The Horror of It All

Horror of It All, The (1963)

* (out of 4)

Terence Fisher directed this incredibly bad "old dark house" film, which tries to blend the scares with laughs. The story is pretty simple as a man (Pat Boone) goes to visit his girlfriend and her uncle inside a strange house and soon mysterious activities start. This film borrows heavily from many of the old dark house films of the 1930's but it fails on pretty much every level. The laughs are never funny and the director never builds up any worthy atmosphere, which leads the horror elements very boring. Boone is horrible in the lead but the supporting cast does include Dennis Price and Valentine Dyall (Horror Hotel).

Never ever heard of this film until I saw it run one late night, and seems to be getting a lot of play time. Obviously a dark comedy, more like a sitcom ( the Addams Family?) Here Pat Boone visits the eccentric family of his girlfriend, and with all the gags; secret rooms, mad scientist, female vampire, etc. Would have been a blast if Lurch made a cameo appearance.

If you're a big kid at heart you'll like this time killer which pokes fun at itself. Over the top silliness, but worth a look and the photography is very good. Pat even sings a song! Directed by the master of chills Terence Fisher and Dennis Price adds the quasi dramatic support.

The password is "Bloody Mary."

More fun if you see it late night, add pizza. Thanks MOVIES Net for showing this mini gem. May be on dvd, if not it's destined for release, also on blu ray.

American Pat Boone falls in love with Englishwoman Erica Rogers and goes to visit her uncle to ask permission to marry her. He meets her family, who turn out to be a bunch of weirdos that live in a gloomy mansion. This is a tired 'old dark house' comedy. It's not funny in the slightest nor is it very original. I generally like ODH movies, whether they're comedies or not. This one's full of clichés. Probably director Terence Fisher's worst film. I'm not sure what appealed to him about this. Pat Boone is typically bland and sings a corny song. The rest of the cast is mostly forgettable. The one exception being Andree Melly as the vampiric Natalia. My score is a 4 on the strength of her scenes alone. Otherwise I would give it a 1.

I have to disagree with the poster who suggested that "Horror of It All" is neglected because it was filmed in black and white. "Dr. Strangelove" and "A Hard Day's Night," two black and white films which came out the following year, didn't seem to suffer from the lack of color. "Horror of It All" is neglected because it's a stinker. Pat Boone was never a threat to Olivier, and here he is encouraged (or allowed) to overact embarrassingly. The sets are cheap, the costumes are cheesy and the script is awful. And Terence Fisher, a first-rate director of horror films, seemed to have no flair for comedy (and got no help from the script). Neglect in this case is benign.

Neither comedy or horror film.However some decent performances from ,Dyall,Price and Andrew Kelly make up for the bland Boone.Also quite funny is the professor who is 50 years late with his inventions