(1957)
Dir - Jacques Tourneur
Overall: GOOD
One of the very most tragic offenders of studio interference, Night of the Demon is a near-masterpiece that is regretfully brought down considerably by the moronic post-tempering done by produced Hal E. Chester. It is an often told and discussed story in horror cinema at this point; Chester shot additional special effects scenes against writer Charles Bennett and director Jacques Tourneur's wishes, showing the demon of the title in full view both at the beginning and finale of the film. While watching the finished product, it becomes incredibly aggravating to think how much more success it would have been to allude to the supernatural forces as was original intended. To be fair, the demon scenes do look great and are frightening enough, but the fact that they totally undermine how much more creepy and psychologically spooky the movie would have otherwise been is quite a detriment. The musical score is also far too overdone and as is all too common in the horror film, the scenes that take place without any dramatic music are much more moody and effective. Still, every person and aspect involved is commendable here except that dipshit producer who ruined it.
(1958)
Dir - Henry Cass
Overall: GOOD
One of the most Hammery movies Hammer never made, Blood of the Vampire utilized both scream queen Barbara Shelley and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster and is set in late 19th century Transylvania. It was also released the same year as Horror of Dracula, so if anything it can be seen as a similarly influential, Gothic horror outing that shied less away from brightly colored blood than films generally did before. The opening scene deceives us into thinking that it really will be a carbon copy vampire movie. Interestingly though, Sangster throws in a number of other cliche elements into the story that actually make it stand out from the boatlad of later Hammer Dracula sequels per example. A corrupt prison, a mad scientist, a mute, a deformed servant, and blood transfusions are all here and the film borrows from enough familiar sources to at least keep one invested in the proceedings. It does lack some of Hammer's more distinguished star power, (though Shakespearean actor Donal Wolfit does just fine as the evil prison warden/doctor), the ending falls a bit flat, and there are plenty of moments where logic is thrown out the window, but it still rides the line comfortably of harmless, gruesome fun for the times.
(1959)
Dir - Arthur Crabtree
Overall: MEH
The first American International Pictures movie in CinemaScope and color, Horrors of the Black Museum was also a co-production with the similar, UK based Anglo-Amalgamated Productions and it is as hokey as anything from either company. Michael Gough, (who was in a gillion such British horror films long before playing Alfred in Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman runs respectfully), is delightful as the treacherous and insane journalist turned psycho killer Edmond Bancroft, though it is a shame that the movie itself is so dumb. A present day, Jack the Ripper-styled re-telling, most of the plot details are asinine with minimal to no effort taken to explain how a character can get routinely hypnotized and sometimes have bad make-up on when he Hulks out, to more than one person catching the killer while assuming that they can bargain with him, and ultimately the killer's master plan near the end which falls apart most unsatisfyingly. Most of the kill scenes are rather good though and the first one positively jumps at you out of nowhere. That said, the majority of the film is boring on top of being scripted so elementary, but the dated sexism and camp value are humorous enough to be fair.
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