"Cry of The Banshee" [1970] Movie Review

 

"Cry of The Banshee" is a 1970 Folk Horror movie that stars Vincent Price. It is very much in tune with "Witchfinder General", and I unintentionally ended up watching this after the former mentioned movie. This seemed to be very fitting, as they're quite similar, and deal with the ideas of witchcraft, satanism, and torturing people unjustly. 

The movie claimed to be based off of Edgar Allan Poe's work, but this is very loose. The movie only quotes the lines to Poe's poem "The Bells" before the movie actually starts. 

 This was clearly a way to draw in viewers who were familiar with Price's previous works based off of Poe's writings. This was a similar tactic done when the movie "Witchfinder General" was advertised. 

To me, the movie seems to draw a lot of inspiration from "The Masque of The Red Death", and Price's character was like a slightly watered down version of Prince Prospero. I am unsure if it was unintentional, but it seemed like the movie was sort of making an homage to Price's previous works in the Poe realm. One of the characters is named "Rodrick", which was the name of character Price played in the movie "The Fall of The House of Usher". 

That said, the plot to the movie is that Price and his crew come across a Satanic Witch Sabbath, and try to put an end to it. His family is cursed by the main witch, who we can probably assume is The Banshee.  The idea is a bit similar to that of "House of Usher", where the family name is cursed, and the family members go crazy, or die in strange ways. The Whitman family are supposed to be anti-witchcraft and anti-Satanism, with Price's character accusing people of being witches, and having them tortured. At the same time, when bad things start happening to his family, he denies the existence of witches. 

The shrill cry of the banshee can be heard outside, and the Whitman crew are scared, because as folklore goes, such a cry means death. They try to play it off as a dog attacking other animals, but obviously, there were people who knew that it was more than just a dog. 

Hilary Dwyer also stars in the movie, this time as Maureen, the daughter to Price's character. She is having relations with Rodrick, the man conjured by the main witch to curse the Whitman family. 

 Eventually, he turns into a werewolf, though I suppose he is also supposed to be the Banshee? This isn't directly explained, and according to folklore, a Banshee is supposed to be a woman. I don't know why they made him into a werewolf, but I suppose it fit the actor's natural facial features. 

 The main witch that cursed the Whitman family is seen at various points in the film, still trying to curse them. There are a couple of scenes where she is seen using a voodoo doll, and sticking pins in them to harm her target. It was interesting, as this movie seemed to lean more into the British Paganism and "Old Religion" as they called it, though it seemed to still take a few cues from what was then modern day witchcraft. This movie was released a year after the Satanic Bible, and Anton LaVey wrote about the use of voodoo dolls in his book. Another interesting thing to note, was how the main witch had her coven worshiping around a circle with Black Candles. Black Candles were the only color of candle used, in the final scene where the main witch was killed. LaVey's writings talked about using Black Candles during rituals. 

I don't know if the movie took a lot from the Church of Satan, but considering the time period, I have reason to believe so. One of the main contentions beyond the candles, is the fact that it was a group of witches worshiping Satan. Many writings from the early Church of Satan days would refer to female followers as "witches". And let's not forget, there is the book "The Satanic Witch", though that came out after this movie. 

-- 

Anyway, I found the movie to be interesting, and scratched more of that "witch itch" than "Witchfinder General" did. I liked how the movie focused a bit more on the paranormal, some type of curse, and gave a little bit of reason why Price's character would accuse people of being witches...because there actually were some in this movie. 

 According to some of the lore, Price apparently didn't care for the movie much. The movie also apparently inspired the name of the band "Siouxsie and The Banshees", though I don't know how true that is. What is also a bit crazy, is that Siouxsie was born on the same day as Vincent, though 46 years apart. 

 

-- 

There was one thing I noticed about the movie, that didn't seem to be pointed out anywhere. The soldiers in this movie and "Witchfinder General" have the same costumes! I guess they saved them from the previous movie for this one. 

" Cry of The Banshee"

 

 "Witchfinder General"

-- 

 When I looked through the newspaper archives, I couldn't find any reviews for the movie, though there were advertisements for it, of course. The movie was often paired with "Angel Unchained", a Hippie Biker type movie. 

