Crucible of Terror (1972)

That was an excellent one.

One of my all time favorites.

A lot of fun.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There's as much wasted potential in Crucible of Terror as I remember seeing recently. Part of the film's problem is the muddled plot. Things get off to a decent start with an artist who uses a woman as the base for his bronze sculpture. Think of it as House of Wax without the wax. 99% of the movie follows this plot thread as those around the artist are murdered by a crazed killer. One of the characters says something about some sort of Satanic type stuff, but it's only mentioned in passing. It's a "blink and you'll miss it" type moment. So the ending comes out of nowhere and abandons most everything that's happened by reintroducing the crazy religious stuff in the final five minutes. Huh? Where did that come from? It's got to be one of the worst twist endings I've seen.The shift in gears at the end of Crucible of Terror might have been more palatable had I actually cared about any of the characters by the time it rolled around. For a film that features so many characters being killed, it's terribly dull. Other than watching a lecherous Mike Raven put the moves on anything in a skirt, there's not much going on. Sure, people die, but why should I have cared. None of the characters seemed to notice their friends were going missing.Beyond the plot and the unlikable characters, most of the rest of the movie is just as bad. The editing is sloppy. Characters are killed in rooms that seem to be next to one another, yet no on seems to notice even though the victims scream and make other appropriate noises. The acting is weak. The lisping Mike Raven cannot carry the film. He's a very poor imitation of Christopher Lee. You know you're in trouble when Raven is the best "actor" in the cast. The set design and special effects are bad. I think I could build a more realistic looking forge in my basement. Finally, could Crucible of Terror have included anymore horror clichés? I've seen nutty characters, cars that won't start, and almost everything else in this movie a million times.

~Spoiler~ Crucible of Terror...nice title. As soon as the film started, I was thinking to myself "I liked this movie better when it was called A Bucket of Blood." It does become its own film as it goes on, however, it might have been a better idea to just rip off Corman's masterpiece. It seems an artist (cult figure Mike Raven) likes to create sculptures from live women and it turns out that they sell rather well. So a gallery owner finds the home of the recluse sculptor and tries to proposition him to make more works of art. Once there, people start dropping off one at a time, the norm for the genre. What's not normal is the copious amounts of red herrings thrown into the mix. Is it the eccentric artist Victor, his jealous son (played by Ronald Lacey of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame), the crazy wife, or the knowledgeable assistant? You'll never guess, so don't bother. The ending was just so random, but after thinking about the previous murders and some bit of exposition, it did make some sense. Still, don't go out of your way to watch this one.

hammer fans may like this, fair enough it is pretty predictable and stupid at times(most of)but it does have a nice twist at the end. Mainstream movie fans and people with a penchant for glossy turdoid do not have the mental capacity for enjoying the crap value of such films as "Crucible of Terror" you'd better of sticking with "Titwankit" sorry titanic.I am a tree !!!

I saw this thing in part on late night TV in the seventies. Being a mere lad at the time, I was taken a back at how gory the killings were and surprized in retrospect that it wasn't cut for TV. I found this flick recently in a $5.00 bin put out by STAR CLASSICS. I wanted to see what I'd think of it now, so I bought it. Now I wasn't surprised that at that price it was a cheezy 16mm VHS copy in the LP mode, but I was surprised that all the gory scenes were cut out! Apparently, it was transfered from a more prudish television print! I see here that it's on DVD, but I ain't gonna buy the darn thing.. I would rent it though, just to see if it still holds the same impact it did for me so long ago..