(1961)
Dir - Julian Roffman
Overall: MEH
Having the distinction of being the first horror film ever produced in Canada, The Mask, (re-released as Eyes of Hell for television in the early 80s), was the second and last feature made by Julian Roffman. Besides its historical significance, the film is notable for its tour de force 3-D sequences designed by Serbian-born montagist Slavko Vorkapich. A hallucinatory hybrid of images based off ancient civilization temples and costumes as well as macabre weirdness such as fire breaking priests, robed figures wearing featureless face-masks, a haunted canoe ride with hands protruding from the water, otherworldly noises and screams, spiders, fogs, zombies and the like, all three scenes where the psychiatrist Dr. Allan Barnes puts on the unholy headgear are strikingly fantastic. It is a shame then that every other aspect of the movie including the entire plot is persistently unexciting. While the title mask casts a diabolical spell over its wearer once released back into the real world, the only thing it manages to unleash for the rest of us is a steady stream of arbitrary boredom and slightly melodramatic acting. Whenever it is time to put on the 3-D glasses, the movie could not be more superb, but do not expect it to deliver in any other respects.
(1967)
Dir - Harold Reinl
Overall: GOOD
The Blood Demon, (Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel, The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism, The Snake Pit and the Pendulum, and Castle of the Walking Dead), is a West German, barely-qualifying adaptation of Edgar Alan Poe's The Pit and Pendulum by Austrian director Harold Reinl. While it drags a bit too much as could be expected, it is also visually magnificent. The set design by art directors Gabriel Pellon and Rolf Zehetbauer are a Gothic horror fan's wet dream with intricate sets full of ghoulish paintings, dungeon contraptions, bizarre decor, and of course cobwebs, fog, and Mario Bava-esque lighting all being liberally used. Unfortunately, otherwise excellent, spooky images like a trek through a haunted forest where human limbs are literally protruding out of trees and a slew of bodies hanging from nooses are undermined by the horse and cart just carrying on through them after the driver refuses to go on about eighty-seven times without anyone listening to him or seeing any of the crystal clear, macabre evidence on display. If the film was not so beautifully creepy to look at and full of such dark, strange set pieces, its sluggish pacing, lazy script, and unintentional humor would probably undue it. Still though, Christopher Lee is in it too so go sports!
(1968)
Dir - Ingmar Bergman
Overall: GREAT
While Ingmar Berman was no stranger to utilizing macabre and certainly heavily surreal imagery throughout his work, he never embraced these elements more collaboratively than in his follow up to Persona, Hour of the Wolf. The first part in the unofficial Fårö trilogy, (which was proceeded by Shame and The Passion of Anna), it also has much in common with its predecessor Persona in its fourth wall breaking and examination of twisted realities and identities. As was usually the case, Bergman himself was working out his own personal issues, namely his doubts, fears, and confusion as an artist as well as his relationship with actress Liv Ullmann after having left his wife. All of this manifests via overlapping, expressionistic scenes combining folklore, other literary works, paintings, operas, and Bergman's own nightmares. The film is sparse on music, but uses its soundtrack in an intentionally narrative fashion; every sound contributing explicitly to its emotional nature. Look no further than when Ullmann and Max von Sydow arrive at their summer island and the motor of the boat that brought them is primarily heard as they empty their supplies, we watch the boat slowly disappear behind a rock formation, and then a harsh cut to the couple trudging uphill with the wheels of their cart signifying that they are now alone and cut off. Bergman has so many paramount works in his filmography that it is understandable to short-end Hour of the Wolf amongst them, but it is unmistakably a significant one all the same.
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