 

A couple of ads did pair the movie with "Scream and Scream Again", another Price movie.

 

Anyway, I actually really liked this movie, and would watch it again.  It has some silliness and camp, and the ending is Gothic in a way. I think that fans of "The Masque of The Red Death" would enjoy this movie, as it seems to take quite a bit from it. 

 

I gave this 3/5 stars on letterboxd. 

1 Slime 

 

"Witchfinder General/Conqueror Worm" [1968] Movie Review

 

"Witchfinder General", or "The Conqueror Worm" as it was titled in America, is a 1968 folk Horror film that stars Vincent Price. I watched this on Tubi, and the movie's genre was just plain "Horror", though in many ways, this seems like a misnomer. The film isn't scary, though it's more in the same note as movies such as "The Wicker Man", and "The Blood on Satan's Claw". Movies that touch on the ideas of witchcraft in the British sense of things. In this movie, Price plays Matthew Hopkins, "The Witchfinder General" who was a real person in real life, that tortured many under the suspicion of witchcraft. 

The movie  was renamed to "The Conqueror Worm" in the US, because advertisers were trying to make people think that it was another Edgar Allan Poe inspired movie. Many ads showed this, but in reality, the film had nothing to do with Poe at all. The Poe story of the same name is not the same as what is depicted in the movie. 

 

The film was directed by Michael Reeves, who, according to the lore, did not get along with Price, nearly at all. From what you can read about the movie on iMDB, it seems that Reeves was rather arrogant and wanted things his way, defying many of the points that Price would make during filming. I guess Price got the last laugh though, as Reeves ended up dying less than a year after the film was released. In February of 1969, Reeves died from an accidental alcohol and barbiturate overdose. This seems to be the only film that he completely directed with Price, as the second one was "The Oblong Box", though he ended up having to be replaced.

Even though Price stars in the film, I feel like you don't see him as much as you'd like, considering that he has the most important role. His minions, mainly Stearne, torture people trying to get them to confess to witchcraft, but you don't see much about witches in this movie, really. The film focuses more on the characters of Sarah Lowes, John Marshall, and honestly, Stearne. Much of the movie felt like one giant chase, between Stearne going after Sarah to assault her, Stearne going after Marshall, and Marshall going after Stearne. When I describe it this way, it sounds like something from Scooby Doo. 

The ending to the film was laughable, and not scary at all. Marshall goes to chop up Hopkins, but one of the other soldiers shoots him. Marshall then yells, "You took him from me! You took him from me!", but it is so silly, you can't help but laugh. 

Personally, I didn't care for this film that much, and couldn't see myself watching it again. Price was great. Hilary Dwyer was great, but much of the film was not what I hoped for. It was interesting to see Price and Dwyer in what appeared to be their first film together, as they would work again for "The Oblong Box", and "Cry of The Banshee". 

 

 

 When I looked through the newspaper archives, I couldn't find many reviews about the film, mostly just ads for it.  One article stated that Hilary Dwyer and Ian Ogilvy, the actor that played Marshall, "Deserved better". And I would have to agree. The film didn't take advantage of the talent that was in it. Price played "the bad guy", but he wasn't really as evil as seen in his other films. 

 

Many corners of the internet today will state that the film was considered to have a considerable amount of torture in it, which I suppose is true, for a British film from this decade. To me, this movie is not as gruesome as some of other "Grindhouse" types from this era, films such as "I Drink Your Blood" come to mind. 

In 1968, the movie was often billed with films such as "She-Devils On Wheels", "Psych-Out", "The Savage Seven", and "Planet of The Apes". I don't know why, maybe it was because this was the Hippie era, but a lot of biker/hippie films were played along this one. 

 

This 1968 article is simply just a summary of the movie.

 

Overall, I thought this was an okay movie. I wish that there would have been more about actual witches and how horrible the false accusations were. Unless you already had some sort of education about the witch trials, some of the torture done in this movie would have seemed absolutely off the wall. 

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The movie has had some influence on music. The first, and most obvious, is the band "Witchfinder General" who took their name from the movie.

 Price's infamous line "I'm Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder" used in the song "Hopkins (Witchfinder General) by Cathedral, from their 1995 album "The Carnival Bizarre". The song uses samples of the movie throughout it. 

