Reviews by markjazz

Well, this is my least favourite Vincent Price horror movie and I'll explain why. First of all I like movies that have good music and if it's a horror movie I want the music to be horrific, even if it's a little bit. However, this soundtrack for the film sucks! It's kind of jazz rock or rock funk stuff and I hate it. They make a big deal about having a special song, named after the movie, and it's the worst song in the whole film! I don't care for the plot much either, which is an underground Government secretly making a super human race by chopping limbs off random people and making them cyborg like. There's also a serial killer running around rapping and killing woman, who happens to be one of the first of these super humans. 1/5 of the movie is the police chasing this guy all over London and it gets a tad tiresome.

When I first saw the this movie and looked at the back cover I was amazed to see three horror legends in one film, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing. Peter only lasts 5 minutes so it was pretty pointless having him in the film. The only thing I really did like a lot was the dialogue of Superintendent Bellaver. This is a Price film I don't watch often and I wish I could love it because of the cast, but I sadly can't. To prove that this film is bad even Vincent Price said he didn't understand the plot. I can't argue with him!

The King is dead! This is one of those movies that I like to watch but only when the mood strikes me. It runs like a play shot on film sometimes and maybe that has to do with the fact that the story is very Shakespearian in nature. Vincent Price plays Richard who will do anything to become King of England after King Edward V dies. Richard soons starts killing off anyone that stands in his way, but it comes with a price. He starts to see the ghosts of the victims he kills and they taunt him and predict his future death...or is it just his guilty concious playing tricks on him.

Vincent Price plays one of his most evil roles and he does such a good job at it. He even kills off two little boys, which was pretty rare to see on film back then. He also weilds a sword in battle, which I don't think Price does in any other film. I don't give this film to high of a rating because it's pretty cheap looking. The outside shots of the Castle look like paper models and you can tell some of the set is from the movie Pit and the Pendulum, which was shot just a year before this one. Speaking of Pit and the Pendulum, there is a sceen that has Anne calling to Richard and it leads him to her coffin where he thinks she has been laid to rest. But soon the coffin lid opens and out pops the ghost of Anne. It is so similar to the way it was done on Pit and the Pendulum it's kind of funny.

Another interesting note about this film is the fact that it is a Roger Corman/ Price film that actually doesn't end in a blaze!!!

I don't like this film much because it is center around Shakespeare and I wasn't much of a fan of Shakespeare to being with. I will say that I do love seeing Vincent act out his plays, which he'd been doing before he was a film actor. It comes as no surprise that this was the film Vincent regarded as his favourite. He wears so many different costumes in this and he even sports an afro in one bit. The problem I have with this film is the style in which it was shot. It's almost too 70's and it's suppose to be humerous but I found myself laughing very little, unlike some of his other dark humor films. Most of the co-actors are annoying and I don't care much for the band of hobo misfits that support Lionheart in his crimes.

The story is Edward Lionheart is an actor that get's shafted by a group of critics at an award show. Edward believes he should have won so after the show he crashes the critics party, spouts off some classic Shakespear and tosses himself off a high balcony and into the River Thames. Everyone believes him dead but as the critics start dying Shakespearian deaths people start to figure out that Edward may have actually survived the fall. We soon learn he is getting help from his daughter as well. It's a good film but not a classic Price movie by any means.

This is a weird movie for me. I love it lots but the pace is just so off and it's an odd story all together. This movie uses a lot of sceens from Vincent Price's older movies as he plays an actor called Dr. Death in this movie. It starts off at a party and Paul Toombes, played by Vincent, has his new bride killed by someone. This in turn makes him 'mad' and he goes out of touch for the next 12 years because of it. After this long hiatus a producer wants to make a TV series starring Dr. Death and has asked Paul to come back to play the role. However, people start turning up dead and Paul isn't sure if he's doing it himself and wonders if his character (Dr, Death) is alive. The problem with the plot of this film is they use to much of the original film from actual Vincent Price pictures and it gets a bit boring, especially since I've seen them all already a million times. This movie does contain some of the hottest woman on a Vincent Price film. Such as the very sexy Linda Hayden and the extremely cute Natasha Pyne.

One thing I will mention is I always seem to forget the ending and when I do see it I love it! I won't spoil it for you but let's just say what the movie Ringu did was not the first time a movie ended that way. Also, the opening credits in this film are awesome and probably one of my favorite from any Vincent Price flick.

This movie isn't a great one but it's not the worst I've seen. Without Vincent Price there's probably no way I'd enjoy this at all. Oh, and there's a lot of tits! Maybe that's what it took to sell this movie. Anyway, Witchcraft is rampent and it's up to Lord Edward Whitman to get rid of them, but a beast lurks about...a Banshee. Could it be the cry of this beast that scares Lord Edward or something else? The opening credits remind of Monty Python annimation so it's hard for me to take this movie seriously. You will see one of the lamest fights on film about a hour in too. There are a lot of good looking woman so at least it has some replay value.

