Roger Corman's ability as a director sometimes gets seriously questioned - an understandable reaction to all the praise he's received over the years - but if you need proof of why he's more highly regarded than other B picture merchants, compare this effort from the 60s with his own Poe cycle films. It's not based on Poe but HP Lovecraft, so that's pretty good, and has many of the advantages of Corman's movies - an A list horror star (Boris Karloff), solid story (young man goes to haunted house and finds mayhem), same studio (AIP), entertaining credits, decent (for it's type) budget - but is no way near as good.
It's actually dumb and simplistic and remarkably lacking in atmosphere - I kept wanting this to be better than it was. Corman did have the advantage in his films of Dan Haller as art director; here Haller is director, but what he lacks is Corman's skills in pace, and tension. Nick Adams is a weak male lead but actors like Mark Damon and John Kerr were hardly strong; Suzan Farmer is bland in a role which requires more sexiness. Freda Jackson comes off best as the scary mother of Farmer, though Karloff is always entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment