Director: Daniel Haller
Year: 1965
Country: United Kingdom/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving in England for a family get-together, a young couple find themselves in a strange occurrence when one of the relatives appears to be afflicted with a strange virus and must find a way of stopping them from contaminating others when the true extent of the situation is revealed.
Review:
This was a lot better than it should've been. One of the film's strengths is that the Gothic undertones in this one are apparent right from the start, and they manage to get a lot right with this elaborate setup. They all resonate, with the twisted landscapes, the deformed family members, the clean-cut hero coming to rescue the girl, the black magic and arcane secrets in the family's past, and the murky goings-on in the present being covered up by the distant and cold family patriarch. and do a fantastic job in getting the most out of the fewest possible elements. It also succeeds in building some reasonable atmosphere out of cliché elements, such as the hostile villagers, the fog- enshrouded landscape, a big brooding Victorian mansion, unearthly screams in the night, and a mysterious hooded figure that are well played out and strike as genuinely frightening.
It also features some moments of genuine shock, such as the revelation of the mutated hand and face as it reaches out from behind the curtain and the journey into the greenhouse, which is filled with tension and dread as the preceding events built up around it are quite unnerving. The sights inside it are no less impactful, including the briefly glimpsed vista of mutated alien creatures lined up in a cage in the back or the humongous plants and vegetables inside it, and the vine-ensnaring sequence still has a nice touch to it. The film really hits it's stride in the ending, which is full of action and shocks that it really ends on a great flourish from the battle with the radioactive creature which is well-staged and brings out some solid brawling and weapon-wielding which doesn't seem all that boring, to the climactic house burning down and the race to get out before it consumes the survivors, it's a grant ending and really stands out.
This wasn't all that bad of a film, though, for being as good as it was, there are still some problems with this one. The main issue is that this all feels very repetitive, as it never once has a feeling of the Lovecraft inspiration, but it feels more like the earlier Poe films in tone, appearance, and staging. It's not accidental, but it really hampers the flow when it's not that hard to predict how it will end up, when you can guess that based only on how the movie looks. The film also could've had a better pace in the middle section, as it's constantly filled with dire warnings of what could happen, but the section is based around the threat of something, and nothing transpires from them. When it gets back into the detective work of the story, it does get better, but the constant warnings of bad things to happen despite the continuing recurrence of them and then not following up on them do get a little tiring. Despite these two problems, though, this wasn't all that bad.
Overview: ****.5/5
Excellent Corman-era Poe-styled film, there's quite a lot to like here as a strong, Gothic-horror genre effort, which helps to hold this one up against several minor issues with it. Those who enjoy this era of the genre, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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