Horror Movie Maven

Lover of all things that slash, gash, bleed, and otherwise terrify.

Author: Horror Movie Maven (page 4 of 11)

The Whip and the Body (1963)

My take: An interesting spin on the classic ghost story. Worth watching, especially if you like Italian horror.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

I’m starting to see why people like Italian horror movies. After having watched Castle of Blood and The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, a pattern is becoming evident. Those Italians pushed some boundaries. I don’t know how they got past the censors with some of these films. The Horrible Dr. Hichcock and Castle of Blood both had elements of necrophilia. Now, with The Whip and the Body, we are getting a sadomasochistic love story. This isn’t something you see everyday.

The Whip and the Body (La frusta e il corpo in the original Italian) stars Christopher Lee as Kurt, an estranged son returned home. He claims to be back to congratulate his brother on his recent marriage. But he has actually returned to reclaim his title, claim his right to inherit his father’s property, and to steal away his brother’s bride, Nevenka.

the whip and the body

Kurt and Nevenka making out on the beach in The Whip and the Body.

He manages to get away with the latter in a graphic beach scene between Kurt and Nevenka that involves some whipping and the implication of some very hot sex.  The next morning, a servant finds Nevenka unconscious on the beach, and Kurt is found dead in his room, stabbed.

Nevenka awakes from her unconscious state but slowly begins to believe she is haunted by the ghost of Kurt. She sees him in the shadows of her room, finds footprints leading from the window, and feels the sting of his whip.

I liked this movie for the same reasons I liked The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. The story was unique and contained subject matter than you rarely see in films from this era. Adding sadomasochism to the plot managed to make a basic ghost story feel fresh and interesting.

I’d recommend this movie to fans of Italian horror, Christopher Lee and haunted castle movies.

I ordered a DVD via Amazon, but you can also find the movie online. I could not find a trailer on YouTube in English, but here is one in the original Italian:

Devil Doll (1964)

My take: This is a truly terrifying tale of a hypnotist with a ventriloquist doll that is more than it seems.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Horror stories have helped to develop in me an innate fear of dolls. Child’s Play, Annabelle, that one Twilight Zone episode are just a few that come to mind. This movie was similarly terrifying and did not help me with my fear.

The story is about a reporter who is investigating a new act in town, the Great Vorelli. Vorelli is a hypnotist and ventriloquist who is able to make his doll do things no other doll can do. The doll can talk while Vorelli eats and drinks. He can also walk to the edge of the stage on his own, without strings.

devil doll 1964

Poster for Devil Doll from 1964.

The effect is frightening and mesmerizing to the audience, but the reporter wants to know how it works. He ends up unraveling the strange history or Vorelli and the doll’s nefarious origins.

The story was unique but easy to follow, Vorelli was fascinating to watch, and the doll was downright creepy. All of these elements made for a solid scary-doll picture, and one that I plan to add to my line-up of favorite classic horror.

I recommend this one to fans of classic horror and those who enjoy scary movies about dolls.

I got the movie on DVD from Netflix, but you can also find it online. Here’s the trailer:

Castle of Blood (1964)

My take: The movie is a bit hokey and a bit slow, but it does have Barbara Steele in it. She makes it slightly more interesting than it would be without her.

Rating: 2 out of 4 stars

Castle of Blood, which was released as Danza Macabre in Italy, opens with Edgar Allen Poe, a reporter and a member of that land-owning gentry at a bar. It seems ripe for a joke, and it certainly feels like one.

The reporter ends up being goaded into spending the night alone in the lord’s castle. The castle is rumored to be haunted, and those who spend the night are never seen again. The reporter agrees, for reasons I certainly did not understand.

Barbara Steele Castle of Blood

Barbara Steele is dead girl in love in Castle of Blood.

When he is dropped off, the film truly begins with slow camera shots following the reporter as he enters the castle and walks from room to room. He eventually discovers that the castle is inhabited. He meets the young and beautiful  Elisabeth Blackwood, played by Barbara Steele, and he instantly falls in love.

But it takes the reporter far to long to figure out that Elisabeth is actually dead along with all of the other residents of the castle. And the ghosts need his blood in order to keep coming back to life each year on All Soul’s Eve.

While the premise of the story is solid for a gothic haunted castle tale, the film is much too slow to be of interest. The ties of Poe are tenuous and the long shots of the reporter walking through each room seem to drag on. It is evident that the director wanted to build atmosphere and tension, but in that endeavor he failed.

I would still recommend this movie to fans of Barbara Steele and early Italian horror, but it is not one I would recommend to every fan of horror.

I watched the movie on Daily Motion. Here’s the trailer:

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962)

My take: The plot makes this film one worth watching. Necrophilia is not so common, even amongst horror films.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

According to Studies in Terror, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock shared its billing with The Awful Dr. Orlaf. I did not enjoy The Awful Dr. Orlaf, so I had my hopes low for this one. I was pleasantly surprised, however.

The most interesting aspect of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock is the plot. It’s about Dr. Hichcock, an anesthesiologist who also happens to be a necrophiliac. Lucky for him, his wife plays along and allows him to drug her so he can have his way. But one night he miscalculates the drugs and she overdoses.

