The City of the Dead

Constrained by a low budget, John Moxey and production designer John Blezard created a cluster of battered clapboard buildings, pumped billows of synthetic fog, and lured the audience to Whitewood, Massachusetts, a hamlet accessible only by a tortuous wood lined road. In the 17th century the denizens of Whitewood burned the witch Elizabeth Selwyn. (No, witches were not burned in New England, they were hanged. But a writhing woman bound above a stack of lumber is far more cinematic.) The burning scene is a dynamic set piece. Selwyn, her hair hanging in disheveled wavy locks, is centered in the middle ground while a blazing torch dominates the left foreground. Cut to a series of closeups-upturned faces (all decidedly unpleasant) animated with contempt and fear. Then, upward from the perspective of the mob, a portrait of the witch framed by tendrils of flame. The aquiline features of Patricia Jessel flash with rage as the flames close inward. Shouting her allegiance to Lucifer as rain drenches her hair, her expression changes to one of joyous defiance.

When Moxey returns the viewers to the 20th century, the face of Professor Driscoll (Christopher Lee) fills the screen. He repeats the cries of the Puritans, "burn, witch, burn, witch, burn, witch, burn" before a circle of students gathered for a seminar in his living room. Driscoll's impassioned lecture inspires one of his students to begin research on the site of the execution.

Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson) steps shin-deep into swirling white vapor and gazes around Whitewood. Great clouds of white hang between the buildings, masking gaps in the set. The fog serves Moxey in another way: it presents the suggestion that the witches who now control the town have produced the shrouds of clouds to hide Whitewood from the outside world.

Ms Barlow enters the lobby of the Raven's Inn, a dimly lit space where the silence is brocken only by voices and the heavy ticking of a clock. Within the gloom, Stevenson's platinum blonde hair is luminous while she addresses her hostess, Mrs Newliss (Jessel). In this incarnation, the veteran stage actress speaks in soft enchanting tones. Yet every subtle smirk and slightly raised eyebrow conveys notes of delighted malice. A lovely sacrifice has been delivered.

Stevenson adeptly presents herself as an inquisitive young woman delighted by the prospect of studying the locale while her view is obscured by a trusting ingenuousness. This latter trait proves to be so dominant that Nan makes choices that Siskel and Ebert long ago characterized as "too stupid to live." When eerie chants rise faintly from the floor of her room, Nan just has to explore-even though she must proceed through a passageway of blackened brick.

Before the doomed beauty is descends to the passageway, Moxey uses Stevenson to introduce some salacious moments that are more laughable than compelling. When Ms Barlow slips out of her dress, she is wearing a bustier. Huh!

Moving forward much like Psycho, which was realeased at about the same time, Nan's brother (Dennis Lotis) traces her path to the wicked place.

The older Barlow's investigation is a compelling and elicits increasing concern for his safety and.heightening hopes that he can by some means deliver Whitewood from evil. The tension is adeptly increased by the cinematography of Desmond Dickinson, featuring groupings of livid faces delineated by deep shadows. As the movie progresses toward a conclusion, the chanting of the witches becomes as chilling as New England fog. The fortunes of.the good rise and fall and rise again in the tension of the final fabulous minutes.

This film remains under-rated and under the radar for it's atmosphere, cinematography, and editing (especially one great match-cut).

The film opens on the New England village of Whitewood in 1692. The Puritans are getting ready to burn a witch. What makes this different? For one, nobody was ever burned at the stake for witchcraft in what is now the USA - they hanged them. But burning is much more creepy and cinematic. Also, they happen to be burning an actual witch - Elizabeth Selwyn. At first she begs for help from Jethro, a puritan in the crowd. Jethro is asked if he knows this witch. He says no. As she is burning, Selwyn sends up a prayer to Lucifer that she will serve him for eternity if he curses Whitewood for her sake. Jethro sends up affirmations to Lucifer too. Note to Jethro - after this burning is over you might want to leave town because praying to Lucifer with a condemned witch is just not good form in a paranoid conformist society such as 17th century New England.

Cut to present day (1962) and a professor (Christopher Lee) is lecturing students on this particular incident on his series of talks on witchcraft. One particular student says she wants to do some field work on this subject, and the professor directs her to Whitewood and to the innkeeper of the town's inn. When the student arrives she finds it forboding, and small groups of people gather in the street and stare at her. A ghostly fog shrouds everything. Let's just say our heroine gets more than enough field work to satisfy her thesis.

Soon, back home, her brother and boyfriend get concerned and they head to Whitewood too. Let me just say that this is one of those horror fllms in which the characters refuse to acknowledge the clues/warnings that would turn most of us in the opposite direction, but then we would have no movie if everybody had their curiosity tempered by self preservation.

