House of the Gorgon

Set in the 19th Century a young woman, her mother and best friend travel to central Europe for her marriage to a town doctor, however two evil sisters of Medusa the Gorgon are living with the young man (!) The opening credits proclaim "A Gothic Fairytale", the colour palate uses a lot of purple, blue and green, contrasted with much black, this gives the film a dreamlike look but I didn't like it, if anything it only highlighted the obvious low budget. This is a fan film made by and starring one Joshua Kennedy, unfortunately his acting is painfully wooden, and he's not the only one. The attraction for the movie is that it reunites Hammer glamour in the form of Caroline Munro, Martine Beswick and Veronica Carlson, these three lovely ladies look like they were having fun making House but sadly I had very little fun watching it. There are other very obvious nods to Hammer and classic horror, for example a law firm called Cushing, Lee and Price is referred to, rated 12 in the UK it is also very tame. As a Hammer fan myself I admire Kennedy for putting this together, it just isn't very good.

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.

Described as low budget by Caroline Munro herself in her introduction on TPTV. It really is low budget and full of ham acting, despite four classic horror actors from the good old days of Hammer Horror Films. The investment and ameteur production is really what let's it down.

Caroline Munro in particular lets down as she appears to have lost her skills with age. Supporting actors present are lacking in acting ability and appear bored as progress develops. Best performance goes to Martine Beswick but she's not in the movie as much as her performance justifies.

The movie including Caroline's introduction is 1h 22m long. I made it to 45 minutes before giving up. I seriously lost the plot so no spoilers here!

Currently available to stream on TPTV Encore until 31 August 2024 so I may go back and attempt to watch the movie to its end.

I miss the Hammer time. But it will never feel the same. Through no fault of the studios own, because all their movies had a certain feel that perfect for that specific time & in today's ever changing world, it's not worth it to compare. Forget bout comparing it to the older movies. Better to judge it on its own imo. Maybe the Studio can find a new niche that works for today. But as for this movie itself. I thought it basically average. And for some that might sound bad. But i never consider average bad. I consider "bad", bad. Worth a look if you're a hammer fan. If you don't like it, you can always turn it off. But I find it difficult anyone finds it bad enough to turn off, and rest might just find it worthwhile just to have seen it.

I saw this not too long ago as part of a live stream watch party. They said it was a tribute movie to Hammer Horror movies, which I have always enjoyed. This was god awful. First of all, Caroline Munro and Martine Beswick should be embarrassed to be part of this and allowed themselves to be photographed so terribly. Veronica Carlson I felt incredibly bad for, having to deliver lines worse than Hammer's bad days (and presented in such an unflattering way as well - these three icons really should be shocked and embarrassed. I was embarrassed for them.) I know this is a low budget film, but so were the Hammer movies and I've seen a lot of other low budget horror streaming recently, but this was terrible - "lets just put a green light somewhere because then people wont think its my living room" just awful and an insult to all the technicians of the Hammer movies. Lastly, apparently the filmmaker himself decided to cast himself as the male lead role (I'm sorry, Christopher Neame does not count as a main character, he's a halfhearted cameo at best), and this guy Joshua proves his inadequacy not only as as a filmmaker in general, but as an actor around these older professionals. The other amateur actors on display here only degrade themselves further. According to the live stream this film won an award (huh???) and he has made other Hammer tribute movies -- I shudder to imagine. Stick with the original and authentic horrors, and stay away from this. Dreadful.