Curse of the Crimson Altar (1970)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Pretty Good

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

If I told you about Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele in same movie you would instantly assume I'm talking about some horror movie from middle of last century and if you hoped to see horror you would be very disappointed. Although it was classified as one this movie does not have H of horror. It is not frightening, has no supernatural elements, it is not suspense, there's no blood or sudden scare scenes. Movie is totally realistic and music and effects are more appropriate for some alien SF than for horror, which this movie is not anyway. This is mediocre thriller that has pretty scenography and slightly spooky atmosphere, few resonant names and absolutely nothing more than that. I'm not sorry for spending 90 minutes on it, but I definitely do not recommend it.

Certainly not the worst horror film to come out of England in the 1960s, but it's surely one of the dullest. Considering that the cast includes both Boris Karloff AND Christopher Lee, one expects a whole lot more. Director Vernon Sewell brings zero sense of pacing to the film and instead of delivering thrills, it turns out to be all build up and no pay-off. Mark Eden, who looks, acts and sounds like Rod Taylor, searches for his missing brother at a lodge run by Lee, only to find there's witchcraft, human sacrifice and murder afoot. There's a high priestess played by the inimitable Barbara Steele (donning ram's horns and purple make-up). Lee & Karloff appear in a couple of scenes together but there's really nothing special here. Added to the mix is Michael Gough as a loony servant. On the plus side, there's a great and creepy music score by Peter Knight.

Robert Manning (Mark Eden) searches for his vanished brother in a rural English village, where he is entangled in the legend of Lavinia (Barbara Steele), a witch killed 300 years ago. Lavinia's heir, J. D. Morley (Christopher Lee), wants revenge on anyone related to her killers, such as Robert. Robert romances Morley's niece, Eve, and is aided by occult expert Prof. Marsh (Boris Karloff), but it is up to him to repel Morley's evil designs.Boris Karloff became ill with pneumonia while shooting this project in the freezing rain. It was his last British feature, begun January 22 1968, and he would recover enough to shoot four Mexican features in May 1968, his final screen work. Barbara Steele is always a treat, and she is especially interesting with green skin and a large, feathery hat (if you can call that a hat).Loosely based off of H. P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House", how does it stack up to the Stuart Gordon version forty years later? Honestly, you cannot even compare them. If there is a connection, it is very limited. There is a witch, there are dreams, but the two films are worlds apart.Howard Maxford calls the film "dated and somewhat slow", having "a better cast than it deserves". How a film that runs only 87 minutes can be slow is a legitimate question. Ivan Butler also feels the film falls short, saying the "promise of a combination of Lee, Karloff and Barbara Steele is not fulfilled". These are fair assessments.I recommend the film for the cast and the awesome organ track that opens the film. Beyond that, it is hit and miss and you could skip it.

When Robert Manning doesn't hear from his brother for some time, he sets off to look for him to make sure he is alright. He travels to a remote country house where his brother was staying when he last was in touch with Robert. He finds a strange place with relaxed young people engaging in ceremonies and two older men living out their years as country gents (Morley and Prof Marsh). The place does have a slightly odd feel to it but that is so often the way with such isolated places and Robert puts this out of his mind with the help of Morley's attractive and bubbly niece Eve. The mystery of his brother's location remains though and for some reason Robert has started having very odd dreams.A strange affair this film. Like many others I was attracted to this by the top billing given to Karloff and Lee, hoping that it would be a classic horror worthy of their names. What it actually is though is a rather dated 1960's British horror movie that has a simple mystery plot spiced up with the star names, bits of nudity, drug use, young people and so on. As a total product its main value comes from being a curio piece rather than anything else as it doesn't actually thrill, scare, mystify or really even engage all that much. It isn't awful by any means but it is just the type of British horror movie that one feels was pushed out for the sake of making it as one of countless others – sure nobody pretends it is that good, but at least we're still making them. It is helped by the weird atmosphere that makes it at least distinctive. The colourful lights, the use of colour as part of the Gothic rather than the shadow I thought worked reasonably well, but these are not enough.The story does drag a bit as it has little to offer and it is hard to escape the feeling that 1960's material of drugs and kids have been added along with certain S&M-inspired design in the dream sequences to give the film a feeling of freshness and originality. If it worked back then it doesn't really now as I just felt like these were slotted in regardless of the film – just to get this effect. The two lead names are both reasonably good – nothing to really get their teeth into but they are both still good presences and seem to enjoy themselves. If only the former could be said of Eden, who looks and acts more like someone who should be doing TV adverts of the period – not leading such a film. But I suppose, in his defence, he is the type of person that often lead this type of film while the "stars" were in the darker roles rather than being narrative devices such as Robert. Steele is weirdly sexual as the witch while Wetherell doesn't really have the looks or charisma to be a good person for the Eve character.It is not awful though and that is worth repeating since I have pointed out lots of weakness without a lot of praise going back the other way. It does have a weirdly dated feel to it that is quite nice, while the star names are a massive draw for any fan – just a shame that ultimately it is quite straightforward and seems to have been made with a certain amount of "production line" mentality. A curio piece then that has some entertainment value but is not what the Karloff/Lee banner would make you hope for.