Well, not as good as the first one, and part III is even better. It does have it's charm and runs like a film noir movie at times too. Vincent Price almost backed out of this movie because of the script changes that left him out of most of the film. The movie has a pretty good plot but there's some flaws in it. 1) The Fly's head is so big he can barely get out of the cabin door. 2) There's a couple sceens that show the actor trying to hold up his big fly head as he runs away from the cops. 3) Phil has aged probably 15 years but the technology, and the cars, hasn't aged at all! 4) François states; "...what if he has the murderious brain of a fly?" I wasn't aware the common house fly killed other living things.

The story begins at the funeral of Phil's mother and afterwards he wants to know the true reason how his father died. After being told he wants to follow in his foot steps, but he is double crossed by his co-worker and the shit hits the fan! Overall it's a fairly good movie but my least favourite of the three mainly because how ridiculous the fly looks. I don't even mind that it's back and white but it's definatly a cheaper looking film.

Well this movie is an interesting one. It's a dark humor horror movie and probably the most "Poe" one as Vincent Price recites a lot of the poem at the start and one line at the end. It's not one of my favourites, due to it being very slow at the start, but it's not bad overall. I find some of the other dark humor movies funnier too. The funny thing about watching this is seeing how bad Jack Nicholson is as an actor when he was very young. He sucked!

The premise of this movie is Dr. Erasmus Craven is forced to confront Dr. Scarabus after hearing he has taken his wife Lenore's soul. He comes to the castle, with his friends, and finds that Lenore never was dead but infact left him for Scarabus. Now it's a fight to the death!!! It's an interesting fight and some of the effects are lame, as with the music, but this one is for the kids I think anyway. I wouldn't recommend starting with this movie if your going to get into Price.

I have mixed feelings about this film. It's a great story but it suffers from some of the worst death scenes of any horror movie at the time. The blood is way to fake looking and some of the throat 'slashes' are funny to watch because it looks like the 'knife' isn't even touching the throat at all. I don't care much for the tribal dance crap at the start either but it does need to be in the film to carry the rest of the tale. This is not one of my favourite Price/ Poe movies by any means but I do like it and watch it often because for some reason I can never remember the whole movie. The ending is great as well. Oh, and there's tits in the movie too, which I think is pretty odd to see in a Price film. It's not the only one he did with tits but it seems so strange to see.

Here was have three tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne and they all seem to have religious implications in them, especially the 2nd tale. All of them are pretty good but I find the last one a bit slow. I think the director did a great job in doing something that Price was so familiar with already and these three tales are some of his best work.

Dr. Heidegger's Experiment is about two life long friends that discover a miracle spring water that has left Carl's with preserved, for over 38 years. They discover that they can make themself younger again, and bring back the long dead Sylvia. But, as they raise the dead so to come the secrets that were meant to stay buried.

Rappaccini's Daughter is a tale about one doctors experiments with a plant that cannot be touched, but he also puts this poison in his daughters blood so that she can remain 'pure' and untouched by the World's sins. However, once she finds love is there a solution to her problem or with her and her new lover be doomed forever?

The House of Seven Gables is a story about a family tearing itself apart with the ghost of the dead, an old curse, and a secret vault filled with a deed and money. Will the greedy Gerald find the vault or will the curse catch up with him first?

Three very well done Poe tales and the each have their own charm. The only thing that keeps me from giving this a 5/5 is the last tale is a little slow and doesn't offer much but Debra Paget is hot! I'll give a short summary of each tale:

Morella is the story of a young girl gone to revisit her father after never seeing him for over 26 years, since her birth. Morella dies at a party and blames the death on her new born baby. Mr. Locke, played by Vincent Price, isn't to pleased seeing her daughter but they try to make amends, however, Morella has a different plan and seeks her revenge on her daughter. The thing I don't get about this story is Morella kills her husband as well, why? There's a funny part where Lenora admits she's pretty much a slut after saying; "I've failed in my relationships with men many times, many times." Haha, I love it. I also love the transparent ghost effect. It's very creepy and still very effective by todays standards.

The Black Cat is an odd story of a man who hates a cat and loves to drink himself to the point of passing out each night. Fortunato assists him home one night and he meets the drunkards wife and soon an affair insues. Montresor finds out, tombs them up behind a wall but doesn't realize he tombed up the cat too. This leads to his downfall. I personally love this story so much because Peter Lorre plays such an awesome drunk and the dialogue comedy is great as well. "Could you spare a coin for a moral cripple?" LOL. The cats roaring meow at the end rules too!

The 3rd tale of Valdemar is my least favourite. Mr. Valdemar is dying and he is using an experimental sleep technique to help make him feel no pain when he dies. This doesn't go as planned as his body is dead but his mind is still aware and now under the control of Mr. Carmichael, played by Basil Rathbone. He orders Valdemar to let him marry his wife but she doesn't like the idea and stuggles with him. This pisses the now zombie state of Valdemar and comes after Carmichael and kills him...oozing puss and all. The story is slow but the zombie corpse is awesome and pretty gross looking, even by Roger Corman standards. If I was a kid I'd have nightmares from it.