The House That Dripped Blood
****½
The House That Dripped Blood first came to my attention when
I was channel surfing and came across it on the former AMC Fear Friday. What
was cool about Fear Friday was you never knew what kind of oldie might show up
during this chiller theatre type of late night double feature. Although AMC had
lots of commercials, without them I might not have found Dripped Blood so
easily. I would later find this film in a double package with the awful Bell
Witch debacle, An American Haunting. Although having to pay for Haunting left
me a bit groaning inside, it was worth it to add Dripped Blood to my
collection.
Method for Murder
From now on, Dominick is my partner in crime.
I can remember becoming instantly compelled by the opening
tale, Method for Murder. Part of it was seeing Delholm Elliot in an Amicus
film. I thought it was neat seeing him anchoring the anthology’s very first
macabre tale about an author of horror novels who starts to see a creation of
his come to life in the form of the ghoulish Dominick, the Strangler. At first,
a storyboard portrait, Dominick begins as a character but before long Elliot’s
writer, Charles Hillyer begins to actually see him in person. His wife, Alice
(Joanna Dunham), begins to worry about his anxious, nervy deterioration, soon
insisting he see a therapist. When it seems Dominick is “taking over”, Charles
realizes that he might be overcome by the vivid evocation of the character he’s
writing so extensively about, believing his therapist in regards to the
comparison to an actor falling prey to the role he portrays. When Alice tells
him he tried to strangle her, and Dominick starts showing up in the house and
in areas (like a nearby lake) at a distance, Charles is afraid his therapist
could be right about finally giving himself over to the character from his
current, developed story. Still, Charles has written about murderers in the
past, so confusion as to why Dominick is different does leave him a bit
befuddled. Once the strangler shows up in the therapist’s office, killing him
and threatening Charles, the tale has quite a twist that involves Alice and how
a performance becomes all too real for someone so method the role and reality
merge into a serial killer. While the stories might not exactly leap off the
screen as the most original you’re liable to see in an Amicus anthology, I
think Method for Murder kicks things off just right. The house (its paintings,
wallpaper, statues, stairwell, multiple rooms, study, and idyllic forest/lake
outside) is well lit and quite atmospheric (it needs to be a character also in
order for the title to really connect and impact appropriately), music eerie as
it should be (the house needs to look and feel spooky, and the right lighting
and score can set a mood nicely as is the case with this anthology), and the
chief threat (of each tale) should be creepy or menacing enough to set off each
tale of the anthology. I think the first tale has everything right. The mood is
set right away by letting us see the study where Elliot writes. A skull on the
desk (over a book of Bram Stoker’s Dracula; the real estate agent that shows
the Hillyers the house is AJ Stoker, no coincidence, methinks), a library of
books of the macabre (Edgar Allen Poe and the like), and a big window that
shows the lake outside, the study is ideal for a horror novelist needing to
break the wall of writer’s block plaguing him. The picture of the strangler,
and the later look of Dominick (Tom Adams; quite impressively hideous even
under wig and teeth) build a credible terror for Charles. I loved the “Is this
character real or a figment of Charles’ imagination?” at the heart of the tale
as Elliot effortlessly conveys a man besieged by what he sees. I think the tale
creates a shadow of doubt, while at the same time does seem to indicate that
the strangler might be more than just a creation from the id of its creator. I
think as a hook for the anthology, Method for Murder does the deed effectively.
And that sinister laugh only enhances the look of Dominick, too!
Waxworks
Waxworks has a wax museum and Peter Cushing…there’s not much
more that I could ask for. Interesting enough, Waxworks spends more time
outside the house and therefore takes away a bit of its mystique. A certain wax
figure of the sculpture’s wife, Salome, in the museum seems to draw all male
customers to her hypnotic, life-like beauty. The sculptor claims that Salome
was responsible for an ax murder (of his best friend) and died at the
guillotine because of it, but there’s more to this than Cushing’s renter of the
titular house could have possibly realized. Cushing’s Philip Grayson is a
retired stockbroker renting the titular house as a place of leisure so he can
read books, listen to music, and garden. Trips into the town lead him to visit
the museum, where he spots Salome and sees an old flame in her face. Philip’s
friend, Neville (Joss Ackland), is visiting the area and stops by for a chat
and stay. We learn that the old flame was loved by both men and that she was
dead (never explained, though). Neville also sees the old flame in Salome and
becomes fixated with her. The sculptor’s warped jealousy over Salome and how
she seems to intoxicate customers leads to quite an eye-popping conclusion.
Amicus producer Max Rosenberg did say that the plan was to showcase Cushing’s
severed head on a plate…well, it certainly does provide quite a visual grabber
that adds incentive to see the movie to tell us how this might happen! Again, I
felt the need to emphasize that the house factors very little into this tale,
only servicing Cushing as a residence where he stays while winding up at the
museum one too many times. Good lighting of the museum (Wolfe Morris, as the
sculptor, is wonderfully sinister; he’s even more sinister than his museum),
and a cool sight gag has Christopher Lee’s Dracula as one of the figures.
Cushing seems to try and resist the museum, but one way or another, he just
seems fated (tragically) to return over and over until the final time would
lead to his doom.
