The House That Dripped Blood (DVD)

The House That Dripped Blood is a camp horror film, which lasts 97 mins and is rated a 12. I bought it from Amazon UK for just £3.98, which I felt was a great price.

I have recently got into watching horror – but only the old, classic era ones from the 1970s or earlier, definitely not the modern gore-fests. To me, I like a good cast, traditional horror elements and a fair bit of suspense. I am not interested in huge amounts of blood ...
...Saw series, instead loving the old Vincent Price films and the like.

I first heard of The House That Dripped Blood after reading a review of it on Dooyoo by Jake Speed and it sounded just my kind of thing. I was not disappointed.

Despite its horrific cover, the film itself is not nearly so frightening. Filmed at Shepperton Studios, it has a stellar mainly-British cast (Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Jon Pertwee, Ingrid ... more

The House That Dripped Blood is a camp horror film, which lasts 97 mins and is rated a 12. I bought it from Amazon UK for just £3.98, which I felt was a great price.

I have recently got into watching horror – but only the old, classic era ones from the 1970s or earlier, definitely not the modern gore-fests. To me, I like a good cast, traditional horror elements and a fair bit of suspense. I am not interested in huge amounts of blood and on-screen violence. So I avoid modern films like the Saw series, instead loving the old Vincent Price films and the like.

I first heard of The House That Dripped Blood after reading a review of it on Dooyoo by Jake Speed and it sounded just my kind of thing. I was not disappointed.

Despite its horrific cover, the film itself is not nearly so frightening. Filmed at Shepperton Studios, it has a stellar mainly-British cast (Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Jon Pertwee, Ingrid Pitt, Denholm Elliot, Joss Ackland, Geoffrey Bayldon, John Bennett) and uses the multi-story format, It is now a cult classic and well worth watching.

The film features four tales of around twenty minutes each, which all involve a strange old house and the weird events that have happened there. Framing the tales are the investigations of Detective Inspector Holloway (John Bennett). He talks to Sergeant Martin (John Malcolm) at the local police station, where he is told of the way others have met their grisly ends in the house. The scenes in the police station punctuate the first two tales. Then Holloway interviews the estate agent A. J. Stoker (Pun intended!) – played by John Bryans - in his house to find out more about the history of the apparently doomed property.

Tale 1 – METHOD FOR MURDER

The first story revolves around an author Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliot) and his wife Alice (Joanna Dunham). They move into old house so he can finish writing the book he is having problems with. Inspired by the creepy house and its old book collection, he creates a character called Dominic and soon the words are pouring forth and he is spending long hours at his typewriter. But then he begins to see Dominic in his garden and house. What is going on?

This was well done; it holds the viewer’s interest and keeps you guessing. As with all the stories here, there is no blood, guts or gore, just tension. It is generally well-acted and beautifully shot. The typical horror elements are well-utilised, so we have darkness, thunderstorms and a big old isolated house with creaky stairs and dark corners. We also have Denholm Elliot in a pretty pink shirt, showing he was ahead of his time, ha ha!

Tale 2 – WAXWORKS

In Waxworks, a retired stockbroker Philip Grayson (Peter Cushing) moves into the house and is looking forward to enjoying his retirement – listening to music, reading and gardening. One day, he decides to explore the local town and discovers Jacquelin’s Museum of Horror – a waxworks, in a Chamber of Horrors style.

His friend Neville Rogers (Joss Ackland) turns up unexpectedly and you find out they both loved the same girl, who is now dead. They both find one of the waxworks in the museum reminds them of her – the beautiful Salome. The spooky owner of the museum explains she is modelled on his wife, who was also a murderess. Philip and Neville continue to obsess about the wax figure and find themselves drawn back to the waxworks to see her. But how safe is the museum?

This is a rather eerie and creepy story, but also seems slightly clichéd at times and more unoriginal and predictable than the first one. The acting is very good overall though and Peter Cushing is always watchable.

Tale 3 – SWEETS TO THE SWEET

In this story, John Reid (Christopher Lee) and his young daughter Jane (Chloe Franks) move into the house. John wants his daughter to be taught at home, so he hires a former teacher Ann Norton (Nyree Dawn Porter) to look after her. John is a widow and as he reveals more to Ann, we discover there are a few mysteries about his past. He refuses to let his young daughter have friends of her own age or toys and especially hates dolls.

This is an excellent story, intriguing and interesting and was my favourite of the four. Throughout the story, your loyalties change, as you believe one of the three is the ‘bad guy’ only to change your mind shortly after and decide it is someone else. This keeps your attention and raises the tension beautifully throughout.

While Christopher Lee is always great to watch, in this story, I found he was overshadowed by his female co-stars. While Nyree Dawn Porter has a fragile beauty and steadfastness - not to mention her character Ann having the cutest little blue car!

Chloe Franks is a really talented child actor, who manages to portray the role realistically and with equal measures of charm and eeriness. I was interested to read on IMDB that her career continued, with her last TV credit in 1983, but then she developed rheumatoid arthritis and had to retire from acting in the mid-1990s. She appears on one of the extras, so you can see how she looked a few years ago.

Tale 4 – THE CLOAK

The final tale pulls the story back to the present and the reason why Detective Inspector Holloway came down to the area – the investigation into the disappearance of the film star Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee).

Henderson is filming another low-budget horror movie and displaying his rather Diva-esque behaviour on set, which gives rise to several in-jokes about the horror movies of the time. Annoyed that his vampire costume looks too new, he visits an old costumier’s shop to look for something more authentic. The shop owner, the spooky Theo von Hartmann (Geoffrey Bayldon) finds a cloak for the purpose - but just how authentic is his new purchase? Could Henderson’s co-star Carla Lynde (played by Ingrid Pitt and her heaving bosom!) be really in danger?

This tale was too short for me - I wanted more! Ingrid Pitt and Jon Pertwee are both legends of cult TV and film and bring a unique quality to any project they are involved with. Ingrid is all cleavage and accent, Jon is gurning and over-acting wonderfully. He was the current Doctor Who at the time and here again, he sports the dandy ruffled white shirts and long cape!

This story changes the tone from the previous ones, lessening the tension with comedy. Whether this is ideal as a whole, I’m not sure, but it does work. I certainly enjoyed this segment a lot, although felt the third one was better.

OVERALL

I really enjoyed the film and found it wonderful to be able to watch so many famous actors in one movie. It was also good to see the 1970s cars and fashion, alongside all the usual horror elements. For me, this IS horror and I would recommend it.

BONUS FEATURES

For a cheap DVD, this has a plethora of wonderful extras. There is

- a commentary track (with director Peter Duffell and Jonathan Rigby)
- Biographies (text reviewing the careers of seven of the cast and crew including Jon Pertwee, Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee)
- Film notes (text about the film – a detailed essay)
- Digest (Quotes from reviews of the film)
- Photo gallery (posters, stills, magazine articles, etc.)

My favourite extra was the Featurette, which lasts sixteen minutes and was made in 2003.

This includes interviews with the director Peter Duffell .He explains how he became involved with the project, discusses the difficulties in filming it, talks about the in-jokes, how he had the three great stars of horror movies of the time (Cushing, Lee, Pitt), and talks about how the last segment turns it into a comedy and changes the tone of the piece.

There are also interviews with the actor Geoffrey Bayldon (who mentions he was in Catweasle, while Jon was in Doctor Who) and Ingrid Pitt (who says Jon rang her to ask her to be in the film, as he knew her from Doctor Who) and former child star Chloe Franks (who remembers Christopher Lee as being rather “daunting” and “kept his distance”) – all of which are interesting and worth watching.

 

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