The Gonzo Wolf

I wanted to do something different tonight. I’ve gotten on a bit of a Rob Zombie music kick and it put me in the mood for some sixties’ horror. Since there’s a wall-sized poster for this film at my local theater, the image lives rent-free in my head.

I’d never seen this film, but it stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Donald Sutherland, and Michael Gough. LEGENDS; all on the same screen. Also, I remember seeing scenes in the horror magazines my uncle kept beneath his bed back in the seventies. Oh, the therapy I’d need if I were to rant about the things which lived in that darkness.

Let’s see what the fine folks at Wikipedia have to say about this film (donate if you can):

Dr Terror’s House of Horrors is a 1965 British anthology horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by veteran horror director Freddie Francis, written by Milton Subotsky, and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.^[3][4]

It was the first in a series of anthology films from Amicus and was followed by Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973) and From Beyond the Grave (1974).^[5][6] It is also the first horror film from Amicus.

The Rev-iew:

The year was 1965. We walked in space for the first time. Malcom X was assassinated. The civil rights movement, as well as the Vietnam conflict, kicked into high gear. One thing probably happened to draw attention from the other. Sounds familiar, and recent, but I digress.

Movies. They were frightening times. People needed distractions.

A train car full of British cinema gods gives you ninety minutes of early-horror greatness. Every one of these stories have been cloned a dozen times since 1965, so I’d say this film played a significant role in sixties horror culture. Sure, the special effects available to filmmakers in the sixties compared to what we have now could make Land of the Lost look like Jurassic Park. Still, I’m sure some crabby old bag passed out in the Saturday afternoon matinee a time or two.

Do you know how stuffy and smoke-filled movie theaters were in the 1960’s?

Cheese aside, I couldn’t help but smile watching the younger versions of those Hollywood icons work their craft in its infancy. There’s two Star Wars characters in this movie, as well as Alfred from Batman ’89! Saruman The White was an art critic in his younger days? Mind blown!

This is a pleasurable trip through horror history. Perfect for kicking back on a lazy afternoon to ponder how far the genre has traveled in sixty years. You know there has to be someone still kicking around out there claiming this to be the scariest thing they’d ever seen. They qualify for Social Security.

4/5