Sweets to the Sweet
I didn’t think the house was visually shown as all that
sinister in Waxworks as it had been in Method for Murder, or much of a
character for that matter. Sweets to the Sweet, while creating an idyll for the
surrounding of the house, returns the story to the cursed residence as a child
(Chloe Franks) is practically imprisoned within its environs (not allowed to
play with children or visit a playground for that matter; she’s not even
allowed to have play toys, like a doll) by her father (Christopher Lee, stern
and stoic as he’s often known). Lee hires a teacher/babysitter for Franks,
played by Nyree Dawn Porter. Porter starts to wonder what happened to the woman
of the family, and her questioning of why Lee is so strict and cold will be
shed to light…the mother/wife was a witch! Is this a case of ‘like mother, like
daughter’? Like Franks, the house is conveyed as sunny, sweet, and innocent,
but by the end of Sweets to the Sweet, there’s plenty of darkness and
horror…especially for Lee! This works, in my opinion, because Franks is so cute
and seems totally devoid of anything remotely evil…yet there’s a presence, even
if residual and slight, of something wrong about her, something off. That
Porter is a support and mother type figure to her, while Lee is shown as
distant, stand-offish, and rigid, Sweets to the Sweet would seem to indicate a
story about an unloving, uncaring father with little desire to have any form of
relationship with his daughter…the twist tells us why he is this way, much to
Porter’s horror.
I think we should probably not look at the film as much in
the context of bad things that happen to occupants within the house
technically, but a curse that it seems to place on people who have the
misfortune of remaining inside it for a period of time. Lee, Cushing, and
Elliot are examples of victims falling to the curse while the likes of Franks,
Morris, and Adams contribute as weapons of it.
The Cloak
Welcome to the club.
The Cloak is a real treat for both Doctor Who fans and those who love a good vampire spoof. Plus, Pertwee, much like Vincent Price does in Theatre of Blood, lovingly pokes fun at his acting style and persona, while dutifully aping the vain actor in love with his image character, laying on the ham in how a certain type of horror star might wildly overact in front of the camera. As Paul Henderson, Pertwee is a lot to handle on set, as he criticizes the low budget sets, script, wardrobe, director, and treatment of the genre in relation to the past. He's in love with his status in the genre, unaware that outside of it, Henderson isn't as respected. He considers himself a student of the genre and literary wisdom in characters he portrays. Horror is serious business to him, and so if he considers anyone is not capable of appreciating the genre like him, a lot of fuss will be kicked up. This is also notable for starring Ingrid Pitt as his horror co-star. While this might be considered a less significant role next to Pertwee, Pitt's presence, charisma, bosom, and sensuality are on full display, and her final two moments are outstanding. While a "prop" is the focal point of this tale (a certain kind of vampire's cloak, bought at an antique shop, that turns the one wearing it into a bloodsucker with fangs at the stroke of Midnight, the Witching Hour), The Cloak coincides with the wraparound involving a Scotland Yard detective (John Bennett) looking for Henderson who has become missing from the set of a London horror film where the house once again regains its eerie aura. Bennett, demanding the keys from the real estate agent even though he's warned multiple times to respect the house's infamy/notoriety, scoffs and rolls his eyes at all the cases told to him. Instead of wisely waiting until the morning, Bennett goes (alone) to the house, lighting candles and facing the dark with only a desire to find his missing horror star. He encounters Henderson alright...in a casket and a member of the undead. He also encounters another vampire...the very one who turned Henderson.
The Cloak
Welcome to the club.
The Cloak is a real treat for both Doctor Who fans and those who love a good vampire spoof. Plus, Pertwee, much like Vincent Price does in Theatre of Blood, lovingly pokes fun at his acting style and persona, while dutifully aping the vain actor in love with his image character, laying on the ham in how a certain type of horror star might wildly overact in front of the camera. As Paul Henderson, Pertwee is a lot to handle on set, as he criticizes the low budget sets, script, wardrobe, director, and treatment of the genre in relation to the past. He's in love with his status in the genre, unaware that outside of it, Henderson isn't as respected. He considers himself a student of the genre and literary wisdom in characters he portrays. Horror is serious business to him, and so if he considers anyone is not capable of appreciating the genre like him, a lot of fuss will be kicked up. This is also notable for starring Ingrid Pitt as his horror co-star. While this might be considered a less significant role next to Pertwee, Pitt's presence, charisma, bosom, and sensuality are on full display, and her final two moments are outstanding. While a "prop" is the focal point of this tale (a certain kind of vampire's cloak, bought at an antique shop, that turns the one wearing it into a bloodsucker with fangs at the stroke of Midnight, the Witching Hour), The Cloak coincides with the wraparound involving a Scotland Yard detective (John Bennett) looking for Henderson who has become missing from the set of a London horror film where the house once again regains its eerie aura. Bennett, demanding the keys from the real estate agent even though he's warned multiple times to respect the house's infamy/notoriety, scoffs and rolls his eyes at all the cases told to him. Instead of wisely waiting until the morning, Bennett goes (alone) to the house, lighting candles and facing the dark with only a desire to find his missing horror star. He encounters Henderson alright...in a casket and a member of the undead. He also encounters another vampire...the very one who turned Henderson.
http://brianscarecrow88.tumblr.com/post/90609176836/house-that-dripped-blood
That's what's wrong with the present day horrorfilms. There's no realism. Not like the old ones, the great ones. Frankenstein. Phantom of the Opera. Dracula - the one with Bela Lugosi of course, not this new fellow.
--Paul Henderson (Pertwee), The Cloak
That's what's wrong with the present day horrorfilms. There's no realism. Not like the old ones, the great ones. Frankenstein. Phantom of the Opera. Dracula - the one with Bela Lugosi of course, not this new fellow.
--Paul Henderson (Pertwee), The Cloak
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