In the 50s, 60s or even 70s, a cast of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine would have been a dream. By 1983 though everyone was getting on except Lee - Cushing, Price and Carradine seem half dead. Still it's great to see them all together - and with Richard Todd thrown in for free.
The actual star of the movie is Desi Arnaz Jnr giving a very TV performance (there is such a thing - see this movie if you don't believe me) as the writer who accepts a bet for $20,000 that he can't write a novel overnight. He goes to Baldpate Inn - and by now film buffs will recognise this is a version of the much filmed Seven Keys to Baldpate.
It's not a terribly faithful version - it does start off that way but then becomes about four old codgers and Arnaz hanging around, wondering about a deep dark secret in the past. There's a crazy old kid locked in an attic, a squabbling married couple turns up at the end (mainly for the girl to get changed into her underwear at then get killed), a few gory murders to perk things up. Julie Peasgood is terrible as the main girl.
It begins strongly, wobbles about a third of the way in and never recovers. The ending feels hollow.
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