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ichthyocentaursCriterion put out a collection of Poe-based/inspired movies by Corman in like, July? and I was like haha of course I'll have plenty of time to watch surely this will go through fall and then they were like, nah, end of September actually. So I watched them all in a pretty short period of time and they are all pretty sick. (Also the weekend before this realization I watched Creepshow 3, so they honestly saved me from even more self-destructive tubi tendencies.) Could I have found and watched them some other way on my own time, rather than doing so many so close together? Sure but this was fun! There will be a lot of talking about Vincent Price he is in every one of these movies except one (he is my husband now).
House of Usher (1960) - Blond and shaved lip Vincent Price jumpscare! I can live without him having a mustache, but the slicked back platinum blond hair is truly weirdass and does not suit him. Some interesting cinematography but nothing like what eventually happens in these movies so it's a little bland in comparison. An ok telling of the story. I'd recommend the silent 1928 version over this, it has some very cool impressionistic aspects and the story might be better without dialog in some regard.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - Torture devices! torture devices! torture devices! You gotta love the Spanish Inquisition. The flashback sequences are used really well in this one, I love how they look like silent film throwbacks with the base colors with black and white over them. I'm a big fan of like, inherited and generational evil, especially when there is no escape, and Vincent Price's character is being manipulated too... but also he goes crazy and decides to murder people, and he might not be entirely wrong to. He's so good at playing these haunted, sensitive sadboys in great old costumes. His character gets called overwrought in more than one of these movies.
The Premature Burial (1962) - The one without Price. There's so much setup in how this guy creates this tomb in which you could not be buried alive in, with all kinds of escape mechanisms and ways to call for help, but it doesn't get used very much in the end (which I suppose is the ironic twist). But the actual twist is pretty cool, and the atmosphere is really good in this. More straight gothy and with less of the psychedelic touches a lot of these other movies have. Probably a good one if you wanted to have a moody autumn/winter watch.
Tales of Terror (1962) - I have a hunch this one would not be very popular, but I like it quite a bit. It's an anthology of three stories. The first, Morella, is a cool ghostly story. Short but impactful. The second, The Black Cat, is like half that, half Cask of Amontillado and has Peter Lorre and is more like dark comedy and is so much fun. Price and Lorre have great chemistry (they worked together on another one of these) and make goofy wine tasting jokes you'd expect out of like, the 2010s. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar has Basil Rathbone in it as an evil asshole hypnotist, and while it's probably my least favorite of the three it's cool how he like, blackmails the wife of Price's character by holding him in soulless limbo. It's a fun idea, and I really want his little carousel of hypnotism.
The Haunted Palace (1963) - Really dig this one, though funnily it's way more of a Lovecraft story with a Poe-like coat of gothic paint, and that works shockingly well. I'm not much of a Lovecraft fan (says this guy who thought Dagon was pretty excellent) but I guess I should qualify that 1. I've never read any to completion and 2. I just don't really like a lot of the collective ideas around it. Elder unknowable gods don't freak me out, I'm tired of people being like woah tentacles!! I'm combining it with steampunk!! (I also don't like steampunk). But. I do like fish people and other weird freaks, and cursed areas and such, so there's certainly elements I enjoy. This is all the elements I enjoy, with a smattering of things like fish people and the Necronomicon shows up. Price is a warlock who's enticing young ladies to his clutches, and the villagers burn him, so he curses them. 100 years later his ancestor shows up (also Price) and moves into his scary palace to fix it up for sale. While he's there his warlock ancestor frequently possesses him, keeping him from leaving even though his wife really wants to and he wants to. Cool stuff happens, and the ending is my kind of ending. :) Leaving it at that. Big fan.
The Raven (1963) - Another one I'm guessing isn't popular. But none of this is in the poem!!! yeah, and that's what makes it great and bizarre. This is just a total comedy fantasy, with Peter Lorre back as a jerk wizard who's turned into a raven, baby Jack Nicholson as his son?? which was so weird??, Price as a very nice wizard, and Boris Karloff as a mean wizard. I love the aesthetics of this one, it kind of hits how I like wizardly stuff portrayed and the wizard dual at the end is so much fun. It's a little slow paced, but that's like the comedy of its era, and I feel like Lorre improv-ed a lot and he's very funny. He was such a great actor.
The Masque of Red Death (1964) - Ooh, it's artsy. I actually wondered if it was at all inspired by Seventh Seal, but Cormain says it wasn't, so I'll take his word for it. It's definitely not on THAT level, but it is really good in many aspects, probably most of all the visuals. The transitions through the colored rooms, the dream sequences, the masquerade and finale; it feels like they were actively reaching for artistic ideals in this one above the others. Price as a super evil landowner who lets plague destroy villages while offering protection and entertainment for his rich friends... only for him to plan to sacrifice them to his friend, Satan. The minor dings for this one are like, the plot points around the village girl he abducts and her lover and father he tries to like, recruit into being guards or something...? I like that the girl kind of actually maybe is ensnared by him somewhat, but it didn't feel like a natural corruption and her lover + father are more distractions to end the story with like, an ounce of hope, I guess. I totally forgot there is also a dwarf love story that also felt kinda pointless and is comprised of like 2 scenes. I wish the plot had kind of focused down on the village girl, her rival sexy evil lady, and evil Vincent Price in a sorta love triangle. Maybe a bizarre one hahaha. Anyway watch this, watch Seventh Seal.
