Bloodbath At The House Of Death

It was a little seen movie 24 years ago when it was released, but since then has been equally elusive. Thankfully film historian Marc Morris and filmmaker Jake West have finally bought Bloodbath At The House Of Death to DVD for the first time anyway (Legally) in the world, courtesy of their niche market DVD label Nucleus.

 

Taking a nod from the often ludicrously titled horror movies of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s; this 1984 movie takes a series of good hard stabs at the horror movie in this off the wall spoof that later inspired a dozen horror spoof movies. Unusually based in the UK and penned by Ray Cameron and Barry Cryer, Bloodbath At The House Of Death will ultimately be most favoured by fans of the 70’s and 80’s sitcom; and as if to solidify this fact gathers some of the best known comedy names of that period to carry the movie forward. Headlining the picture is Kenny Everett of all people, as Doctor Lucas Mandeville a rather wacky boffin who has gathered a team of the best phenomenon experts in the world to Headstone Manor the site of 18 possibly 19 gruesome deaths on one night somewhere back then; date never clearly revealed.

 

As the movie unfolds you discover that the events all circle around a strange cult led by character credited as “Sinister Man” but best placed as the devil’s right hand I guess; this character is played by none other than horror legend Vincent Price in yet another suitably bizarre role (if you have not seen the actors horror comedy movies check out Theatre Of Blood, and the Doctor Phibes movies).

 

Like a football match, Bloodbath is a game of two halves the first half being ultimately superior to the second. Starting with a lot of genuinely funny gags including Vincent Price’s “You Pi** Off!” statement, Kenny Everett ridicule and subsequent intestine flinging, and the crazed mother complete with built on pope style booth; probably best not asking too many questions.  But after some really good laughs it turns into a down on its luck sitcom, with apparent jokes that just are not funny and a bizarre woodland encounter straight out of a bad Monty Python sketch. Towards the end of Price’s role the sort of lines initially funny just start to annoy “Good job I wore my old robe” he shouts as he gets a little inflamed. Although I did have one last giggle near the end as the teddy with a flick knife made an appearance.

 

Bloodbath spoofs a large chunk of popular horror movies of the time Carrie, Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers, and The Entity being prime targets, but unlike the less subtle Scary Movie movies it does allow a certain amount of subtlety, yes if you look at them deeply they are direct spoofs, but given that there is a little unique British humour chucked in, the rip offs are far less obvious.

 

The movie is like a who’s who of British comedy culture of the 70’s and 80’s Everett is joined by Pamela Stephenson, Don Warrington, Cleo Rocos, John Fortune, Gareth Hunt, Sheila Steafal and Pat Ashton; all of whom revel in their big movie offering being actors who were mainly found on television.

Everett really hams it up for the movie, but then what can we expect from the comedian who’s ridiculously funny TV (in a variety of form) ran from 1970 to the late 1980’s; there are lots of preposterous dialogue scenes where Everett clearly knows what he is gabbling on around while the rest of us are without a clue, as well as the usual Everett confusion as he argues in the local pub about the amount dead in the past massacre. Yes he was silly, but when you watch Bloodbath you realise that now a generation have been deprived of his unique sense of humour.

 

The movie is rather unfairly in my opinion given a 15 certificate in the UK, there is little here to justify the certificate, with a brief scene of sexual pleasure courtesy of a supernatural entity that shows nothing, and a few minor swear words I have heard and seen far worse in lower certificated movies. Don’t let the movies horror aspects put you off; there are far more scary things in your own home.

 

On the special features front things are a little thin on the ground, Running The Bloodbath is a great little documentary that looks at aspects of the movies making with interviews by producers Laurence Myers and Stuart Donaldson, there are some wonderful moments of old footage featuring Everett included which make this a really great to watch feature. The theatrical trailer pays an important part, so much so there are two versions. And for those that have a DVD player in your PC (pretty much everyone really) an additional gift of the movies script for you to peruse at your convenience.  Not being on the Nucleus list of preview disc recipients I had to borrow the DVD to view it, so sadly my review does not grant it the attention it deserves.

 

You can purchase Bloodbath At The House Of Death on DVD now.

