A young couple find themselves stuck in the path of a vengeful psychiatrist who wants to get back at a demonic architect for taking everything away for him.

Even though Lugosi and Karloff portray their characters very well, the real star is the house. With it’s art deco and expressionist touches, mixed with the old war battlements, the house sets give a very surrealist and almost evil feeling to it where “even the phones are dead”. Director Edgar Ulmer also plays a grand part. He directed this movie as well as written it very well. The conversations between Lugosi and Karloff are almost like knife fights.

The only fault with this movie is that it’s too short. I’m pretty sure things could have been fleshed out a bit more. Maybe more conversations during the chess match or a monologue about how the war has affected them. I think that Karloff’s satanic intentions could have been worked upon as well. Almost anything about the characters of Hjalmar and Vitus would have been great.

This is a “have” in your collection. Not only for Lugosi and Karloff, but also for Ulmer, who later on, becomes the forefather of Giallo.

4 stars.

Benjamin Christensen looks at the Witch Hunts of the middle ages and relates it to not only persecution from the Church, but of Hysteria and other mental illnesses.

A lot of people mistake this movie as a horror movie. And a statement can be debated since Christensen does use not only noted actors and actresses in Dutch silent cinema as well as use several forms of special effects. Some newly invented by Christensen and crew. The truth, on the other hand. is that this is a very well thought out documentary on the ignorance involved in a dark chapter of the human race. The special effects serve to show us the fevor and dementia the subjects suffer through. This is what makes the movie unique.

The movie was repackaged in 1968 by Explotationer Anthony Blauch. He gave it a jazz score, shortened the run time and gave it a voice over by Beat artist William Burroughs. Even though this gained new interest in the movie, I’d have to say that the repackage had ruined some of it’s luster. Christensen had himself said that this movie would not do well as a talkie. And he was correct. As much as I like Burroughs, his voice over didn’t add anything to the movie. The jazz was also completely wrong for some scenes then others. In short, Blauch was playing the movie on only it’s uniqueness instead of trying to convey a lesson to all while having fun.

This is something to look out for. Christensen is one of the unsung heroes not only in the fields of Horror or Documentation, but of Film itself. A real jewel to one’s collection.

4 stars.

A beautiful couple meet people who seem to be distant college friends and are invited to their country mansion. Once there, the couple slowly find out their hosts are Satanists.

Now, I’m not going to lie to you. This is a eurotrash sexploitation flick. In fact, it was one of the first films to pick up Spain’s “S” (Sex) label that was instituted after Franco’s death. What makes the movie above the rest is the constant atmosphere of something that isn’t right. And while this was considered a hard core horror movie, the slim budget used to make the picture gave them no room for very little gore. This gave them more interest and time to concentrate on disturbing imagery.

That being said, there are some weaknesses to the movie. Mainly it didn’t know what version of “Satanism” it wanted to be. One minute it’s cribbing LeVey, another minute Alistair Crowley, then it goes Dennis Wheatley, then it’s Montague Summers, Catholic texts and rhetoric, Mad Magazine. By the end of the movie, it’s so all over the place, you need to take an aspirin just to recover from it.

This leads us to another weakness. I don’t think the director, Carlos Puerto, knew what the hell he was doing. I think he wrote out my first paragraph of this review and just went with it. “Mariana! We need you to look more terrifying! Stoop over that bowl and pretend to eat like a dog! WAIT! Someone get some blood goop on her lip. Yeeessss. Very nice. Ok. Ready! Camera! ACTION!!” I mean it’s almost ridiculous. He trys to get too much in so little time. It just bunches up and falls over itself.

All in all, it’s a nice film to own. Something to watch on Sundays or days that seem to drag on. Not a classic by any means, but fun none the less. Plus you can wank to it.

Two and a half stars.