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) - I am simple. If you put an evil cat in a movie I will enjoy it. Filmed partially in some cool ruins in actual England, Price is an ahead of his time... er... guy who likes history (he has a wax cast of an Egyptian bust because he doesn't think stealing artifacts and calling it archaeology is cool) whose wife dies and she's like. :) Nah. And a cat jumps on her grave and I'm pretty sure steals her soul, as the stories go. Price's character shuns society, to the point that other people living nearby assumed he was dead! But though an accident, a young lady finds herself thrown into his life and falls in love with him. Reading a bit about this one I guess they were all a little unhappy Price was cast because they thought he was too old to be the love interest but you know, as a bit of a fan of the May-December romance I dug it a lot. Younger person pulling the older out of their misery is a good trope! The young lady was played by Elizabeth Shepherd, who definitely didn't have a massive career but I want to give due, as she played the current love interest Rowena as well as the evil not dead one, Ligeia, and gave them totally different auras. Ligeia essentially hypnotized Price's character when she died, and is now controlling him at night, and trying to scare/probably kill Rowena if she can. She's all like "I'll never die" and "I'll always be your wife" and it's pretty cool stuff. Good ending.
I'd recommend pretty much any of these, it was well worth watching them all, personally. They all nail this very plush, luscious gothic extravagance I don't think that many movies do without getting too grimy and angsty, or go the other direction and get more violent and spectacular. And knowing that these were all budget films makes it so painful to think about how other movies must waste for often subpar results. I'm always surprised by what makes it onto lists of like, non-jumpscare, atmospheric horror lists because it's rarely stuff like this (whining about how many people will hardly watch movies from before like the year 2000 let alone from the 60s or earlier) but these will certainly suit any kind of squeamish, cowardly movie fan. (Unless they're scared of being buried alive then skip I guess it's a VERY recurrent theme and features in so many of these, even if the original stories/poems didn't include it.)
House of Usher (1960) - Blond and shaved lip Vincent Price jumpscare! I can live without him having a mustache, but the slicked back platinum blond hair is truly weirdass and does not suit him. Some interesting cinematography but nothing like what eventually happens in these movies so it's a little bland in comparison. An ok telling of the story. I'd recommend the silent 1928 version over this, it has some very cool impressionistic aspects and the story might be better without dialog in some regard.
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - Torture devices! torture devices! torture devices! You gotta love the Spanish Inquisition. The flashback sequences are used really well in this one, I love how they look like silent film throwbacks with the base colors with black and white over them. I'm a big fan of like, inherited and generational evil, especially when there is no escape, and Vincent Price's character is being manipulated too... but also he goes crazy and decides to murder people, and he might not be entirely wrong to. He's so good at playing these haunted, sensitive sadboys in great old costumes. His character gets called overwrought in more than one of these movies.
The Premature Burial (1962) - The one without Price. There's so much setup in how this guy creates this tomb in which you could not be buried alive in, with all kinds of escape mechanisms and ways to call for help, but it doesn't get used very much in the end (which I suppose is the ironic twist). But the actual twist is pretty cool, and the atmosphere is really good in this. More straight gothy and with less of the psychedelic touches a lot of these other movies have. Probably a good one if you wanted to have a moody autumn/winter watch.
Tales of Terror (1962) - I have a hunch this one would not be very popular, but I like it quite a bit. It's an anthology of three stories. The first, Morella, is a cool ghostly story. Short but impactful. The second, The Black Cat, is like half that, half Cask of Amontillado and has Peter Lorre and is more like dark comedy and is so much fun. Price and Lorre have great chemistry (they worked together on another one of these) and make goofy wine tasting jokes you'd expect out of like, the 2010s. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar has Basil Rathbone in it as an evil asshole hypnotist, and while it's probably my least favorite of the three it's cool how he like, blackmails the wife of Price's character by holding him in soulless limbo. It's a fun idea, and I really want his little carousel of hypnotism.
The Haunted Palace (1963) - Really dig this one, though funnily it's way more of a Lovecraft story with a Poe-like coat of gothic paint, and that works shockingly well. I'm not much of a Lovecraft fan (says this guy who thought Dagon was pretty excellent) but I guess I should qualify that 1. I've never read any to completion and 2. I just don't really like a lot of the collective ideas around it. Elder unknowable gods don't freak me out, I'm tired of people being like woah tentacles!! I'm combining it with steampunk!! (I also don't like steampunk). But. I do like fish people and other weird freaks, and cursed areas and such, so there's certainly elements I enjoy. This is all the elements I enjoy, with a smattering of things like fish people and the Necronomicon shows up. Price is a warlock who's enticing young ladies to his clutches, and the villagers burn him, so he curses them. 100 years later his ancestor shows up (also Price) and moves into his scary palace to fix it up for sale. While he's there his warlock ancestor frequently possesses him, keeping him from leaving even though his wife really wants to and he wants to. Cool stuff happens, and the ending is my kind of ending. :) Leaving it at that. Big fan.
