House of the Black Death

If the goal here was to make a good movie, they failed miserably.

If the goal was to confuse, disturb and disorient the viewer, then JACKPOT, baby! This movie is not scary because it evokes a disturbing real atmosphere of fear the way something like Night of The Living Dead does. The effect here in HOTBD is much more surreal.

No, the world of House of The Black Death, aka Blood of the Man Devil is not a world that you or I might recognize. But it is a world that sucks you in. A world of grainy, back-and-white horror; a world of creeping, Gothic torment, a world of a furtively glimpsed fever dream while under the influence of absinthe or laudanum, as you are restrained with rubber hoses in a rusty dentist's chair from the 19th century and assaulted with various antique dental implements.

The stark textures of the muddy, washed out print I viewed only added to the sense of ennui and nausea endured while watching this exercise in creepiness, a tableau which added death-desiring boredom to the mix during the endless talky scenes of people discussing the battle for the soul of the Dessard family between Carradine and Chaney. The extra added frisson provided by the poor condition of the print I viewed was clearly not intended by the filmmakers, but you know what they say, when life hands you lemons...or, more concisely, whatever works.

Now that I have accidentally referred to Woody Allen and Larry David in this review, a highly inappropriate turn of events, I will end with just one command: I importune you to watch this film only late at night, with the lights off, preferably when you are so tired that you will not be able to stop dozing off (if you weren't already there, the dialog will see to that). The wretched visuals of this nightmare of a psychotic will mix with your own dreams as you drift off into an impenetrable trap amongst the ether, of both your own making and that of the (many) directors of this "film."

Pleasant screams.

UPDATE: As of 1/2014, now available on DVD from VCI Entertainment, who have released 2 volumes each of three Jerry Warren "classics." For those with strong constitutions only...

House of the Black Death (1965)

* (out of 4)

Two warlocks, one good (John Carradine) and one evil (Lon Chaney, Jr.) battle over human souls. I really don't have the faintest idea what this film is about because there are three story lines going on and none of them make any sense on their own so mixing them together is even more confusing. One of the stories deals with the warlock's other brother who's a werewolf but we never actually see the wolf. Again, here's a film that you hang onto because you're expecting something to happen but nothing ever does happen so in the end you've just wasted your time. To make matters even worse Chaney and Carradine don't share any scenes together.

"House of the Black Death", an obscure B & W horror pic from the mid-60's, marked Lon Chaney's entrance into the world of Grade Z schlock, a domain already inhabited by his co-star, John Carradine. Unfortunately, both stars would continue a downward career spiral from this point on, making numerous low-grade bombs along the way.

The story here involves dueling warlocks, battling for control of the Desard family in the village of Wydeburne, wherever that is. Chaney's Belial is on the outside, looking in, lusting for his brother Andre's (Carradine)fortune. Belial employs his coven of witches to bedevil the opposing members of the Desard family in his quest for power. Spells are cast, demons and Werewolves are invoked (although mostly off-screen) but the end result is viewer boredom, thanks to an incoherently talky script and stilted performances.

As originally filmed, this picture was obviously an unreleasable mess. Hence, the producers invited noted hack Jerry Warren ("Face of the Screaming Werewolf", "Teenage Zombies", "Incredible Petrified World", plus many more truly awful movies) to try to piece things together. Warren dragged in his longtime "star" Katherine Victor, for a few insert shots and dropped in some dancing girl segments, all to little avail. The movie remained unreleasable and received few, if any, playdates under an assortment of titles.

Don't look for it on TV: your only chance to view this disaster is probably by ordering a copy from a PD video dealer. Take my advice, save your money!

Filmed in Sept 1965, "Night of the Beast" was the debut feature for novice producer William White, better known to horror fans as actor Bill Hampton, from 1959's "The Hideous Sun Demon" and 1965's "The Human Duplicators," while director Harold Daniels scored a success with the 1958 "Terror in the Haunted House" aka "My World Dies Screaming." The exceedingly small budget must have run out as completion neared, and the filmmakers lost control of the footage, soon picked up by schlockmeister Jerry Warren, whose additional 11 minutes of added scenes extended the running time to 74 minutes, but otherwise served little purpose due to his inept editing. A black and white movie that could only get playdates on the bottom half of double bills under the title "Blood of the Man Devil" (or even all night drive-in creature features), what is now better known as "House of the Black Death" languishes in obscurity to this day, little seen even on television despite the presence of genre heavyweights Lon Chaney and John Carradine (alas, not once sharing any scenes together). Sibling warlocks in service to their master Satan, Carradine's Andre Desard represents the wealthy upper class, while Chaney's Belial Desard heads up the plebeian tier, leading the tiny town of Widderburn to revolt against Andre and usurp his all powerful status with their lord and master (the book from which the excessively wordy script was adapted was titled "The Widderburn Horror"). Displaying the goat's horns that make him an even greater emissary of the Devil, the top billed Chaney gets more footage than his co-star, threatening the souls of Andre's son Paul (Tom Drake), cursed by lycanthropy, and daughter Valerie (Dolores Faith), whom Belial seems to covet for himself. Virtually everyone is defeated by the ill conceived screenplay, but even under these impoverished circumstances both Chaney and (especially) Carradine are remarkably professional. Jerry Warren never shied away from taking credit for the film's belated release, but as editor he blunders badly on several occasions: we see doctors Mallory (Andrea King) and Campion (Jerome Thor) accompanied by villager Stokes (Sherwood Keith) BEFORE Belial assigns him as their guide, while Carradine's Andre claims he must rest, but is being chastised by Valerie in the very next scene for revealing the family secrets to Campion. The most egregious error was in showing us Chaney's goat horns well before his supposed 'big reveal' in front of a shocked doctor Mallory! Gorgeous blonde bombshell Sabrina, known as 'Britain's Jayne Mansfield,' provides plentiful eye candy dancing for Chaney's delighted amusement, but otherwise serves no purpose and has no dialogue. Warren's new scenes feature a brunette dancer of lesser merit, and regular stock company performers Katherine Victor and George Andre attempting to plug a few gaps in continuity, their repeated chants only adding to the numbing sense of boredom. Still, it just might qualify as the best film that Jerry Warren was ever involved in! (Carradine and Victor would rejoin him for his 1981 comeback feature "Frankenstein Island").

Unfortunately I can't comment on the movie as I have never seen it, but I just thought I'd let people know that yes, it is based on a book! The book is the Widderburn Horror and from what I've been reading here, it's considerably better than this movie.

I had always felt that it would make a good movie so I did a search on it and ended up here only to be sadly disappointed. If someone would do it properly, I still think it would make a fine movie. The book has it all, witchcraft, devil worship, werewolves - actual transformation into a wolf, not some horror film monster, and a family of witches going back centuries that could be the inspiration for Anne Rice's witches in the Witching Hour. Not to mention a story of unrequited love.

Considering how old the novel is, there is no indication of the time period and it could still work very well if it were set in the present day. If anyone is interested, you can find the book on amazon, used of course. It's the Widderburn Horror by R.Warner-Crozetti aka Lora Crozetti. As far as I can tell, it's the only book she ever wrote and it seems that it was meant to be the first of a series but never went any further.

Considering all the remakes being produced today that are pointless and inferior to the original, this is one book that cries out for someone to do it properly.