(1970)
Dir - James Kelley
Overall: WOOF
Nearly every last aspect of The Beast in the Cellar is deplorable. These are not even taking into account any message or story elements because who cares about that when the viewing experience is this catastrophically boring. It goes past the point of unintentional comedy when the entire film is made up of rapidly edited, terrible POV shots of people getting attacked followed by an ungodly amount of minutes with two elderly women grumbling on about tea, feeling fine, then not feeling fine, then some of the most ridiculous expository dialog staging you can imagine. The lack of budget is a monumental hindrance as it is filmed at one house for 90% of the time, which is fine in and of itself if anything actually interesting ever transpires. There is monotony and then there is what this movie takes to near uncharted territory. Not only does it just faintly qualify as a horror film, but it is barely a movie at all since it far more closely resembles a play that was written and performed in a retirement home by its occupants and the only people forced to endure it are the other inhabitants who only cheer at the finale since that means they can go play bingo now.
(1972)
Dir - Peter Newbrook
Overall: GOOD
Though there are a few dubious missteps in Peter Newbrook's The Asphyx, (Spirit of the Dead, The Horror of Death), by the whole it is a genuinely particular take on the mad scientist genre. To fully immerse oneself in the science of the plot, one has to gulp down a generous concoction of absurdity, but as far as the realms of even the most remote of realistic possibilities are concerned, it does a swell job of keeping the preposterous logistics of its universe in check. The story really wins some points in being unique amongst the untold amount of would-be similar horror films made throughout the decades though as few if any others hold quite the same fantastical premise. Newbrook forgoes going with a dramatic score a noticeably frequent amount of times and uses many stylistic editing techniques such as long takes, characters beginning one conversation in one location and then seamlessly continuing it much later in another, and the old walking into the camera to quickly fade it out and in from black to another scene. Really it is only a few needlessly extravagant death scenes you can see coming miles away and the lead performance from Robert Stephens, (1968's Romeo and Juliet), that fractures what is solid here from time to time. Several of Stephens' hysterical breakdowns garnish unintended laughter, especially when they transpire at very pivotal and alarming instances. Still, the film is certainly different and well accomplished enough elsewhere to be worth the watch.
(1974)
Dir - Pete Walker
Overall: GOOD
Peter Walker and screenwriter David McGillivray's first collaboration is the mostly notable House of Whipcord, which is probably one of the strongest women in private prison movies that has been made. The ironic humor is so undercut by the very grim, dire tone that permeates most of the film that it is only occasionally noticeable. The opening on-screen text is the obvious in-joke and most of the sequences between Ann-Marie's roommates act as silly and somewhat boring mood killers that get in the way of the real meat of everything, being psychotic right wing sadism brought forth upon innocent young girls who have the audacity to be flirtations and shameless whilst showing some skin once in awhile. There are some liberties taken with physics and logic to move things along, particularly in the final act when the prison that took several hours to drive to earlier in the film takes but mere minutes later on, (unless we are to believe that Anne Michelle's Julia has been playing cat and mouse with her pursuers for much longer than is conveyed). Also, why Julia is the first and only one to break free from the grand total of two prison madams who act as the establishment's muscle is rather far-fetched as the place is hardly equipped with an arsenal of guards to keep it running smoothly. It never once convincingly comes across as an inescapable fortress. Still, Walker turns what could have been ludicrous and trashy for trash's sake into something that comes off as very consistently dire and menacing by the end.
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