House of the Gorgon

Not exactly good - it's low budget particularly betrayed by it's tinny sound - this loving pastiche filmed in glorious Gooeyscope and wonderfully saturated colours of Hammer Horrors and Corman Poes with a smattering of 'Night of the Living Dead' is still fun to watch.

Caroline Munro and Martine Beswicke (as she now spells it) show they've still got what it takes as two evil five thousand year old sisters of the night (the former wearing Verdon Fell's glasses and expressing his aversion to the light). Former Hammer leading lady number three Veronica Carlson as the heroine's tippling mother meanwhile both looks and sounds exactly like Jennifer Saunders as Edina in 'Absolutely Fabulous'.

Oh dear! That's the only thing I can really say about fan movie HOUSE OF THE GORGON (2019), written/directed by and starring massive Hammer fan Joshua Kennedy. It's an American indie production made as a throwback to the Hammer films of old, that begins with a trio of women travelling by carriage to a remote region of Karlstadt where they find a mysterious house and its strange occupants. The title is a clue to the Greek-influence menace in this film.

Sadly, it's appalling in every respect,but then it would be given that it was shot in five days. Copying scenes from Hammer films on a tiny budget doesn't really do it for me. Caroline Munro hams it up shamelessly, Martine Beswick gives the most fun performance - like she's in a panto - while Veronica Carlson is stuck with a dull role. Oh, and AD 1972's Christopher Neame also appears as a priest, but perhaps he should have stayed at home. I think the poster artwork is the best part of this film.

House of the Gorgon reunites Hammer veterans Caroline Munro, Martine Beswick, Veronica Carlson and Christopher Neame, in a film that seeks to recapture their glory days, only for amateur hour production values to constantly work against it.

Of the assembled Hammer thespians, Beswick fairs the best, but is given the least screen time. Munro has gotten awfully hammy in her old age, and Neame and Carlson look like they want to be elsewhere. The supporting cast range from merely passable to people who should never have been allowed in front of a camera. Tiresome visual Easter Eggs...cutaways to portraits of Lee, Cushing and Michael Gough...having Munro play the organ a la Vincent Price in The Abominable Dr Phibes whilst admiring a portrait of Vincent Price...just serves as a reminder of how much this fanwank is falling short of its influences.

There's also a number of awkward instances where modern day mores seem to have caused the filmmakers to chicken out of following in Hammer's footsteps. Most noticeably a character who is meant to be a hunchback but who doesn't actually appear to have a hunch on his back, he doesn't even have bad posture. While it is understandable in this day and age that the filmmakers were wary of having a non-disabled actor fake a disability onscreen, it's a decision that renders nonsensical the scenes where cruel villagers are berating this hunchback...who isn't a hunchback. The film also channels the lustful T&A aspects that Hammer went in for in the 1970s, by having one of the younger actresses (Jamie Trevino) take a nude dip in a bathtub, only to digitally censor her breasts...were they afraid that unpixilated bazongas would have instantly rendered the audience rock hard (rubbish 'gorgon' pun intended)

Writer/director/leading man Joshua Kennedy looks to be having a whale of a time, being onscreen alongside Hammer icons, playing the love interest of Munro's daughter Georgina Dugdale, and prancing around in what appears to be an attempt at Coffin Joe cosplay. Still you have to question why anyone would put senior actors they claim to admire in such a cheap looking, vanity project at the twilight of their careers, and indeed this turned out to be Carlson's last movie. I'm sure House of the Gorgon was was put together with good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with those, and I'm afraid this is the latest in a long line of horror movies which illustate that just because you are a mega fan of the genre doesn't mean you have anything of value to contribute to it.

This was a mess of a movie if i'm honest. Now im not bashing that its low budget as sometimes it can be a good thing for a movie and I will hand it to them that they worked well with what they had. I'm also not turning down the cast. They were all fine as much as I could tell. The three hammer stars were all fine after being away for some years. I liked the main actress as well and thought that she could get somewhere one day. The setting was alright and in a different light they house could be even more creepy. There were not many scares but overall its not to bad I just felt the film as a whole was a little let down but worth a watch if you like this kind of film.

Ok, considering it's low budget I'll give this some breaks. The acting at times is pretty hammy but the three ladies from yesteryear seem to be loving it. The three ladies are obviously Caroline Munro, Martine Beswick and Veronica Carlson, major starlets of the Hammer horror films of the seventies.

Is it me or has Karlstadt moved to Spain, certainly has a southern European twang to proceedings. The heroine Isobel is played by Caroline Munro's daughter and they do all seem to be having a blast making this movie. Nice also to see Christopher Neame as the priest as he also starred in a Hammer film. Decent film but not enough scares for me.