1960 horror film Rating: 13/20
Plot: A woman, following a suggestion from her professor Christopher Lee, decides to stay in an old New Hampshire perpetually-foggy village called White-something-rather where witchery had taken place many years before. After several weird occurrences and several prolonged silent stares from the village folk, she fails to get the message and winds up sacrificed to Satan. This ruins her trip. Her brother and boyfriend (two separate characters who I swear may have switched roles halfway through the movie) travel to White-something-rather to investigate the disappearance.
Note: I watched a little of this with Christopher Lee's commentary. The parts I listened to were hilariously non-informative since Christopher Lee couldn't seem to remember anything about the plot of the film. A character would walk in, and he'd ask the person interviewing him, "Now who is this who's just walked in?" Good stuff!
Worthwhile horror fare. Lots of horror cliches are at play here, and there are lots of clumsy moments to compliment the really clumsy dialogue. Lines like "These are the dead who killed Nan!" or "I'm that woman who was burned as a witch a long time ago!" are obvious and corny. Christopher Lee's devil worship cape (gaudy as hell) and his hand-washing from a giant stone-mouth faucet he has in an otherwise normal house? Goofy. One of those scenes where a character learns that bullets don't affect the whatever-they-are so he hurls it at them? Genius! Despite its problems, there's actually a lot to like about this low-budget affair. It's got great atmosphere even if the dry ice machine had to work overtime. There are some ingenious shots that add to the tension and give the film a real texture, a lot of the times reminding me of that Mario Bava flick I saw earlier this year. People are filmed in an interesting way; sometimes they appear out of nowhere and sometimes they are shot at odd, close-up angles. It was also fun watching devil worshipping with a jazzy score. This is recommended for fans of the genre.
Scared:
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