Tag Archive for 'Vincent Price'

Triple Distilled Terror: Vincent Price is Mr Halloween

Published
by
Peter
on October 31, 2009
in Films on TV and Pete's Peek
. 0 Comments

Who better to make your Halloween weekend than the one-and-only Vincent Price. Get a triple dose of terror from the Master of the Macabre tonight on Sky.

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Scream and Scream Again, Sky Classics, 10.40pm (Sky 308, Virgin 408)
Over the years this sci-fi horror political thriller mish-mash has aged surprisingly well. Seemingly unconnected plots, as though three films have been tacked together, actually make it look avant-garde in today’s MTV cut and paste generation. Vincent gets top billing as the mysterious Dr Browning, but is really quite ineffectual - only popping up at the end for the grisly acid bath scene. Still, Scream and Scream Again is visually stunning and one to watch again and again.

The Oblong Box, Sky Classics, 12.20am (Sky 308, Virgin 408)
Vincent walks through his role as the brother of a disfigured maniac out for revenge after being buried alive. Christopher Lee has a cameo, in a very nasty wig, as a ruthless doctor. Witchfinder General director Michael Reeves was originally slated to take the helm, but ill health prevented him from doing so. One can only imagine what he would have brought to this gothic nightmare.

The Tomb of Ligeia, Sky Classics, 2.05am (Sky 308, Virgin 408)
Vinnie plays the morbid Verden Fell, who buries his wife in a churchyard despite the fact she’s an atheist. Months later, he falls for and marries the Lady Rowena, but as they newlyweds settle down in Fell’s gloomy Gothic abbey, the spirit of Ligeia threatens to tear them apart. On location at Castle Acre in Norfolk, Roger Corman filmed his last and best Poe/Price film. Although the story is just a wee too similar to the short Morella in Tales of Terror, the film is a magical, evocative and a creepy descent into madness. And once again, Vincent (this time as the drug addicted Fell) shows us that the course of love is a sick and sordid journey. No other film could contain necrophilia, sado-masochism, drug taking and hypnotism without sinking into the mire. A true masterpiece.

Horror Movie Locations in the UK

Published
by
Peter
on August 28, 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

British Horror Movie Locations

From The Abominable Dr Phibes to Witchfinder General, Derek Pykett’s unique guidebook, British Horror Film Locations, is a must-have for all British horror fans and those fascinated by the making of them.

Covering 100 British horror films between the years 1932 to 2006, the book provides credits, plot synopsis, and a description of the shooting locations for each entry, while separate chapters provide in-depth accounts of the locations themselves.

Amongst the surprises are locations that I have always wanted to visit, but never knew where they were; including Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk, which served as the setting for Roger Corman’s 1965 film The Tomb of Ligeia; Grim’s Dyke hotel in Harrow, where Boris Karloff filmed one of his last films, Curse of the Crimson Altar in 1968 and the fantastic Wykehurst Place in West Sussex which took centre stage as the Belasco House in the granddaddy of haunted house movies, Legend of the Hell House in 1973.

Well done Derek! This is a true labour of love. But my heart goes out to location hunter Simon Flynn, who braved security guards, ferocious guard dogs, barbed wire and nettles in his quest to get the best photographs. Thanks, it was worth the effort.

And thanks to this book, I won’t be going abroad anytime soon as I’m already planning my next holiday taking in some of the book’s amazing destinations. Next stop Norfolk!