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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Freddie Francis
Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Donald Sutherland
Year: 1965
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Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors – Movie Review:
Directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus in 1965, Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors is the first of a few anthology style horror pictures that the studio pumped out around this time. It's also one of their best.
The movie begins on a train, a passenger car, where one Doctor W. R. Schreck (Peter Cushing) sits alongside a few other men: Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee), Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum), Biff Bailey (Roy Castle), Bill Rogers (Alan Freeman) and a younger man named Doctor Bob Carroll (surprisingly enough played by Donald Sutherland). As Schreck pulls out a deck of Tarot Cards and begins to tell each man what awaits him in the future...
In the first story, we see Dawson working as an architect heading back to his ancient family home to look after the place. Here he finds out that a female werewolf named Deirdre Biddulph (Ursula Howells) roams the grounds, the result of a family curse as old as the building itself. In the second story, Rogers returns home from some travel to spend some time with his wife and kids only to find that a bizarre plant is taking over the home. In chapter three, we see how Biff Bailey has learned the music of ancient Voodoo and how he plans to use it on his next record. In the fourth story art critic Marsh kills his rival, Eric Landor (Michael Gough) by running him over with his car only to be then chased by the severed hand of the man he just murdered. In the final story, Bob Carroll takes a new job as a small town doctor. Things go well, and he marries the beautiful Nicolle (Jennifer Jayne) but soon comes to believe she may in fact be a vampire.
Of course, the introductory segment that bookends each of the five main stories resoles itself too.
This may not be a particularly sophisticated picture but it does what it does very well and it remains an entertaining watch made all the more fun thanks to the efforts of an excellent cast. Cushing, looking quite maniacal here with his fake bushy eyebrows, does a great job as the titular character and he cuts quite an imposing presence when he first boards the train with the other men. Lee plays the stuffed suit type perfectly here, his snobby art critic character suits his style really well and who better to be pursued by a severed hand than he? Neil McCallum is fun in his part as is Alan Freeman and if Sutherland looks maybe a little bit out of place he completely makes up for it in his final story. In addition to the principals we get some great supporting work from beauties Ursula Howells and Jennifer Jane as well as classic British actors Michael Gough, Jeremy Kemp and even Q himself, Bernard Lee.
The anthology format lends itself well to good pacing. None of the stories nor the wraparound segments overstay their welcome and Francis, no stranger to directing horror pictures, moves things along at a nice clip. In each story we get enough of a basic set up and enough basic character development that, once that's done, we move pretty briskly into the horrific elements and then, from there, the pay off. It's a good strategy for a movie like this where the emphasis is on thrills and chills rather than on lasting effects, and it works. At the same time each story is inventive and creative enough that, on first watch at least, you're not immediately sure where it's going to go. This keeps things suspenseful and fun to watch. We also get some nice costume design, some classy and atmospheric sets and some pretty fun special effects work too (the hand again being a great example of that).
Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors – UHD Review:
Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors arrives on UHD in an HEVC encoded 2160p presentation framed at 2.35.1 widescreen, the film’s original aspect ratio, in an HDR10 enhanced transfer taken from a 4k scan of the original 35mm negative.No complaints here in regards to the picture quality, it’s very strong. Colors look excellent and there’s an impressive level of detail evident throughout, even in the darker scenes. Skin tones look good, if slightly orange in a few shots, and we get nice, deep black levels. There’s strong depth and texture here and there are no problems to note with any compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction issues.
The English language DTS-HD Mono track on the disc is rock solid. Dialogue is clean, clear and properly balanced and the score has nice range and depth to it. There are some scenes that do sound a tiny bit flat but that would seem to extend back to the elements rather than the mix here. Hiss and distortion are never a problem and all in all, the audio here is just fine. There aren’t any alternate language options offered here but English subtitles are provided.
