Serenata Macabra

In the late 1960s after a long and productive career, Boris Karloff, who was then in his late 70s and in poor health, was asked if he planned to retire. His reply was "He who rests...rusts! Not me. I plan to die in harness." And that's just what he did...almost. He died at 81 just two months after completing a series of four Mexican pictures. While his persistence was admirable, his final cinematic efforts were not. In fact they were pretty awful rivaling the movies that Bela Lugosi made at the end of his career for Ed Wood. This wasn't Karloff's fault. In fact he seemed more energetic in these last four films then he had been in the previous four bigger budget movies where he had been primarily seated in a wheelchair. The problem was in the way these Mexican titles were put together.

His health and the high altitude kept Karloff from going to Mexico City to shoot the films and so his scenes were all shot in Hollywood with an American director (Jack Hill) and an American script. Once his scenes were in the can, the Mexican portions using Mexican actors were filmed and then Boris' scenes were edited in. Director Hill, who had made the cult favorite SPIDER BABY with Lon Chaney Jr, was an old hand at creating composite films. Usually foreign films were purchased and then American scenes were shot and fitted into them. For these Mexican movies the process was reversed. Once back in Mexico, the producers rewrote the original scripts and did pretty much what they wanted including the addition of unsavory and rather violent material.

Fortunately Boris died before he had a chance to see these hybrid curiosities and so it is left for fans of BK to make of them what they will. Unquestionably the best of the lot was the first screenplay, HOUSE OF EVIL, which recycles the story of the dying patriarch and the greedy relatives gathered for the reading of his will. The twist here is that they are bumped off by his collection of mechanical toys. Next came ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE, a tale of zombies with Karloff as the head of a voodoo cult. The third to be filmed was THE INCREDIBLE INVASION which borrows from Karloff's THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936) and adds outer space aliens. Finally there was THE FEAR CHAMBER which is the weakest so you could say that each movie got progressively worse.

The first two were released a year after being completed. The last two had to wait until 1971 which was two years after Karloff died. All four played the drive-in circuit as double features and were quickly forgotten. In 1987, twenty years after the films were made, a company called Parasol Group Ltd released them on VHS in an edited form and gave them new titles. They became, in order, DANCE OF DEATH, CULT OF THE DEAD, ALIEN TERROR, and TORTURE ZONE. All four are characterized by cheap sets, unimaginative photography, and are badly dubbed. CULT and ZONE have brief nudity and some graphic violence. It is these rather flat looking VHS copies that VCI has issued on DVD as part of their Sprocket Vault series. For BK completists only...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

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.

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.

Worth a watch if you enjoy the low-budget, B-grade horror of the '60's. No masterpiece, but Karloff is always a treat and the sets are suitably atmospheric. The acting will win no prizes but was ok. All in all, I found the movie watchable - and that's good enough for this genre.

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