With cinematography by Desmond Dickinson that is wonderfully atmospheric and eerie with one of the great inspired endings to a horror film.

Eeriest scene to me? When the innkeeper at Whitewood asks the young visiting coed if she would like to join the other guests in dancing and you see them spinning and pirouetting about in perfect synchronization as though they are decorative mechanical figures dancing in a jewelry box.

I'd recommend this one today. It really holds up and the horror - though not graphic at all - is very effective.

I first saw this movie in the mid 70's late one Saturday night on Sinister Cinema in Portland, OR and it kind of scared the crap out of me. They replayed it about a year later and same thing: It scared the crap out of me. I have now seen it 6 or 7 times over the years including twice in the last few months with the VCI Entertainment version of the dvd.

The movie doesn't scare me like it used to, but it still amazes me how it transports me into it's own world of the fog shrouded town of Whitewood, Massachusetts. The story itself is common enough: A woman (Patricia Jessel) is burned at the stake for witchcraft and she leaves a curse on the people of the town as she is consumed by the flames. Forward 300 years to the present day and we have Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevens) as a self determined college student who decides to write a paper on witchcraft. Her professor, Alan Driscoll (Christopher Lee), gives her directions to the town of Whitewood where 300 years earlier an alleged witch was burned at the stake. She goes to the town and after a few days disappears. Her brother then goes to the hotel where she was last seen, and runs into all kinds obstacles, not the least of which is the innkeeper of the Whitewood Inn, who just happens to look exactly like the witch burned 300 years earlier, and also Christopher Lee who happens to be a long ago resident of Whitewood

There is an old, blind priest who stays in his church despite the fact that he has no congregation. His granddaughter, Betta St. John (Patricia Russell), who seems to not be a witch, and has just returned to the town to take care of her grandfather, runs the local used book and antique store. She had befriended Nan before she disappeared and is now working with her brother, Dennis Lotis (Richard Barlow), to try and find out what happened to Nan.

Of course they run into the witches along they way and there is a showdown of sorts. The strength of this movie is in it's crisp acting and smart script. Especially notable are Patricia Jessel, Christopher Lee and Venitia Stevens. Despite it's low budget, the director, John Llewellyn Moxey, has made an altogether unforgettable film. This ranks right up there with other unique horror movies such as Carnival of Souls (1962), The Wicker Man (1973), The Thing From Another World (1951), and Village of the Damned (1960).

The VCI Entertainment release is just what this movie has needed for years. An excellent transfer at 1.66:1 with two extra minutes of footage added from previous video and dvd releases. There is a commentary by director John Llewellyn Moxey and another separate commentary by Christopher Lee. There are also three interview segments with Lee, Moxey and Venetia Stevenson. Pretty impressive extras for a 40 year old low budget movie.

The commentary by Christopher Lee is interesting in that he has not seen this movie since it came out 41 years earlier. He is watching it with an interviewer from VCI who knows more about what is going on in the movie than Lee does. But Lee's ability to recall information about people and give anecdotal information is unsurpassed. He is literally a walking, talking encyclopedia of info on people he has worked with over the years.

This is one of my prize dvd's and I really cannot recommend it highly enough. The VCI version lists for around $25 but I have seen it cheaper. There are also several basic versions without the extras (or extra footage) of the movie along with another movie on one dvd. Most notably the Diamond Entertainment version where it is packaged along with Carnival of Souls for under $10.

A more than good b/w horror movie, based on witchcraft and satanism, with a very good cast and definitely a correct atmosphere. A young collegial goes to a small Massachussets town and find a coven of three hundred years old Satan worshippers. Maybe a little dated, but still more than watchable.

A true masterpiece and a perfect example of how imagination and desire can overcome a small budget in film making! "Horror Hotel", aka, "City Of The Dead" is one of my all-time favorite horror classics. Beautiful black and white photography, a stock pile of atmosphere, a literate script, terrific acting and chills galore! I have seen this gem many times, first when I was very young and caught it on the Late Show. It has had an effect on me everytime I see it. The plot seems familiar I am sure, a witches cult is operating in a small New England town but there is much more then that! From Christopher Lee to the chilling witch hunt and stake burning of the opening to the climatic battle with the coven in the graveyard. Outstanding! Mist and fog drown this small town and what strikes me most is that this entire production was studio bound!!! no location shooting, all done in a studio and it comes off without a hitch! I happen to have a copy of this film on video that I cherish. It's not a newly remastered, pristine copy. It's a copy that seems to have been copied from a television broadcast and I love it! It looks grainy, old, had pieces of hair and dirt on it and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It brings back great memories of films shown when I was young in the 60's and 70's and adds an extra dose of charm and atmosphere to the film. A true classic and one I highly recommend!