 

 

 I gave this movie 2 stars on letterboxd. 

"The Tingler" [1959] Movie Review

 

"The Tingler" is a 1959 Sci-Fi/Horror film that stars Vincent Price. It it's not really scary, but the movie had great shots, and was fun. The idea is that Vincent Price plays a scientist, who is trying to figure out the science behind "fear". He and his assistant perform experiments to isolate this in creatures, eventually discovering a creature they call "The Tingler", which is found in the spine. 

Much of the plot doesn't make sense, and is just a bunch of jargon made to sound scientific, but Price did a great job in making it sound real.  There were many times when I was watching, that I didn't understand why they were doing certain things in the film, and in the decades since it was released, some parts seem a bit insane. 

For example, Price's character acts like he is going to shoot his wife. When he does, it turns out to be a blank, and it was all done in the name of the science, so that he could take x-rays, and see any proof of The Tingler. 

A bit later in the film, his assistant comes to the house with a dog in the car, though it turns out that they don't need it, because Price already found proof of their scientific creature. The proceed to go in the house...leaving the dog in the car. Whatever happens to this dog? I don't know. 

One of the most insane parts of the film, was how the Deaf wife of a theater owner was drugged, then scared to death, in the hopes of making her scream. She ends up passing away from fright, and Price extracts her Tingler from her corpse. Like, isn't that mutilation of a dead body? It's kind of ironic...her husband could have been tried for murder, because technically he scared her, but when her corpse was taken to Price's character, he had no problem doing a science experiment on her! It's just silly things like that which point out how the movie doesn't make sense when you think about it hard enough. 

What's interesting though, is that in the scene where the Deaf lady dies, her bathroom starts pouring blood from the tub and the sink. Reading the lore about this scene, it actually turned out that this was filmed in color, but the room and actress were painted grey, while the water was red! Very interesting, and clever, as the rest of film is actually in black and white!

The film runs a bit too long for me, as the second half of the film shows The Tingler on the loose, and potentially ready to wreak havoc on society. The creature is silly looking, much like an oversized earwig or centipede, but I give credit to the props department. They made it kind of cute when it squirmed. I found it funny how The Tingler made its way onto the screen in the theater, and people were freaking out. The scene was more hilarious than scary. There's a level of camp here, that you can't help but enjoy. 

Eventually, Price's character places the Tingler back into its rightful owner's corpse, who raises from the dead and attacks her husband. 

One of the most interesting parts in the film, is the use of LSD. In the film, it was a prescription that Price's character used for an experiment. Apparently, LSD was still legal in the US at the time. I found it interesting that the drug was shown, as some sort of potentially scary thing. It made me wonder how people ten years later must have thought of this film, considering the hippie era. I especially wondered if the film was used as a way to scorn LSD, after the Tate-LaBianca murders ten years later (certain films like "I Drink Your Blood" would speak ill of the drug after the murders). 

I looked through the newspaper archives, and there weren't really any reviews on the film. Mostly ads for it, and some articles talking about the vibrating chair gimmick that was used in the theaters. When the film was initially released, there were chairs in some theaters, that would vibrate when certain scenes in the movie were shown. From how it sounds, it seems like it was a fun experience. This gimmick was called "Percepto". Similar in namesake to the "Emergo" that was around for the "House on Haunted Hill" showings. 

 

 Overall, I think the film is a fun watch, in a silly spooky way. It doesn't make sense, but I think if you had a group of friends watching bad movies together, this would be one on the roster.

I have this 2 stars on letterboxd.

1 Slime. 

"Bloodbath At The House of Death" [1984] Movie Review

 

"Bloodbath at the House of Death" is a "Horror" "Comedy" film that was released in 1984. It features and advertises Vincent Price, but he is barely in the movie. 

 The film runs for 1 hour and 31 minutes, which is way too long for how much it drags on. The movie starts off interesting at first, a bit silly, and has some gags you'd expect of British humor, but it starts to get old quickly, within the first 30 minutes. In fact, one of the best jokes in the movie is within the first half hour, where the group at the pub create a song in the same note as "The Twelve Days of Christmas", when trying to remember how many victims were killed at the murder house back in 1975.  

