Skip to main content

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

 Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

RELEASED February 28, 1965 RUNTIME 98 mins DIRECTOR Freddie Francis 

WRITER Milton Subotsky (screenplay) 

STARS Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Neil McCallum

COUNTRY United Kingdom LANGUAGE English 

STUDIOS Paramount, Amicus Productions GENRES Horror

Streaming on: TubiTV, Popcornflix




The plot: A group of five strangers gets their tarot cards read, resulting in a 5-part anthology.

Random observations:

  • This film marks the theatrical movie debut of Roy Castle (Biff Bailey).
  • First in a row of anthologies to be put out by Amicus.
  • Donald Sutherland is a BABY!!!!!!

The atmosphere of Amicus films is always charming to me. I love the color palettes and the quaint coziness of UK horror. 

With a total running time of 98 minutes, it's hard to get any depth in any of the five mini-stories. It's probably something that could have been adjusted rather easily, but oh well.

I'm not quite sure why the title says "House" of Horrors, when the main throughline happens on a train. I guess Dr. Terror's Train of Horrors didn't sound as good?




0.6/1 Directing
0.5/1 Cinematography
0.7/1 Visual design
0.6/1 Editing
0.5/1 Plot 
0.4/1 Dialogue
0.7/1 Acting
0.7/1 Soundtrack/Score/Sound
0.4/1 Originality
0.6/1 Rewatchability
Total: 5.7/10 Binge Bones




The verdict: Best enjoyed on a rainy night and a must-see for Christopher Lee or UK Horror fans. 



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Amityville Horror (2005)

  Amityville Horror (2005) RELEASED April 15, 2005 RUNTIME 90 mins  DIRECTOR Andrew Douglas  WRITERS Sandor Stern (author), George Lutz (author), Kathy Lutz (author), Scott Kosar (author), Jay Anson (author), Jonathan Gesinski (storyboard)  STARS Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, Jimmy Bennett COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English  STUDIOS Platinum Dunes, Dimension Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Radar Pictures  GENRES Horror Streaming on: Amazon Prime, AMC, Sling, fuboTV, Philo The plot: Ryan Reynolds pretends this wasn't already done a million times better in the '70s.  Random observations: The moving in montage music makes me want to set the alarm for 3:15am.  Baby Chloë Grace Moretz is cute. I think this is the first movie I saw where I finally allowed myself to realize that dads could be hot. The original Amityville Horror is one of my favorite movies. I saw it at a young and impressionable age and I was still very open about paranormal a...

The Mad Monster (1942)

  The Mad Monster (1942) RELEASED May 15, 1942 RUNTIME 77 mins  DIRECTOR Sam Newfield  WRITER Fred Myton (screenplay)  STARS Johnny Downs, George Zucco, Anne Nagel  COUNTRY United States LANGUAGE English  STUDIO Sigmund Neufeld Productions GENRES Horror Streaming on: Amazon Prime, Epix, FlixFling, TubiTV, Sling TV, DIRECTV The plot: A simple-minded handyman (who can only be described as "the obvious inspiration for Torgo") gets turned into a revenge exacting werewolf by a mad scientist. Random observations: After watching 1921's Destiny directed by Fritz Lang this morning, it's quite noticeable that the film quality of this movie has degraded greatly since the '40s and could do with a facelift. However, part of the charm of the early 40's b-movies of this budget lies in the imperfections themselves.  If you watch this film on Amazon, please note that there are no closed captions available. The soundscape of this film is akin to an arctic wolf sanc...