Curse Of The Crimson Altar (1968)
Directed by Vernon Sewell
I've had this British chiller on my "to watch" list for years, and who could blame me with that killer cast. Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, and Barbara Steele all in the same movie. That must mean it's the greatest Horror Movie ever made, right?....Well, maybe not. The truth is, Director Vernon Sewell squanders the situation. Karloff and Lee really aren't given much to do, but at least Steele gets an amazing wardrobe.
Though if you lower your expectations a bit, there's still some fun to be had here. This is the sort of movie that would be great to happen upon on late night television. When you're a little sleepy, and your critical faculties are down, that's the time when Curse Of The Crimson Altar's charms are most apparent. The threadbare plot involves an antique dealer (Mark Eden) going off in search of his missing brother. He tracks his brother's last whereabouts to an isolated mansion, and manages to arrive on the night the locals celebrate the burning of a famous witch. The party is in full swing, with plenty of champagne, and topless dancing. The owner of the mansion, Christopher lee says he never saw the missing brother, but invites Eden to stay on at the house. Throw in a professor who specializes in Witchcraft (Karloff), a shifty servant, a well endowed love interest, and recurring hallucinations, and you have an unspectacular, but entertaining little film.
The hallucinations, or dream sequences are where the movie really shines. These are the scenes with Barbara Steele in that incredible rams horn headdress. And it's not just Steele, those scenes are filled to the brim with psychedelic weirdness. People in animal masks, a goat, an executioner/torturer dude in a leather speedo, and kaleidoscopic camera effects. It's too bad these scenes are so fleeting, and that there are so few of them. If more of that colourful strangeness found it's way into the rest of the film, we'd all be better off.
It's fun to see Karloff, and Lee in their brief interactions. This in fact was one of Karloff's last films, before his death the following year.
No comments:
Post a Comment