Dr. Hichcock flees his home, unable to live around the things that remind him of his dead wife (you would think he would be happy that she is actually dead, but apparently that is not how his fetish works). He returns 12 years later with a new wife, who knows nothing of his strange appetites or his intentions for her.

The new wife is played by Barbara Steele, and it’s the first movie I have seen with her in it. I can now see why she became such a huge name in horror. She is downright interesting to watch with her high cheekbones, ink-black hair, and coal-rimmed eyes. There is something about her demeanor that just fits with the gothic feeling of this film and is utterly relatable.

Barbara Steele

Barbara Steele looks out the window in fear in The Horrible Dr. Hichcock.

If you like gothic tales, Italian horror or classic horror in general, I would recommend this film. The plot truly pushes the boundaries and keeps you entertained from beginning to end.

I found the movie online at Daily Motion. Here’s the trailer, which doesn’t do it justice:

Tales of Terror (1962)

My take: Can’t go wrong with three Poe-inspired tales that all have Vincent Price in them.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Let me just be clear: I love me some Vincent Price. If his name is associated with a horror film, I am pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it on some level. Just the sound of his voice sets the mood for a creepy tale.

I did not read the summary of Tales of Terror before I hit play. As a result, I screamed like a school girl when I heard Vincent Price’s voice narrating the start of the movie. And he stuck around through all three stories in this feature.

In the first story, he plays a hermit widower whose estranged daughter returns home. He always blamed his daughter for the wife’s demise, but he quickly learns that his wife’s death was not as simple as he believed.

In the second story, Vincent plays a celebrated wine taster opposite Peter Lorre (Mad Love and The Maltese Falcon). Peter Lorre’s character is an alcoholic, and Vincent Price’s character takes advantage of his drunkenness by having an affair with his wife. But the alcoholic is more devious than he seems.

tales of terror price

Vincent Price playing a famous wine taster and philanderer in The Black Cat, the second tale in Tales of Terror.

In the third story, Vincent plays a man on his death-bed, who uses a hypnotist, played by Basil Rathbone, to alleviate his pain. But the hypnotist takes a cruel pleasure in controlling Vincent’s character’s mind.

Each story on its own would not be enough for a feature-length film. But the short stories work well together. Their short length helps you quickly get over any plot holes or other annoyances. And the all-star cast makes it a fun movie to watch.

I would recommend this movie to fans of Poe, Vincent Price and classic gothic horror.

I got the movie on a disc from Netflix. Here’s the trailer that I found on YouTube:

The Awful Dr. Orlaf (1962)

My take: It took me several tries to get all the way through this movie without dozing off. It was boring, derivative and the characters were all annoying.

Rating: 0 out of 4 stars

The title of The Awful Dr. Orloff could be shortened to just awful. That’s exactly what it was: awful.

In my mission to watch even movie in Studies in Terror, this is the fourth film to feature a mad doctor/scientist on a mission to save the woman he loves by killing other women. As you may recall, I didn’t like Mill of the Stone Women when it seemed to copy its predecessors in this now-cliché plot line. This one was even worse.

In this movie, we follow an inept police inspector who is trying to find a killer. Unbeknownst to the inspector, there are actually two murderers: Dr. Orloff and his creepy zombie assistant Morfo (à la Humphrey Bogart in The Return of Doctor X). Dr. Orloff has been killing women in an attempt to graft the skin onto his daughter’s damaged face (Eyes Without a Face, anyone?).

the awful dr. orloff

Dr. Orloff is in the foreground on the right, while Morfo and a passed-out girl are in the background.

The inspector’s girlfriend ends up conducting a better investigation than her boyfriend, by dolling herself up, hitting the town and waiting for the killer to come to her. It works but she puts herself in serious danger in the process.

According to Studies in Terror, this movie was the first real horror film out of Spain. Apparently, the director had to take his sponsors to see Brides of Dracula at a theater in Nice, France, in order to convince them to fund this film.

While that is a good set-up for a first horror film, it fails to make up for all of the film’s shortcomings in my mind. The movie felt like a cheap ripoff of films I have seen before. The poor dubbing in the version I watched did not help either.

I watched it on Netflix’s streaming service. Here’s the trailer on youtube, which is better than the film:

 

Brides of Dracula (1960)

My take: There aren’t as many brides as I was expecting, given the title, but it is still a good follow-up to the Horror of Dracula.

Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars

The same year that Hitchcock was releasing his movie Psycho, Hammer Films released Brides of Dracula. It’s a natural followup to the success of their version of Dracula from two years earlier.

This movie follows a young woman named Marianne, who is traveling through the countryside on her way to a new job. Her driver ditches her in a small village, where the townsfolk are all spooked and scared for her. Before they can convince her to leave, the Baroness from the nearby castle whisks her way into the scene and invites naive Marianne to stay with her until morning.

Cushing as Van Helsing

I am starting to believe that Peter Cushing is utterly badass. He makes a good Van Helsing.

