How could you go wrong with a horror film that proclaims
Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price all starring in the same film?
Well the makers of this movie tried to do whatever they could wrong and have
succeeded. A true disappointment for horror fans. I tried to like this one the
first time I saw it and did again this time around. Both times left me
wondering what they were thinking.
The plot put simply involves a serial killer who is draining
the blood of his victims in London. The police track him down to the home of an
eccentric scientists. From there more plotlines evolve including a top secret
organization that plans on conquering the world with a superhuman race of
beings they’ve created. Tossed in are sequences in some Eastern European fascists
state and various governmental groups in England and you have a mish mash of
storylines that makes the movie confusing at best and nonsensical at worst. The
story is so convoluted that you wonder just who is with or against who from
scene to scene.
Perhaps the most terrible thing about this movie is that the
three icons of horror included here are so utterly wasted it makes it apparent
their inclusion was done just to sell tickets. Cushing has what amounts to a
cameo appearance as does Lee. Price, a great actor when given the part, hams it
up with a role that gets enough to not qualify as a cameo but isn’t enough to
get star billing either. The fact that they don’t perform together also doesn’t
help this film.
I’ve been stunned to find reviews where people have actually
said they liked this film. For the most part horror fans have had little good
to say about it over the years and the odds are that isn’t likely to change
with this version being made available.
Twilight Time has done their best to make this THE version
you want to own but my suggestion would be that only fans invest the time and
money for this one. While Twilight Time has done a great job on the extras I
found them to be more interesting than the movie itself. Included are:
-An Isolated Score Track
-Audio Commentary with Film Historians David Del Valle and
Tim Sullivan
-Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler at AIP
-An Interview with Uta Levka
-A Still Gallery
-Radio Spots
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