The Raven (1963) - Another one I'm guessing isn't popular. But none of this is in the poem!!! yeah, and that's what makes it great and bizarre. This is just a total comedy fantasy, with Peter Lorre back as a jerk wizard who's turned into a raven, baby Jack Nicholson as his son?? which was so weird??, Price as a very nice wizard, and Boris Karloff as a mean wizard. I love the aesthetics of this one, it kind of hits how I like wizardly stuff portrayed and the wizard dual at the end is so much fun. It's a little slow paced, but that's like the comedy of its era, and I feel like Lorre improv-ed a lot and he's very funny. He was such a great actor.
The Masque of Red Death (1964) - Ooh, it's artsy. I actually wondered if it was at all inspired by Seventh Seal, but Cormain says it wasn't, so I'll take his word for it. It's definitely not on THAT level, but it is really good in many aspects, probably most of all the visuals. The transitions through the colored rooms, the dream sequences, the masquerade and finale; it feels like they were actively reaching for artistic ideals in this one above the others. Price as a super evil landowner who lets plague destroy villages while offering protection and entertainment for his rich friends... only for him to plan to sacrifice them to his friend, Satan. The minor dings for this one are like, the plot points around the village girl he abducts and her lover and father he tries to like, recruit into being guards or something...? I like that the girl kind of actually maybe is ensnared by him somewhat, but it didn't feel like a natural corruption and her lover + father are more distractions to end the story with like, an ounce of hope, I guess. I totally forgot there is also a dwarf love story that also felt kinda pointless and is comprised of like 2 scenes. I wish the plot had kind of focused down on the village girl, her rival sexy evil lady, and evil Vincent Price in a sorta love triangle. Maybe a bizarre one hahaha. Anyway watch this, watch Seventh Seal.
The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) - I am simple. If you put an evil cat in a movie I will enjoy it. Filmed partially in some cool ruins in actual England, Price is an ahead of his time... er... guy who likes history (he has a wax cast of an Egyptian bust because he doesn't think stealing artifacts and calling it archaeology is cool) whose wife dies and she's like. :) Nah. And a cat jumps on her grave and I'm pretty sure steals her soul, as the stories go. Price's character shuns society, to the point that other people living nearby assumed he was dead! But though an accident, a young lady finds herself thrown into his life and falls in love with him. Reading a bit about this one I guess they were all a little unhappy Price was cast because they thought he was too old to be the love interest but you know, as a bit of a fan of the May-December romance I dug it a lot. Younger person pulling the older out of their misery is a good trope! The young lady was played by Elizabeth Shepherd, who definitely didn't have a massive career but I want to give due, as she played the current love interest Rowena as well as the evil not dead one, Ligeia, and gave them totally different auras. Ligeia essentially hypnotized Price's character when she died, and is now controlling him at night, and trying to scare/probably kill Rowena if she can. She's all like "I'll never die" and "I'll always be your wife" and it's pretty cool stuff. Good ending.
I'd recommend pretty much any of these, it was well worth watching them all, personally. They all nail this very plush, luscious gothic extravagance I don't think that many movies do without getting too grimy and angsty, or go the other direction and get more violent and spectacular. And knowing that these were all budget films makes it so painful to think about how other movies must waste for often subpar results. I'm always surprised by what makes it onto lists of like, non-jumpscare, atmospheric horror lists because it's rarely stuff like this (whining about how many people will hardly watch movies from before like the year 2000 let alone from the 60s or earlier) but these will certainly suit any kind of squeamish, cowardly movie fan. (Unless they're scared of being buried alive then skip I guess it's a VERY recurrent theme and features in so many of these, even if the original stories/poems didn't include it.)
no subject
Date: 2023-09-27 05:27 pm (UTC)checked wikipedia for the tomb of ligeia because i was curious just how old price was in it and did you know the screenwriter was unhappy with his casting partly because "I think it would have been better if it had been with a man who didn't look like a necrophiliac to begin with... I love Vincent. He's very sweet. But, going in, you suspect that Vincent could bang cats, chickens, girls, dogs, everything. You just feel that necrophilia might be one of his Basic Things."
(tbh to me that seems like a selling point but what do i know)
no subject
Date: 2023-09-28 12:57 am (UTC)oh man, I missed that LOL. honestly that quality kind of suits his character in every one of these movies so it was perfect casting. also it's pretty goofy cause he did all these is such a short time period and was already well middle aged so if it bugged them they could've cast an older woman??
no subject
Date: 2023-09-29 07:30 pm (UTC)cast an older woman? as an object of desire in the 1960s? inconceivable!! come to think of it, can a woman be a milf if she's dead? a question for necrophiles everywhere....
no subject
Date: 2023-09-30 06:23 am (UTC)LOL, honestly I knew that was the answer... 60s women casting is very predictable. she's got big tits and looks hot, put her in the picture (said while smoking heavily). hmm... miltdu?? (mother I'd like to dig up)