The plot of the film, or idea to it, is that in 1975, on or around August 12th, 18 people were killed at a house. In present day, presumably 1984, a group of scientists go to the house to try and explain or understand what could have happened. 

Very little is explained, and the movie relies too much on gags that are generally unfunny, to carry the film, instead of having a decent enough plot to carry the film. You would think that the plot of the film would drive the movie, but instead, it seems that the plot is based around the gags instead. 

Of course, over 40 years later, not every joke stands the test of time, but I don't think they were very funny to begin with. 

 The movie references multiple other horror films from the era, such as "Carrie", "Star Wars", "Poltergeist", and "Alien", but the gags usually left me saying, "huh.". Other films known to be referenced include, "The Exorcist", "E.T.", and "The Amityville Horror".

I don't think that every film referenced has been noted, and I think some of the more underground/lesser known ones have been overlooked. 

For example, it seems that in the bloody bathroom scene, this might be a reference to another Vincent Price film, "The Tingler". In that movie, one of the characters is scared to death in her bathroom, after the tub and sink run red with blood.

There doesn't seem to be any official note anywhere, but it seems that the movie might reference "The Devil's Rain". Of course, this is because of the Satanic Cult and cultists wearing their robes. Though I couldn't completely tell if the movie referenced this, or was just referencing/spoofing Anton LaVey.

Despite advertising Vincent Price as being in this film, he's barely in it at all. His last scene in the film is of him being burned by one his cultists. I thought this was a stupid move, as he was the main reason anyone would watch this film. 

Looking through the newspaper archives, it appears that many people didn't care for this film when it came out either. It was called "unfunny" multiple times, in multiple papers. Only one said that it was in good taste. The movie isn't terrible", but I don't think anyone would seriously watch this for a laugh. I think anyone who comes across this film would be like me, wanting to see the parts with Vincent Price. 

 

Personally, I didn't care for this film, and couldn't see myself watching it again. I gave this half a star on letterboxd. 

"Theatre of Blood" [1973] Movie Review

 

"Theatre of Blood" is a 1973 Comedy Horror film starring Vincent Price. The plot of the movie is that Price plays an actor who seeks revenge on all the critics who gave him bad reviews on his performances, preventing him from winning an award that went to another, younger, actor. 

 

Each critic is killed in a way similar to how someone in each Shakespearean play they reviewed, died. Despite being a British film, there are some rather gory and scary looking deaths, which I surprised me. Usually, British films didn't show violence and blood as much as this one, but I think it fits for the plot of the film. The one death that was crazy to me, was when the female critic was electrocuted in the salon chair. It was the most nuts of all of the deaths. 

 

"Theatre of Blood" came out the year before "Madhouse" did, which was released in 1974. I remember seeing reviews that "Madhouse" was just a cheaper, less great version of the former, but I disagree. While both films have similar ideas to them, they're not the same plot line. In "Theatre of Blood", Vincent Price is actually the bad guy...in "Madhouse", he's not! 

 

I found the plot idea of Price's character killing the critics because they gave him a bad review, especially hilarious, in today's world. In many ways, this idea would still hold up today, because with social media, people are reviewing things all the time. It's also silly, to think about killing people because they disliked your movie or play. 

 

I really liked how this film let Price shine, when it came to the Shakespearean parts. He really gave it his all when it came to the lines in the film. This is one of those movies where it had that theatric, story driven feel to it, common in British films. I really enjoyed this because it was perfect for Price's acting style. According to lore, Vincent Price really loved working on this film!

 

I looked up the movie in the newspaper archives, and couldn't find any reviews on it, though I do know that the movie was successful.  The movie was advertised with other films such as "Soylent Green", "The Mephisto Waltz", and "Daughters of Satan".

 

Overall, I liked this film, and would watch it again. It's silly, cheesy, and pretty fun to watch too. It's not scary, but it has that sort of Poe-esque gothic feel to it. Strangely, in comparison to "Madhouse", I like "Madhouse" more. Other reviews seem to feel the opposite way. For me, while "Theatre of Blood" is fun to watch, I still enjoy the creepiness in "Madhouse" a bit more. I think that the latter is more fitting of the "horror" title than this one. 

 

Even still, I give this a 3/5. 

