories in this film are "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "Rappaccini's Daughter", and "The House of The Seven Gables". As said before, Vincent Price is in all 3 stories for the film, playing sinister characters in each.
"Heidegger's Experiment" was about how Carl Heidegger and his friend Alex go to the tomb of the former's passed away lover, Sylvia. They find some form of extremely pure water, which is used on a 38 year old pressed flower, which brings it back life, fresh. Carl then drinks the special water, and instantly de-ages, becoming a younger version of himself. Alex drinks the water, and becomes young again also. Carl then gets the idea that he should use the water on Sylvia, to hopefully bring her back to life, which works. Carl leaves the room and goes to retrieve her wedding dress, so that they can actually marry, as she mysteriously died the night before their wedding, which was nearly 40 years prior.
While gone, it was revealed that Alex (played by Vincent Price), actually poisoned Sylvia, because they were having an affair behind Carl's back. Carl hears this, and they get into a fight, Carl getting stabbed, and turning old again right after. Alex ages as well, and when he looks over at Sylvia, she is just a skeleton.
"Rappaccini's Daughter" is the second story, and by far the best. I love the idea of ecological horror, and though this was created decades before Resident Evil 2, there is a sort of similarity here. I wonder if the creators to that game saw this movie, and were inspired, with the plant enemies...and the original plant plot to the game.
The story, at least in the movie, is about how an evil Scientist turned his daughter into an acidic, radioactive bio-weapon, that cannot touch any living creature, or else they'd die. The reason? Because his wife left him, and he was bitter. He didn't want any man to touch his daughter, like the man that stole his wife. As silly as an idea this is...it was actually pretty interesting to see in the movie.
While watching this story, it reminded me of "The Last Man on Earth", and the scientific research elements in that movie. I love the idea of a mad scientist, perhaps I'm just a dork for concepts like this. I don't want to spoil the concepts for this story, because I think that this is the one that makes the movie really worth watching.
The final story is "The House of The Seven Gables". I have always heard of this story, but had never read it (or any of the stories, by the time that I watched this movie). I didn't even realize that it was a ghost story, until watching this movie.
I loved the idea of a sort of colonial witch trial that caused a generational curse. The idea of the story was fun, though I found that this story wasn't nearly as creepy as it could have been. The creepiest thing were the teeth that the sister had. I couldn't stop looking at them. I think that the ghost-liness to this story was more cheesy, and not so creepy, but I was definitely shocked when Gerald killed his sister. I didn't see that one coming, somehow.
I found the destruction of the house to be silly, and Price was really funny in how he died in that story. It was quite perfect, with Gerald's blood spilling on the portrait of his ancestor. In some ways, the disembodied hand reminded me of something from the PS1 game, "Clock Tower" (Clock Tower 2). I wonder if the creators of that movie watched this movie too.
Overall, I liked the movie, and I think that it's interesting to watch, especially as a Vincent Price fan. I respect the movie for what it is, as it was still in that mode of "Theatrical" cinema, when many films were based on stories and plays that were brought to life.
When I looked through the newspaper archives, I didn't find any reviews for the movie, though there were a lot of advertisements for it. It was typically advertised with another of Price's movies, "Diary of a Madman".
I gave this movie a 3/5 on letterboxd.