The only extra on the UHD is an audio commentary with director Freddie Francis and moderator Jonathan Sothcott that was previously seen on the Odeon Entertainment release from the UK. It’s quite a good talk, with Sothcott keeping Francis engaged throughout the talk as they cover thoughts on the script and stories, working with the different actors, what it was like dealing with Amicus, memories of what it was like on set and lots more.
The included Blu-ray disc features that same commentary as well as some featurettes, starting with the fifteen minute ‘A New Home of Horror’ which is made up of never-before-seen interviews with actress Katy Wild, second assistant director Hugh Harlow, prop-man Arthur Wicks, continuity supervisor Pauline Harlow and dubbing mixer John Aldred. Each of the interviewees talks about their specific duties on the production, what it was like on set and what it was like interacting with Francis, memories of the different cast members and quite a bit more.
‘Tales Of Terror’ is a thirty-nine minute piece where author Stephen Thrower shares his thoughts on the feature. In his typically introspective manner, Thrower talks about how the movie fits in with the Amicus anthology horror movie boom, details on the main cast members that show up in the movie, who did what behind the scenes, the film's producers and their roles in the production, the order in which the stories were shot, some of the ideas that the movie exploits, the film's production history, the use of Tarot in the film, the use of music in the film and the band that appears in it, thoughts on the performances and some of the stand out moments in the movie.
‘House Of Cards’ is an interesting archival making-of documentary running fifty-eight minutes, which was also included on the aforementioned Odeon release. Originally created by Nucleus Films, it features insight from Reece Shearmsith, Jonathan Rigby, Jo Botting of the BFI and Kevin Lyons and it goes over the history of Amicus, the studio's work in the horror anthology arena, how the different performers came to appear in the movie, influences that worked their way into the movie and the film's production and release history. It also allows the interviewees to talk about their thoughts on each story, the performances and production values, how Francis' work compares to filmmakers like Val Lewton and other horror anthologies that came in the movie's wake.
There’s also a twenty-five minute archival video interview with actor Kenny Lynch. He speaks about how he landed the part in the movie, his friendship with Francis, his background in music and work as a singer, playing in nightclubs in his younger days, memories from the shoot and getting along with his co-stars, his thoughts on the how the movie turned out and other details about his life and his career.
A twenty-one minute archival interview with actress Ann Bell sees the actress talk about how she got into acting and landed the part in the movie, the film's budget, working with Francis, interacting with her co-stars and Alan Freeman in particular, how nice everyone was to her during the shoot where she was "too green," her thoughts on how the movie turned out, changes that had to be made to the script during the shoot and more.
Actor Jeremy Kemp also appears in an eight minute archival piece where he also speaks about how he got his part in the movie, being happy to be in the movie despite having a small role, really liking his co-stars and what he was able to gain from working with them, memories from the shoot, working with Francis, shooting his death scene and really only being on set for a couple of days.
Vinegar Syndrome has also carried over two archival audio interviews. The first, excerpted from writer Philip Nutman's recordings made in 1985, is a twelve minute talk with writer/producer Milton Subotsky. He talks about the forming of Amicus with Rosenberg, how they got along, getting into genre film production, coming up with the ideas and the budget for Dr. Terror's House Of Horror, getting contracts in place, doing some film editing himself, his appreciation of Mario Bava's work, assembling the cast for the picture and other details related to the production. The second is a quick two minute clip of producer Max Rosenberg that were actually his notes to writer Jonathan Sothcott about his first draft of a book that he wrote on Amicus. He talks about the film's title and some details on putting the movie together.
Finishing up the extras on the disc are English, German and Italian trailers, two extensive promotional image galleries, menus and chapter selection options.
This release comes with some reversible cover sleeve artwork and, if purchased from the Vinegar Syndrome website, a slipcover designed by Chris Barnes limited to 8,000 pieces.
Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors - The Final Word:
Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors is great, it makes excellent use of a very fine cast and it remains both suspenseful and entertaining even if some of the twist endings are a little easy to see coming. The UHD/Blu-ray edition from Vinegar Syndrome offers up the film in a beautiful transfer and with a very nice array of genuinely interesting extra features. Highly recommended!