Of course, Marianne does not know what horrors lie at the castle. The baroness has her vampire locked up in his rooms and she brings young, unsuspecting girls so he can feed. But what happens when Marianne releases the captive vampire? Trouble. Lots of trouble.

 

From the title, I had expected many busty young brides all over the film drinking the blood of men. The film went an entirely different direction, however. And it was not an entirely bad direction.

Peter Cushing ties this movie to it’s predecessor by reprising his role as Van Helsing.  Coupled with the unique story and lush gothic set design, the film is a fun followup to Hammer’s Dracula. I would recommend this to people who enjoy a solid, old-school vampire film, Hammer films and classic horror.

I ordered a copy of the movie from Amazon on DVD. Here is the original trailer:

Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

My take: This film is full of strange elements that fail to come together to make an even remotely scary whole.

Rating: 1 out of 4 stars

I’m starting to see a theme in late 1950s – early 1960s cinema: all doctors and professors are obsessed with their work. And they all must use that work in their attempts to save some young female. I’ve seen this in Eyes Without a Face, where the doctor killed to replace his daughter’s damaged face. The same plot exists in the Brain That Wouldn’t Die, where a doctor was trying to find a replacement body for his disembodied head of a fiancé.

It would really have sucked to be a doctor or professor in 1960. Apparently, everyone thought you were a psycho-killer out to steal their body parts.

Such is the same in Mill of the Stone Women, but this time it is a professor who is trying to save his sex-pot daughter from a rare blood disease. The plot revolves around a young art student named Hans. He goes to the “Mill of the Stone Women” to interview the mill’s owner, the professor. The mill has an utterly creeping rotating display of life-size figurines depicting the deaths of famous women.

poster for mill of the stone women

Poster for Mill of the Stone Women, which was released as il mulino delle donne di pietra in Italy.

While at the mill, Hans spots the professor’s voluptuous young daughter. He becomes enamored with her, but quickly learns that she has a rare disease where any sudden fright could result in her instant death. (Is this a real thing? I doubt it.) It also becomes clear that the professor has been going to tremendous, devious lengths to keep her alive.

The movie has a few creepy elements in it, but they fail to come together to make the whole interesting. I find this to be an utterly forgettable film. Instead of watching this, I would recommend that you watch Eyes Without a Face and the Mystery of the Wax Museum. This film is just a hodge-podge of those plots.

I got the movie on a disc via Netflix. Here’s the trailer for your edification. Warning: it makes the film sound a lot more interesting than it actually is.

Psycho (1960)

My take: This is a masterpiece of suspense and horror. If you have not seen it, I am utterly jealous of you because I would pay good money to watch it again for the first time.

Rating: 4 out of 4 stars

I remember the first time I saw this movie. I was in high school and my mom did a terrific job setting it up. She didn’t tell me anything about it other than to say, “You have to remember that Janet Leigh was a star. Everyone was going to the film to see her.”

With that in mind, I hit play and was utterly floored at how quickly things progressed. Just in case there are those of you who have not seen it, I do not want to ruin the fun too much.

The story basically involves a young woman (played by that infamous Janet Leigh) who is in love with a man who cannot afford to marry her. When $40,000 in cash falls into her lap at work, she grabs the opportunity and takes it. She drives quickly toward her beau, fearful of the police coming after her.

Psycho poster

Poster for Psycho

But the drive is long, and when she becomes lost in a storm she is forced to spend the night at a motel run by Norman Bates…

I’ll leave it at that. But I can tell you that the movie is good enough to have spawned 4 sequels, one remake, and a television show (Bates Motel). I would recommend this movie to darn near anyone. I don’t think you even have to be a fan of horror to appreciate Hitchcock’s mastery of suspense.

Even this trailer for Psycho is excellent and shows the man himself giving you a private tour of the set:

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)

My take: Just a terrible film. I recommend only watching the MST3K version of this movie.

Rating: 1 out of 4 stars

Was schlock a word that was commonly used in the early sixties? Regardless, I am attributing that word to this film: it was pure schlock.

The film is about a doctor who is driven to experiment with transplants, even if he must experiment on patients and with discarded limbs from the hospital where he works. When driving to check on one of his “experiments” with his doting fiancé, he careens off the road and his girl is severely injured.

So what does he do? He somehow chops off her head and carries it back to his countryside laboratory. He hooks some wires to it and places it in pan of liquid, and lo and behold! Her head lives and somehow speaks despite the lack of lungs.

brain that wouldn't die

It’s not just a brain that won’t die, it’s a whole head. I guess that wasn’t as good of a title.

The young doctor then must go out in search of a body, which is truthfully my favorite part of the film. Cheesy, porn-style music plays as he goes to questionable establishments as he looks for a replacement body for his fiancé. It so bad and so over-the-top, it is downright funny.

This film is bad enough, in fact, that it has its own Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) episode. I recommend watching the MST3K episode instead of watching the Brain That Wouldn’t Die without the witty commentary.

If you insist on watching it, I found it on Amazon Prime’s instant video service. Also, here is the trailer so you can see how terrible it really is:

 

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