(1971)
Dir - Ted Hooker
Overall: MEH
One of the more peculiar British horror entries, Crucible of Terror, (Unholy Terror), at the very least deserves some acolytes for its rather uncommon plot. There have been films about villainous artists before to be sure, but not too many presented as a murder mystery infused with Eastern occultism. Mike Raven, (who delivered the camp in only four films in his career, including Lust for a Vampire and I, Monster), is as eccentric as ever as the obsessively horny and pretentious painter/sculptor with a wicked lisp to boot. This has a number of brutal death sequences and ultimately a gratifying, final twist, but it does not quite overcome its pacing issues or flesh several of its other plot points out. There are two scenes early on that are never followed up on or explained and then later story arcs are just sort of unnecessarily there, giving it a bit of a disjointed feel as if either certain filmed scenes were missing or the screenwriters never bothered to put them in. Perhaps some of the blame can be laid at Ted Hooker's feet, who had only edited a small handful of projects before this, his first and last directorial effort. Yet the film is reasonable to recommend both for Raven's hammy performance and for having enough unique and morbid details dashed here and there to keep it engaging.
(1972)
Dir - Gary Sherman
Overall: MEH
The one saving grace to Gary Sherman's dour, desperately dull debut Death Line, (Raw Meat in the U.S.), is actually a bittersweet saving grace. That is the lead performance by Donald Pleasence who clearly seems to be enjoying himself as the rude, pompous, and arrogant police inspector. Unfortunately, said performance starts out pretty funny but becomes a bit obnoxious and unrelatable once he starts yelling at people in trouble to leave him alone. Its almost always annoying when cops act like they cannot be bothered to take any pedestrian in need of assistance seriously in movies, but it is actually worse when these same pedestrians just push officers out of the way and make loud commotion instead of explaining what the trouble is. These are all minor annoyances, but the film's biggest muddled step is how absolutely boring it is. There are so many unnecessarily long takes that watching this movie without fast-forwarding large parts of it would be a grave mistake. There is a dank atmosphere maintained at some points to clash with the blatant comedy, but Sherman really sinks the proceedings by meandering way too long on scenes that go nowhere as slowly as possible. Just think, Marlon Brando was originally cast as the mindless cannibal which certainly would have been a chuckle to see. Still, at least Christopher Lee is hilarious in his five seconds of screen time.
(1974)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: MEH
Far more akin to the barely scripted, incredibly slow moving erotic vampire movies made by European filmmakers like Jean Rollin and Jess Franco than anything emerging from Merry Ole England, José Ramón Larraz's Vampyres is a bit unorthodox in this respect. Though Larraz was actually Spanish, that would explain something despite the fact that his most well known films were British productions such as this. Regardless of Vampyres' country of origin, it fairly has an equal amount of things both going for it and going against it. The Oakley Court mansion, (which was used in everything from a number of Hammer movies to The Rocky Horror Picture Show before becoming a luxury hotel in more recent times), is an excellent setting and for anyone primarily seeking immense amounts of nudity and blood, look no further than here. Sadly though, it is all rather a bore to endure. There is very little tension, no character resolution, and yet even less of a story. Larraz concocts a few sinister moments, but the film is just too one-note to maintain a fascinating enough mood as its undead lesbians hitchhike, get their guests drunk, do naked things with them, drink their blood, and then repeat until the movie gets close enough to ninety minutes to simply end.
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