"House On Haunted Hill" [1958] Movie Review

 

[Watched on Fawesome]

"House On Haunted Hill" is a 1958 Horror movie, that's commonly referred to as some sort of Ghost Story. Of course, it's most famous leading role is played by Vincent Price, who is, for the most part...a bad guy. Right?

 Vincent Price plays a perfectly sinister millionaire "playboy" that intends to scare his house guests, inviting them to stay the night with a $10,000 reward if they make to 8 am the next day. It was 5 people invited, so the payout would have been $50,000 overall. Adjusted for inflation, that 50K would be $571,777 in 2026. 

I like the concept of the movie, a creepy murder house that people are  trying to see how long they could stay. You hear a little background about each character, though it's not very much. Even though this was different time period, I think it would have been cool to hear more reasons as to why the people at the house were there. 

I wondered if the movie inspired the quest "Whodunit" from the game Oblivion, where the player has to pick off the guests at a party, one by one. 

 I found it interesting that there was the tale of someone who was thrown into a vat of acid, in the basement of the house. This similar idea was shown in the movie "Scream and Scream Again", which came out in 1970. I wonder if this movie inspired that. 

Some of the acting is pretty cheesy, and a bit stock, but it's funny. I also found it funny when the skeleton of the rat floated to the top of the acid, it was such a cheesy prop used!

The set did a great job at concealing Vincent Price's height. You really couldn't tell how tall he was!

The old lady ghost was funny to me, like some sort of witch without a hat. I found the semi-romantic notes between the characters Nora and Lance to be silly, though I guess that's what they had to do to keep peoples' attention.

 In a way, the movie reminded of the game "Clue", with it's sort of mystery elements around the house.

I'm surprised that they could show the body hanging at the stairs, considering the time period. Supposedly this and the movie poster showing the woman being hanged, caused it to be somewhat censored, but I didn't really see that in newspaper ads, at least. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the film, and found Vincent Price's talent was really highlighted here. He was the perfect "sinister husband" and was surprisingly not "The Bad Guy". In a strange way, Price's character was framed, like in the movie "Madhouse".  I loved the dynamic between him and Carol Ohmart, they were like a more sinister version of Gomez and Morticia Addams. 

I think that, especially today, the movie isn't scary. But that doesn't mean it's bad. Of course, nearly 70 years later, many of the things that society used to be scared of, are considered silly or normal now. I think this movie is one of those perfect watches for Halloween, and October in general. Interestingly, the movie was released in May of 1958, but it seriously has that Halloween vibe. 

I think that this movie is worth the watch, because the plot itself is really fun, and clever. It makes the viewer think of what would they do if in this situation, or how they'd write a story like this one. 

Looking through the newspaper archives, there weren't that many reviews for the film, though one I found was laughable. 

 

 

In a review by "Charles Stinson", he called the movie "inept". He wrote his review in a such a way that to me, it seemed like wanted to use some words that he recently read about in the dictionary, and wanted to seem intelligent. I suppose if he were paid by the word by the newspaper, this likely paid a fatter check. I'm not saying his opinion was wrong, I just felt like he tried too hard to prove how much he disliked the movie. 

 Many advertisements of the movie talked about "Emergo", which was supposed to be some type of interesting device. It was basically just the pulley system used to move the skeleton seen at the end of the movie. Wikipedia states that a device would be used in theaters to scare the audience too.

 I'm unsure if "Emergo" was ever used for anything other than this movie. 

 The house seen at the beginning of the movie is known as "Ennis House", which was built in 1925. The house has an interesting history, mostly due to it's constant need of repairs, since it was virtually built. One of the problems it had was the south wall bulging out. Apparently after this movie was released, there was a problem with young people coming to the residence, and screaming as loud as they could from the outside. 

 Strangely, and sadly, quite a few people from the cast had rather early deaths. First, was Alan Marshall, who played Dr. Trent, passed away in 1961 at the age of 52. He had a heart attack after a performance in Chicago. 

 Next, was the death of Carolyn Craig, who played Nora Manning. She committed suicide, from a self inflicted gunshot wound, and passed away on December 12th, 1970, at the age of 36. I couldn't find any obituary on her in the newspaper archives. 

