Well folks it's that time of the year once again... the month where I realise how many movie write ups I forgot to get done. Where does the time go? Luckily this means I can cover a few interesting items that all fit under a vague genre umbrella, specifically weird bleak 1970s horror films (though I will go off topic momentarily). We've got vampires, haunted houses, devil worshippers and nuisance phone calls. Just the sort of heart warming selection the whole family can enjoy. It certainly puts a big smile on my face...
To kick things off let's take a gander at Burnt Offerings (1976) which gets my attention for the cast alone. The Rolf family check out a rural house (one that will look familiar to Phantasm fans) as they look for somewhere that will serve as a nice summer getaway. Like The Changeling this is a classy affair filled with great performances and a central location that immediately exudes a creepy atmosphere. But similarly the big mystery at the centre of the story (in this case that the house is changing everyone's behaviour) is too straightforward, meaning that you'll know exactly what is going on well before the ending.
But the characters are all great, even if the weird old house owners (Eileen Heckart and Burgess Meridith) vanish from the tale far too early. They're a perfect pair of eccentric weirdos and I'd liked to have seen more of them. The family taking up residence includes father Ben (Oliver Reed) who starts to become both strangely aggressive and strangely afraid at random intervals. His behaviour becomes far to rough with his son but also suffers from eerie waking nightmares about a funeral he saw as a child. If anything the film offers a good variety of freak out scenes.
His aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis) is also a memorable inclusion, starting out as sardonic and full of life but descending into a different sort of madness. Karen Black as his wife Marian has less to work with but gives a strong performance as she starts to become obsessed with the house which seems to be a character of its own at times. The spookiness at the heart of the narrative is kind of predictable and your mileage may vary because of this. I could do with more sinister goings on and less drawn out reveals of the inevitable. But it's often striking and bizarre enough to be entertaining overall.
3/5
Trilogy of Terror (1975) on the other hand is far more hit and miss, despite Karen Black having fun as a main character in every chapter. I expected more since although this is a TV movie it's still written by Richard Matheson, and horror anthologies are my sort of thing. But with only three tales there's a lot of room for things to overstay their welcome, unlike other films that sometimes feature at least four and may also add a bookend story for good measure. The pacing and the content here could have done with more work overall.
The opening chiller at least has a good twist as a college student develops a crush on a teacher and develops a pretty slimy plan to start a relationship. Or does he? This chapter at least has a surprisingly dark conclusion, which can't be said of the second one which involves twins (both Karen Black of course) with very different personalities. It's almost immediately apparent what's going on here, despite her portrayal of the two sisters being really effective. Maybe they could have mined something more from a story of sexual urges and past trauma, but they barely scratch the surface.
Last up is a story about a woman who comes home after buying a wooden ornament; a figurine of a tribal warrior. She was told that the gold chain it wears keeps the spirit of a killer contained inside the statue... so of course it gets broken and lost pretty quickly. It's clearly far more tongue in cheek than the preceding stories but it's just as underwhelming. The sudden jolt of fun the central idea injects is badly needed but in the end it's not enough. With two more segments it might have all come together -- but they'd need to have been the standout chapters.
2/5
Elsewhere let's take a look at a different kind of mystery, one which the main characters are trying to keep under wraps. Countess Dracula (1971) is the sort of Hammer feature in which they'd begun to move away from standard Gothic chillers by adding more racy content. So it makes perfect sense that they'd cast Ingrid Pitt as Elizabeth Bathory (although a lot the names and details have been changed of course). What makes less sense is why she's been dubbed with a cheesy English accent. Surely her real voice was perfect for this sort of thing? Maybe it's because everyone else is apparently British in this version of Hungary...
The story is of course the tale of an evil ruler using the blood of virgin women to become young again. It's pretty effective even if the weird vampire logic isn't really explained in this version of events (the silly title is just badly shoehorned in at the end with dubbing that is even worse). It seems as though everyone in her inner circle already knows about this even if they don't learn the specifics until later. Nigel Green as her long time suitor Captain Dobi just seems permanently annoyed about this whole thing. Although that's part of the entertainment value I guess.
There are a series of deaths and a lot of investigations and cover ups as the Countess tries to seduce her newer younger suitor Lieutenant Toth (Sandor Elès) by posing as her own daughter. The problem is that by the third act there's nothing left to reveal and they drag out the kidnap of her real daughter to laughable lengths. It's a fairly dark and moody chiller for the most part although the locations used are pretty drab and it lacks the sort of production design from Hammer's earlier releases. But viewed in its intended double bill form alongside Vampire Circus and there's plenty of fun to be had.
3/5
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