Macabre Serenade (1972)

The Age of Commercialism

Just perfect...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

One of the four Mexican horrors that Boris Karloff made in the year that he died; all of them are pretty bad but Karloff's presence at least means that they deserve a cursory glance from the horror fan. DANCE OF DEATH is a muddled movie which has, as its basis, one of those clichéd "reading of the will" type plots, set in a typically spooky old mansion, but which also throws in about half a dozen other plot elements as well to try and keep things interesting. However, it doesn't really work.Things kick off with the discovery of an eyeless corpse - ie. an actress with a bit of blood splashed on her face. This is as gory as the film gets, by the way. Via a quick jump-cut we are immediately introduced to Boris Karloff, who soon snuffs it - or so it seems. It's actually quite sad to watch an obviously close to death Karloff in this film, to see how frail and ill-looking he looked at the very end. By this time he was half-dead anyway and apparently one of his lungs had collapsed, but like a trooper he kept on working till the (bitter end). Still, it's pleasing to watch Karloff in a movie again and he's invariably the best actor of the bunch.The rest of the cast are instantly forgettable Mexican faces, forgettable due to their amateurish and wooden acting skills. The only one of any note is a woman called Julissa (just one name), who is at least partially memorable but only for her good looks. She was also in two other Karloff films of this time. Also it's rather obvious that Karloff's scenes were actually filmed in America while the rest were in Mexico due to the difference of film clarity and the sets used.After Karloff's death, his sinister goateed doctor makes everybody wait before they hear the reading of the will. It is at this moment that people begin to die, killed by Karloff's apparently animated toys. One woman is brutally stabbed by the figure of a dancer, another man throttled by a knight, an obese victim shot in the eyes by two miniature cannons. All deaths are executed clumsily so they don't have much impact. While this is going on, the young police inspector hero is lying around somewhere sleeping while his girlfriend is in peril! The influences on this movie are clear. They're obviously trying to emulate some of Corman's Poe films starring Vincent Price, with less impressive effects, it has to be said. This led to the credit "based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe" appearing on the video box I have. At other times we see Karloff playing the organ, scenes which resemble THE BLACK CAT made 33 years earlier. Except there, the music was haunting and mournful, and here, it's screeching and awful! This is a very low budget movie, with the direction on the amateurish side. The camera-work is boring and inept (at one point the cameraman's shadow appears on a table) and the editing particularly confusing; scenes jump from one to another directly after a line of dialogue has just been said; no pauses or dissolves, just a sudden new scene. The same can be said of the abrupt ending. However, there are some atmospheric moments set in cobwebby corridors and a crypt, and one frightening scene sees our hero besieged by killer mechanical soldiers in a museum. The themes of killer toys would further be explored in plus countless cheapie '80s and 90's straight-to-video flicks. DANCE OF DEATH is a poorly-made film, but the sheer quantity of bizarrely-mixed elements make it watchable, if a bit dull.

House of Evil (1968) * 1/2 (out of 4) One of the four Mexican films Boris Karloff made at the end of his career, this one here being the first to get released. In the film Karloff plays an rich, if eccentric man who calls his family together for a will reading. He ends up dying and his fears of a maniac stalking the house taking out eyeballs appears to be coming true as the family members start dropping dead one by one. Okay, there's certainly a bit of sadness seeing Karloff go out with these Mexican films but at the same time you have to respect his wishes to continue working. From what I've read, he didn't need money so apparently these movies were made simply so he could continue to act. I hadn't seen this film, also known as DANCE OF DEATH, since I was very young and I remember it being quite bad but this repeat viewing shows that it is bad but certainly not as horrible as THE FEAR CHAMBER or SNAKE PEOPLE. I think Karloff turns in a pretty good performance here, which also includes him not being forced to use a wheelchair throughout the production. I think he manages to be quite believable as the mean old man who certainly doesn't have any love for his greedy family. The supporting players are all fairly forgettable as they add nothing to the film although sex pot Julissa, who appeared in three of the four Karloff films, comes off mildly entertaining and apparently is still working today. One thing that does benefit this film is that it actually makes sense. The other three films in the series all have plots that make no sense and the scenes with Karloff appear to have been shot without too much thought going into them as they really don't mix too well with the "other" footage. That's not the case here as everything flows pretty smoothly together. The death scenes are all silly looking but that's to be expected I guess. Karloff fans might want to check this notorious films out but others should certainly stay clear.

Felt mine was while watching this...but it seems that is the reason for insanity running in the family in this film. Not that makes a lot of sense anyway, as others have mentioned, this was one of Karloff's last films and it's only his screen presence that lends it any credibility at all. It's sad that all of the great legends of the horror films in the sound era were eventually reduced to starring in low grade rubbish like this. Marginally, Boris did get off slightly better than poor old Bela Lugosi but not by much. Boris does his best and give him credit for trying to hold this mess together. The strident background music doesn't help and distracts from any lucid moment. Apart from Boris, the rest of the Mexican cast are dubbed into some strange, clipped, English monotone that is reminiscent of the type used in porn films of the late seventies. At a guess I think it's Edgar Allen Poe's 'House of Usher' that this is taken from but you'd be hard pressed to find a great deal of Poe in the finished article.Still, there are far better films out there with Boris Karloff at his best, search them out and give this a wide berth, unless you want the curse of the 'shrinking brain' too!

Boris Karloff is Matthias Morteval, a dying, lonely old nut who lives in Morhenge Mansion with some servants and tells his doctor friend, "Don't try to doctor me, doctor! I'm disgustingly healthy!" He invites his nieces and nephews to his home and warns them they may have inherited a genetic disease that causes madness by "shrinking the brain" (?)***SPOILERS***Morteval/Karloff ends up dying, and murderous "toys" (designed by his dead brother) start killing off the relatives. A mini cannon fires real bullets into a guys face, a life-sized knight in armor attacks with an axe and a dancing Sheik stabs people with a knife. One guy getting strangled makes some hilarious faces. At the end, Julissa and her boyfriend find Karloff is still alive and hiding out in the dungeon where steel gates seal off the room. He plays the recurring organ theme music (sort of a death rattle used for the killings), the brother's spirit starts talking ("The whole house will go with me!") and the mansion goes up in flames.This senseless mess is too dark, boring and the stupid dialogue never matches the lips.