 

And third, Richard Long, who played Lance, passed away December 21st, 1974, at the age of 47. He had-had cardiac problems due to contracting pneumonia at a young age, and had already had a heart attack in 1961. After a month stay in the hospital to treat additional attacks he passed away four days after his birthday. 

 

 

  But overall, I enjoy the movie, and think that it's well worth the watch. Yes, it's cheesy and not really scary, but I think that it's fun to see! A perfect Halloween movie. 

 3/5 on letterboxd 

"An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe" [1970] Movie Review

 

"An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe" is a 1970 film which features Vincent Price, and Vincent Price only. He is seen performing 4 different pieces by the author, in what are very dramatic interpretations of the source material. 

The film is hard to find now-a-days, and I was able to watch it on youtube, though the upload of it was pretty low quality. It's hard to judge the film completely, when the only way to watch it is a video that's of potato quality.

That said, I did find Price's interpretations to be great. Simply put. What I loved the most, was how much emotion Price put into each piece. Watching this film, I really felt like Vincent Price was perfect for theater, and of course, Edgar Allan Poe's writings. I really loved watching this, because there are many films from the late 60's and early 70's with Price, that don't utilize his theater skills, like this film does. Movies such as "Scream and Scream Again", and "The Oblong Box" are way too subtle in comparison to how Vincent performed here. Truly, I believe that Price was a perfect stage actor. You can tell how much he enjoyed performing, as he really seemed to be enjoying himself while interpreting these pieces. Overall, I really enjoyed this, especially since it's almost lost media. I don't know where you could easily find a high quality version of this, unless you bought something second hand online. 

I couldn't find any reviews for this in the newspaper archives, but there were a few articles and ads for the showing. 

 

Most of the articles I found, usually mentioned this film in passing. The exact date that this was released doesn't seem to be known, but it seems to have been around the late spring-summer time period of 1970. That same year, Price also renewed his contract with AIP (American International Pictures). 

 

 

Another thing I found interesting, was that the news couldn't seem to figure out if the film was titled "An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe", or "An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe". There were advertisements calling it both.

 

Not much more can be said about this one. I enjoyed it for what it was, and just wish there was a higher quality video to watch somewhere. I liked the idea of Vincent Price doing "solo" work. I wish there were more works of his like this. 

That said, I gave it a 4/5 on letterboxd. 

"Scream and Scream Again" [1970] Movie Review

 

"Scream and Scream Again" is a British movie release in 1970, though the genre for this one is hard. It starts off like some sort of Gothic Horror Crime Drama, but ends up taking another direction, then makes a right turn, then a left, and overall, leaves the viewer confused. 

 There are 3 main ideas in this movie, and they are barely tied together by the end of the movie. First, is a so called "vampire killer", where a man was targeting women, killing them, and seen sucking their blood (at least with one woman). Second, is a military initiative that very clearly resembles the Nazis. While it doesn't show any swastikas, the outfits and color schemes are the same. Why this was there, and what they were hoping to achieve, is never really explained. Some sort of "master race", but not in the Hitler way. Even still, why the movie was trying to emulate this, was never explained. 

The third plot point to the movie was a strange experiment of sorts, where a man who was seen running at the beginning of the movie, would be periodically shown with less and less limbs. 

The movie advertised big names such as Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing...though the three are never in a scene altogether. Peter Cushing is seen the least, literally only in one scene, where is killed off. Christopher Lee gets a little more screen time, and Price gets the most, but even he isn't seen that much. I don't consider this to be a Vincent Price movie, just one that he happened to be in. Halfway through the movie, I realized they probably couldn't afford to have all three in the movie, which is likely why they were barely in it at all. 

The movie runs too long, and should have definitely been cut in multiple areas. One of the biggest scenes is this police car chase, where the vampire murderer dude is wanted by the police. It's so time consuming, and acts like it's building up to his arrest, only to take a turn and have him get away. While it was interesting to see how the chase ended, with the unusual death, it was still very anti-climatic. The movie as a whole acts like it's building up to something, yet there is never really a pay off. 

The end of the movie is the most interesting, where of course, Vincent Price is revealed to be a bad guy. There is this Frankenstein element to his character, where he was having people murdered and brought to his lab to be experimented on. He was creating special human creatures that were constructed out of other peoples' elements, like the brain and limbs. Price and Lee's characters are revealed to also be of this created human type, though it's revealed only at the end. Price is killed off by being submerged in the same bath of acid (acid bath?) that the others were put in. 

