As part of that generation who were exposed to the Universal
horror icons via shock cinema styled shows on late night television I was
always well aware of the names of the stars of those features. For those among
us as well as audiences who thrilled to those same films when they were
originally released the name of Boris Karloff meant gold. If the movie starred
Karloff the odds of it being great were pretty good.
That all changed late in his career. Whether due to a desire
to continue working or perhaps financial reasons Karloff ended his career
making some movies that ranged between terrible and so so. It was a sad end to
a legacy that has dwindled in recent years. Today’s youth have no idea who the
man was but then they don’t know the names Cagney or Bogart either. They’re too
caught up in their own world, their own time period, to recognize what was
great that came before. One can only hope that a collection like this is not
their introduction to the name Karloff.
This package brought to us by VCI attempts to provide those
last movies to fans of Karloff in spite of how they turned out. And for those
who are anxious to have every single film available on disc at their disposal I
would say by all means pick this one up. For the rest this isn’t one I can
suggest picking up let alone watching.
The set collects 4 of the last 5 movies Karloff made before
passing away in 1969, two of which were released after his death. Shot in
Mexico on near non-existent budgets they are pretty bad. The first film in the
set is DANCE OF DEATH AKA HOUSE OF EVIL. The film features Karloff as the
patriarch of a family whose members are all in need of money. When he dies
after their arrival the rest begin being killed off by a number of deadly toys.
Next up is TORTURE ZONE AKA FEAR CHAMBER. This time around
Karloff spends most of his onscreen time sitting behind a desk. As the head of
an institute investigating a volcano they discover a rock that is a living
being. Unfortunately the rock lives on the hormones secreted by humans when
they become afraid.
Third on the menu is CULT OF THE DEAD AKA ISLE OF THE SNAKE
PEOPLE. Here Karloff stars as the evil priest Damballah the head of a voodoo
cult on a small island. A sinister snake dancer named Kalea transforms beautiful
native girls into zombies and then leads them to attack and devour anyone who
gets in their way.
The fourth and final film in the set is ALIEN TERROR. In 1890
Gudenberg Professor John Mayer (Karloff) has invented a ray gun that runs on
nuclear power. Shooting the ray into space it attracts a group of aliens who
decide that the people of Earth are too primitive to possess such a weapon and
set out to destroy it.
All of the films here look pretty bad and the budgets that
were this low show in the production value of the film. I’m not sure that any
sort of restoration of these movies would have made them look any better and my
guess is that it will never happen. I wouldn’t place them in the category of Ed
Wood style bad movies but they are indeed lacking. But fans of Karloff who want
to make certain they have as many of his movies as are out there will want to
make a point of picking this one up.
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