Hellfire

Gabrielle (the very pretty Jennifer Burns) inherits a large, ornate home that belonged to her late uncle, a murderous composer who was writing the "Symphony For the Devil" before being captured and killed by angry townspeople. Gabrielle finds the hidden, unfinished symphony and hires boozy choir director Marius Carnot (Ben Cross) to complete it to be used in her upcoming wedding to Julien Du Pont (Doug Wert). The spirit of the uncle decides this is the perfect time to return to life and coerces stuffy maid Carlotta (Beverly Garland) into helping in his evil schemes, including possessing both his niece and Marius and covering up strangulation murders of prostitutes.

One of the better entries in the ROGER CORMAN PRESENTS cable series is a bit on the slow side, but a decent ghost story with fine acting and good sets, music, photography and costumes. 1950s sci-fi/horror queen Garland is excellent in her role and proves why she should act more.

Score: 5 out of 10

I'm not sure what this movie was supposed to be. Was it made as a horror movie or half porn? I mean, there are some somewhat graphic sex scenes in this film, and I must say they're not very good. Burns is beautiful, but her acting ability is umm nonexistent?? Yea...that's a good word, I think. Not that bad acting is rare in this movie...the movie is full of it. The script is downright boring, and the horror aspects are just stupid. The movie is a horrible video release, and like all other Corman movies...well most of them at least, don't come into this one expecting much. Don't waste your time renting it.

...finish this. There are just some movies where you know that you can save that ninety minutes of your life for something more meaningful, and fifteen minutes into this craptacular debacle, I realized that this was indeed one of those cases.

Yes, Roger Corman and Company have to make a buck, and he has every right to remake any and every costume horror melodrama that ever helped make him a name. Especially the Vincent Price ones.

So what's wrong with HELLFIRE? Well, the storyline is good, and kudos to Corman for reaching out to work with Mosfilm. But the problem is what's missing here. And what's missing, you ask? How about Vincent Price's acting skills, Floyd Crosby's richly saturated visuals, Daniel Haller's art direction and the scoring by the irreplaceable Les Baxter? I know what you're going to say...most of these talented artisans are no longer with us, and the few that still are probably have retired from the business permanently.

Which is exactly my point.

Which I also know is moot, since this mess was cooked up over ten years ago now.

None of the other Corman classics have suffered lately from attempts to remake, revisit or 'redefine' them. Here's hoping it stays that way.