One of the other characters asks Christopher Lee if it was finally over, and he, so cliched, says "No, it's just beginning.".  Then the movie ends. It was like as if they might have made a sequel, but thankfully, this never happened. 

Overall, the movie was very hard to follow, and rather boring. Lee and Price's acting was great, which is such a shame for how bad the movie is. It's cheesy, hard to follow, and pretty dorky. It's not scary or Gothic at all. The chase scene could have been 5 minutes, tops. The evil regime didn't need to be there at all. There was just too much going on, and by the end of it all, I asked myself, "What just happened?". 

 The movie could have been good if they focused more on the science fiction element. If they looked more at the human experiments going on, and maybe had more scenes of people being used for them, I would have found the movie more interesting. But it's hard to be taken seriously at all. 

Looking at some of the lore online, it appears that even Vincent Price was confused by the script. Very little of the writing makes sense at all. This is one of those movies were bad writing really broke the film.  

 I'm not sure if I would rewatch this movie. It's not horrible, but boring. It's not creepy, or gothic, or scary...it's just sort of there. 

 

I could not find any reviews for the movie when I looked for it on the newspaper archives. 

2/5 slimes 

"The Oblong Box" [1969] Movie Review

 

"The Oblong Box" is a Gothic Horror film released in 1969, based off of an Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name. From what I understand, the movie is loosely based off of ideas to the story, while also incorporating elements that had nothing to do with Poe's story. One of these is the Voodoo "witch doctor". 

The idea to the movie is that Vincent Price, who played Julian, went to Africa with his brother Edward, but the latter was mutilated by a tribe in some sort of ritual. Because of this, Edward was never to leave his room in the top of their house, after returning to England. The film starts off in a creepy sense, but it goes on to become cheesy. 

Edward was buried alive, and Julian used a different dead guy who was commissioned to be killed, so that that body could be presented as his brother for the funeral. Of course, because of Edward's wrongful burial, he seeks revenge on the ones who did him wrong. Ironically, Edward was dug up by grave robbers, who were commissioned by Christopher Lee's character, a doctor that does strange experiments on the dead. 

Edward kills a few people, but in the end, he is shot by Julian and actually dies. But right before, he bites his brother on the hand, and it seems that the curse is passed on to his brother.

The movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really creepy to me either. I feel like it started out very interesting, it captured my attention, but then it dropped the ball. The movie was advertised with having Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, but the two only share one very small scene together, where Price holds up Lee's dying body. It was disappointing in a way, I think many horror fans would have loved to see an actual movie with the two interacting with each other more. 

  The movie becomes a cheesy, silly, mini slasher film, when Edward starts killing people. The scenes where he starts to stab his victims are very silly. The knives just touch the victims and blood magically appears. Granted, I think that this may have been due to the rules that the UK had against violence (this was made in the United Kingdom), so they probably couldn't show much more. One review I came across actually stated that the deaths were gorey, which I guess was just a sign of the times. 

 I could only find one actual review about the film when it came out, and the author didn't seem too impressed. Understandably, they stated that the movie was a poor use of Christopher Lee and Vincent Price's talent, which I completely agree. The movie didn't utilize the skill that both actors had, which I think was mostly due to the limitations of the script. I often felt like the writers didn't want to be too scary. If this were the case, then they shouldn't have case Vincent Price or Christopher Lee! By the end of the movie, it doesn't feel like a Gothic Horror film, it was more of a comedy. I like a good laugh, but I feel like the direction of the movie went a completely different way from how it started. 

 What I also found interesting, was the difference in filming this movie, from many of Price's older ones. This was the time where film started being more "in your face", than watching from afar. If you watch older movies from the 50's and 60's, they are more like watching a play. The scenes are like on a stage. This movie was much more up close. You could really see how tall Vincent Price was! He looked very handsome in this movie too lol.

 

 Overall, I gave this a 2/5. But it's 2/5 slimes. The movie just ends up being so silly and cheesy to me. I really wish that there were more moments with Price and Lee, but if you had this on in the background at a Halloween party, I don't think anyone would mind.