 

The House Of The Long Shadows

When it comes to British horror movies the two houses that will come to mind would ultimately be Hammer, and the slightly smaller Amicus; but there was one other force frantically trying to put British horror back on the map during the 1970’s. Pete Walker a man who has a love of both horror and the soft porn genre’s tried to create a hybrid of the two and through the 70’s turned out a heavy volume of strange horror offerings in a bid to compete with the far superior American and Italian influence flooding the market. With movies like The Comeback, Die Screaming Marianne, Schizo, Frightmare, and House Of The Whipcord; his movies were valued by fans but hated by the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification), with every single one being subject to the harshest of censorship.

 

In 1983 Pete Walker sick of having his films butchered, made his final movie as a director The House Of The Long Shadows, a star studded traditional horror movie aimed not at the minority audience, but the whole family; in an unusual move the BBFC stamped it with a PG certificate in the UK passing it without cuts. Sadly however Cannon Pictures UK ran into financial trouble and the in the UK the movie hard one of the shorted cinema runs for a movie in that time period. Lost in the ether the movie returned to haunt late night movie fans, and its video release in 1988 was the first movie to be released to the general public to buy in a clear video case, making it a success for VCI (Video Collection International) five years after it was released.

 

Moving on to the movie itself and it’s a proper traditional horror, successful author Kenneth Magee (Desi Arnaz) makes a bet with his publisher that he can write a bestselling novel in just 24 hours, heading for the British countryside to get the right inspiration for a Wuthering Heights style novel. Arriving in a remote Welsh manor after a series of bizarre events, he is surprised to find the supposedly abandoned house still occupied by servants Victoria (Sheila Keith) and Lord Grisbane (John Carradine). After the initial upset having realised he is not alone, Magee becomes more and more distressed as well as more distracted from his work as the bad weather brings a flood of surprise visitors to the manor including Mary Norton (Julie Peasgood), Lionel (Vincent Price), Corrigan (Christopher Lee), and Sebastian (Peter Cushing) ; with such horror legends all present it would be rude to not have a killer too.

 

The House Of The Long Shadows really is nothing like Walkers traditional output, it is very much the sort of classic horror we are familiar seeing with the likes of Cushing, Lee, and Price; lots of loud banging music to create effect, thunderstorms, and horrific weather, and nowhere a nipple to be seen. Essentially despite its horror elements, House Of the Long Shadows is actually a very nice movie, no real horror, no real scares, just three of horrors best acting legends hamming it up in an almost homage to the Great British horror era where England ruled the world when it came to horror (1950’s-1960’s) .

 

There is a considerable amount of humour in the movie, an early victim of the killer Victoria spends the first portion of the movie offering every guest hot punch, getting most annoyed at the colourful language (anyone who has seen Frightmare will find humour in this fact alone), and singing like a banshee; when she falls foul of the killer Sebastian simply states “Poor Victoria, he must have heard her singing!” a statement that made me laugh 20 years ago when I first saw the movie, and yesterday when I saw it again (again for the first time in 20 years). When not having a knock at Sheila Keith, there are some highly amusing disguises that raise a little giggle, and some incredibly over the top acting from Ex-Hollyoaks star Peasgood, who has now thankfully given up acting in favour of being a sex therapist, hopefully she is better at that career choice.

 

Arnaz is an unusual casting for movie, the actor literally lived his life getting work off the back of his successful father; Arnaz’s only claim to fame (if you call it fame) is that he was a star in the ill fated 1983 TV show Automan. His lack of popularity is abundantly clear here, as he stumbles around his lines often illegibly, and leaves you with a pretty bad taste in your mouth; thankfully the weight and experience of the cast veterans, and I should not forget Carradine that keep the movie going at a bustling speed.

 

Having taken its time telling the story 50 minutes in the first death occurs and from this point you have 35 minutes and a pretty high body count to take you to the movies end. And the end for someone will be an unexpected and enjoyable twist, having already weaved you in a number of directions with a highly contorting story.

 

25 years after the movie was made to be perfectly honest the cheese element stands out a mile, however it’s still lovely to see. The charm of the movie is that it really was the last of the traditional British style of horror, and like its title it casts a long shadow across the movie industry. House Of The Shadows is an enjoyable movie, and a clear indication that despite its death the British horror industry still had something slightly unique to offer, the uniqueness being in its final twist.

 

House Of The Long Shadows is a movie that is now “In The Public Domain” with nobody seemingly wanting to assume rights over the movie. This means you can either buy an old VHS release, or a Public Domain DVD (probably with VHS quality) from the likes of Ebay, or even download the movie without fear of persecution.