Romance of Mystery

Directed by Douglas Hickox
Written by Anthony Greville-Bell
Starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry, Milo O'Shea, Michael Hordern and Harry Andrews
"To slay or not to slay? That is the question!" Vincent Price, that immortal king of terror, delivers one of his finest performances in this dandy little film. It�s filled with as many laughs as it is with screams and it�s a jolly good time for everyone involved. You won�t want to be late for this performance. You better hurry to your seat now. People are simply dying to get in.
Edward Lionheart, a vigorous if somewhat hammy Shakespearean actor, confronts a group of pompous and cruel critics who have ridiculed him for years. Deprived of the theatrical award that was to be his after his flawless season of the Bard�s best work, the distressed Lionheart hurls himself over a railing to his watery death. Or so it would seem. Unfortunately for all the critics who penned their scathing reviews, Lionheart has returned with a bitter taste for vengeance. Seeking inspiration from the plays he so loves, Edward formulates a complex plan to murder all his critics using the gory deaths that highlighted Shakespeare�s famous tragedies�

Just from that plot alone you know that you�re in for a good time (this would be a great introduction to William Shakespeare for a high school English class!). All the killings are inventive and spirited, and they never shy away from the red stuff. Price delivers an awesome spear to the chest for one poor bloke and then has his corpse dragged along by the tail of a rollicking horse. And who can forget that rib-tickling moment when Edward and his accomplice are beheading a sedated chap in his bed to the sweet melody of beautiful orchestra music. Edward even rolls his eyes at his partner�s incompetence as blood spurts up in the air like a fountain. Pure ghoulish delight, ladies and gentlemen.

The film itself is very reminiscent of the Dr. Phibes movies, another vehicle that Price starred in as a cackling villain. Both they and Theatre of Blood have Price playing wronged men who seek to destroy a group of less-than-admirable individuals with unique methods (in the first Phibes movie it was death by the biblical Ten Plagues of Egypt). But this film can very well stand on its own, no doubt due to the beautiful artistry of Vincent Price. He can be force feeding a pie made out of poodle flesh to a squirming victim and make it look like an Academy Award winning performance. The man is simply game to do anything and his enthusiasm for the role shines in every scene. If for nothing else, watch this movie just for the scene of Vincent Price masquerading as a homosexual hair dresser, afro included. You�ll be thanking me for quite some time.

Only an actor like Price can transfer from a hilarious moment like this to a completely solemn, eerie scene where he cryptically delivers haunting lines of Shakespeare. His fiery passion permeates even the dank and rotting atmosphere that shadows the entire movie. Like Edward Lionheart, Price delivers an outstanding performance of a man who lives out every actor�s dream by distributing cold, poetic justice to those damn critics! Your eyes will be glued to the screen from the thrilling opening ala Julius Caesar to the somber, fiery climax. When the curtains close for the final act of this tragedy, don�t be surprised if you catch yourself shouting "Encore!"

Labels: 1970S, Revenge, Shakespeare, The Crypt, Theatre Of Blood, Vincent Price

Directed by D. W. Griffith
Written by Frank E. Woods
Starring Arthur V. Johnson, Marion B. Leonard, and Henry B. Walthall
One of the first films of the great silent director D. W. Griffith, The Sealed Room is more of a melodrama than a straight horror film, painted only darker by its grim ending. A count has a private room built especially for his beautiful wife. But what the good count doesn't suspect is that his darling wife enjoys meeting with her lover, the handsome minstrel, within the room to play music and frolic in their secret love.
Too bad for them that the count eventually discovers their affair. But instead of running them through with a sword, the count devises a more terrible fate and has the only opening sealed with bricks and mortar. Drawing obvious inspiration from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe and the prevalent fears of premature burials, the short film manages to be an entertaining drama of that oft-told story of a scorned lover�s revenge. It�s still amazing that the cheating couple wasn�t able to hear those bricks being placed though, isn�t it?

Labels: 1900S, D.W. Griffith, Early Terrors, Premature Burial, Revenge, The Crypt

Runtime: 120 minutes
Country: South Korea
Cast and Crew
Directed by Park Chan-wook
Written by Hwang Jo-yun, Lim Chun-hyeong, and Park Chan-wook, Based on the comic by Nobuaki Minegishi
Starring Choi Min-sik, Yu Ji-Tae, Kang Hye-jeong, and Ji Dae-han
Written by Nick Hishmeh
"Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone." Though this line was originated by suicidal poet Virgina Wolfe, it sounds so much better when the main character Oh Dae-su says it. Much of the film Oldboy is dependent on the main character, played by South Korean actor Choi Min-sik and his performance. The film, which is part of a trilogy and this being the best of them, is a meditation of revenge and other darker aspects of human nature that are not normally touched upon in film. Sure, revenge is seen enough, but it is always justified revenge with everything turning out just fine in the end. Don�t expect that Hollywood ending crap here. This is not meant to be seen by the weak of heart.
The premise of the film is that average man Oh Dae-su is taken one night and locked away in a prison, a rather small hotel room with only the bare essentials of a fridge, a bed and a TV. As time goes on and he experiences lapses of sanity and grows ever despondent, he eventually comes to a conclusion: he will escape and kill whoever was responsible. More than kill, like a beast he will eat the man, devouring him. From this moment, the character of Oh Dae-su is not the same one as before his kidnapping. Much like Darth Vader is a completely different character than Anakin Skywalker, so is the released Oh Dae-su from the one we saw at the beginning of the film.
What we see in the rest of the film is the adventure of this beast. The sheer level of brutality and depravity that appears on screen is handled so well that it puts other films to shame. Torture porn films like Hostel have far more gruesome onscreen events, but they have little weight to the viewer. Director Park Chan-wook manages to create a sense of poetry to the film, littering it with beautiful shots and quotes that sound and appear as if they should be in a play. This only helps to make the cruelty so much more effective.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the film is the fact that almost every action Oh-Dae Su takes furthers his suffering and pain all to attain his revenge. If Oh Dae-su simply chose not to seek revenge, life would be a lot better for him. At the very end of the film a question is posed to the audience. It�s in regards to the fate of Oh Dae-su. I suppose that whatever answer you give yourself, it really reveals how you view the world after watching this twisted morality tale.
Trailer

Labels: 2000S, Gore, Korea, Oldboy, Revenge, The Crypt