(1970)
Dir - Edward Mann/Santos Alcocer
Overall: MEH
There are a few redeeming qualities to the still greatly flawed Cauldron of Blood, (El Coleccionista de Cadaveres), one of the last films Boris Karloff shot, though it was not released until three years later. Filmed in Spain with an international cast, Karloff is wisely undubbed at least and though the well-renowned actor is clearly worn down as he was in all of his later films, (he is usually either sitting down or using a cane), he does bring a level of class to what is essentially cheaply made, Euro-exploitation fodder. The lazy script is not anything to impress as it is a rehash of other "artist uses human bodies for art" movies, full of the same cliches, and worse yet it does not make any amount of sense, using a "yeah whatever, just have them murder people" plot devise. That said, the dialog is rather clever at times and the performances stray away from overt camp, sans a few exceptions such as one of them who gets a completely unexplained backstory of getting abused or something as a child maybe? Yet directors Edward Mann and Santos Alcocer fill the movie with a few random visual flourishes such as psychedelic dream scenes and some gruesome, giallo-style murders. There is not enough of these moments though and the mood still never becomes as ghoulishly engaging as it should be to elevate the unremarkable material they are working with.
(1971)
Dir - Juan Ibáñez/Jack Hill
Overall: MEH
Compared to the other three Mexican/American productions that served as Boris Karloff's cinematic swansongs, the only complaint besides being a rather bad movie overall of course with Isle of the Snake People, (La muerte viviente, Cult of the Dead, and Snake People in other countries), is that it is a bit too slow for its own weird, schlocky good. There is a twist in this one which anyone with half an IQ point can spot almost as soon as the movie begins and the plot is another vague conglomerate of past movie voodoo rituals that we have all seen plenty of times before and since. Credit where it is due though that is not saying much, but this is the least inane script out of the bunch, (House of Evil, Fear Chamber, and The Incredible Invasion being the others), and a lot of the horrory set pieces would have actually come off as rather creepy if most of them did not overstay their welcome by dragging out for too long. Still, a guy resurrecting a zombie and then making out with it, nightmares of a woman also making out with her own doppelganger as well as a snake, and a horde of zombie ladies presumably eating a few people to death, (though this is shown in un-gory detail), are at least more striking than one would expect from such a low-cost, drive-in romp such as this.
(1971)
Dir - Juan Ibáñez/Jack Hill
Overall: MEH
Another poor, semi-mash-up that combines visitors from outerspace with scientists doing scientist things and a sadomasochistic, women-murdering brute with angry villagers after him was Boris Karloff's very final film The Incredible Invasion. All of these collaborations that the actor did with Mexican producer Louis Enrique Vergara and American director Jack Hill were pretty lousy and this one is no exception. The story is asinine and the filmmakers once again forgo the common courtesy to try and rationally explain anything that is going on. Because of this, we are either left laughing at all of it or worse, getting impatiently bored. There is a, (very), few instances where The Incredible Invasion is rather nice to look at with some fog-laden, Bave-esque colorful sets and clever camera angles, but besides that and Karloff being charming as always, the film is a dull mess. It is not as ridiculous as say Fear Chamber nor as forgettable as House of Evil, but it just kind of falls in the middle where not enough is "so bad it's funny" and too much is just dumb. This makes it a pretty lackluster way for Karloff to end his career truth be told, but thankfully the man's legacy was in pretty solid shape at the time of his death anyway so all is forgiven.
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