Another one of Roger Corman’s E. A. Poe adaptations, unfortunately this is probably the weakest of the bunch (there’s still one left i haven’t watched yet). Not the tightest script here - even at its short ~75 minutes running time this feels kinda slow. Also, there’s no Vincent Price this time, whose performance could have transcended the mediocre screenwriting here. Instead we get another golden-age veteran actor, Ray Milland, who gives the material his best shot but seems rather miscast in his role.
This had a very promising beginning - I love gothic horror, and when you start a movie in a foggy cemetery, I'm all in - trouble is, the film has a hard time holding the tone.
Do we get a creepy old mansion, a thunderstorm, and some murder? Yes. Trouble is there is no tension here. I felt like I was watching a period drama and not a horror movie. There was a dream sequence that could have been good, but it was clear the entire time that it was a dream, as if the audience would have been too stupid to understand otherwise. Could have been a nice fake-out moment.
I really can't put my finger on what the weak link was here: the score, the acting, the camera work, all of that?
So, much great horror from this era, not sure what went wrong here.
I'd still recommend this to fans of gothic horror, though keep your expectations low. Turn off the lights, make some popcorn, hope for a thunderstorm, and try to enjoy it.
Shout by Chris BrinkBlockedParent2013-05-06T01:32:26Z
Milland was too old for his role, but the film certainly has the Corman touch.