Totentanz im Schreckensschloß

I've now seen three out of the four Mexican horror movies that that Boris Karloff appeared in (just The Incredible Invasion to go), and of those, Fear Chamber is the worst. But House of Evil comes close.

Karloff plays Matthias Morteval, who summons his relatives to his 'old, dark' home to reveal the contents of his will. After Morteval finally dies, his guests are killed one by one by the old man's mechanical toys. Police inspector Charles Beasler (Andrés García), boyfriend of heiress Lucy Durant (Julissa), comes to suspect that his current case is somehow connected to Morteval and his family.

What a total mess of a movie. Karloff is fine, but the script and direction are all over the place, while the mechanical toys are ridiculous. To make matters worse, much of the action is accompanied by horribly intrusive discordant organ music that really grates on the nerves.

After lots of dull nonsense, very little of which makes sense, it is revealed that Morteval is still alive and has been orchestrating the murders.

2/10. For Karloff completists only.

Felt mine was while watching this...but it seems that is the reason for insanity running in the family in this film. Not that makes a lot of sense anyway, as others have mentioned, this was one of Karloff's last films and it's only his screen presence that lends it any credibility at all. It's sad that all of the great legends of the horror films in the sound era were eventually reduced to starring in low grade rubbish like this. Marginally, Boris did get off slightly better than poor old Bela Lugosi but not by much.

Boris does his best and give him credit for trying to hold this mess together. The strident background music doesn't help and distracts from any lucid moment. Apart from Boris, the rest of the Mexican cast are dubbed into some strange, clipped, English monotone that is reminiscent of the type used in porn films of the late seventies.

At a guess I think it's Edgar Allen Poe's 'House of Usher' that this is taken from but you'd be hard pressed to find a great deal of Poe in the finished article.

Still, there are far better films out there with Boris Karloff at his best, search them out and give this a wide berth, unless you want the curse of the 'shrinking brain' too!

This tale based on two Edgar Allen Poe pieces ("The Fall of the House of Usher", "Dance of Death" (poem) ) is actually quite creepy from beginning to end. It is similar to some of the old black-and-white movies about people that meet in an old decrepit house (for example, "The Cat and the Canary", "The Old Dark House", "Night of Terror" and so on). Boris Karloff plays a demented inventor of life-size dolls that terrorize the guests. He dies early in the film (or does he ? ) and the residents of the house are subjected to a number of terrifying experiences. I won't go into too much detail here, but it is definitely a must-see for fans of old dark house mysteries.

Watch it with plenty of popcorn and soda in a darkened room.

Dan Basinger 8/10

House of Evil (1968)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

One of the four Mexican films Boris Karloff made at the end of his career, this one here being the first to get released. In the film Karloff plays an rich, if eccentric man who calls his family together for a will reading. He ends up dying and his fears of a maniac stalking the house taking out eyeballs appears to be coming true as the family members start dropping dead one by one. Okay, there's certainly a bit of sadness seeing Karloff go out with these Mexican films but at the same time you have to respect his wishes to continue working. From what I've read, he didn't need money so apparently these movies were made simply so he could continue to act. I hadn't seen this film, also known as DANCE OF DEATH, since I was very young and I remember it being quite bad but this repeat viewing shows that it is bad but certainly not as horrible as THE FEAR CHAMBER or SNAKE PEOPLE. I think Karloff turns in a pretty good performance here, which also includes him not being forced to use a wheelchair throughout the production. I think he manages to be quite believable as the mean old man who certainly doesn't have any love for his greedy family. The supporting players are all fairly forgettable as they add nothing to the film although sex pot Julissa, who appeared in three of the four Karloff films, comes off mildly entertaining and apparently is still working today. One thing that does benefit this film is that it actually makes sense. The other three films in the series all have plots that make no sense and the scenes with Karloff appear to have been shot without too much thought going into them as they really don't mix too well with the "other" footage. That's not the case here as everything flows pretty smoothly together. The death scenes are all silly looking but that's to be expected I guess. Karloff fans might want to check this notorious films out but others should certainly stay clear.

House of Evil has just one thing going for it, Boris Karloff. One of those actors who always gave his all regardless of the film and material, Karloff's performance is sprightly and dignified, never less than convincing. Unfortunately it is one such performance that deserved a much better film. Nothing else works and any other Karloff film yet to be seen by me has to be really, really bad to be worse than House of Evil. The film is pure tack visually, the sets don't convince at all in Gothic atmosphere and the photography is just slipshod. The dialogue is wretched, a lot of it is ridiculous and senseless and everybody visibly looks awkward saying it. Don't look for a coherent story either, it's instead incredibly dull(not helped by that some scenes are too talky), devoid of thrills, suspense or creepiness and has unintentional humour, mainly because of how bad the dialogue is and how cheesy the deaths are. Let's not forget the music either, shrill, strident and far too obvious, when something sinister or deadly happens the music is annoying and very repetitive too. Last but not least the acting, with the sole exception of Karloff it is very amateurish. In particular Quintin Bulnes seems to be impersonating Peter Lorre, and does so terribly. Julissa is ravishingly beautiful but doesn't have the acting skills to match. All in all, a truly inept film all round apart from Karloff. 2/10 Bethany Cox