One of the last horror movies of Boris Karloff, this sees him teamed with Christopher Lee although neither have a part as big as Mark Eden, who is the lead. He plays a man who goes looking for his brother and winds up at a mysterious old house where they old witch ceremonies.
Eden isn't much - he looks like the sort of actor who'd have a busy career playing doctors or suspects in BBC adaptations of Agatha Christie movies. He's not a bad actor he'd just bland. Still, there is Lee has a nutty professor, Karloff as a wheelchair bound professor of the occult (Karloff was supposedly meant to play Lee's part but was too ill so they wrote him another one), Barbara Steele in a way-too-small part as a witch priestess, Virginia Wetherell as the girl in the house who has an affair with Eden (he hilariously manhandles her in one scene that I think is supposed to be romantic, and in another one has a very gratuitous nude moment getting out of bed).
Apparently there was a fair bit of rewriting that went into this and I'm not surprised because it's very choppy with a number of logic issues. The climax is weird with Karloff spouting exposition while firemen arrive to put out a fire in the house. There's some campy witch ceremony stuff, particularly at the beginning.
Steele has a memorable outfit, covered in body paint, Karloff is as professional as ever and there are some chills. A minor late 60s effort but fans will enjoy it.
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