The Legend Of Hell House

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"The Legend of Hell House" poster
(Click for hi rez)

Synopsis: "A team consisting of a physicist, his wife, a young female psychic and the only survivor of the previous visit are sent to the notorious Hell House to prove or disprove survival after death. Previous visitors have either been killed or gone mad, and it is up to the team to survive a full week in isolation, and solve the mystery of the Hell House."

Once again, I am fooled by misleading poster art. Just FYI, there is no scene wherein a woman's bloody hand holds a miniature model of the Hell House, and there is certainly no giant skull with one green eye floating over it. And I waited the whole movie to see that scene! Skunked again.

Seriously, though, that's an awesomely iconic image that really sends a chill down one's spine. Since it's so well-remembered by the public, can you tell me why, oh, why the DVD cover designer turned up his or her nose at using it? And why they substituted a seemingly random screen-grab that (A.) not only tells you nothing of the film and does not make one want to see it, but (B.) is hard to even tell what it is.

Come on, people; use the famous poster art for the DVDs of horror movies like this and stop thinking you know better, 'cause you don't. Your college degree in art and design taught you nothing. Get your nose out of your Starbucks and realise that the movie poster artists of the past put you to shame, and then get over yourself and use their stuff.

On Christmas at Hell House, it's more likely a demon walking on the roof than Santa and his reindeer.

Anyway, the 1973 release by Academy pictures, starring Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowell, does a good job of walking the tightrope between physical and psychological causes for the haunting versus the supernatural. The near-documentary feel of the film actually adds to the dread and fear, rather then detracting from it as one might suspect.

"How much are they paying us for this again?"

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

And although the events in the film take place over the Christmas holidays, this is not a film to put on in December to cheer one up, but rather at Halloween or days thereabout. The spirit of peace and goodwill usually prevelent during the holidays doesn't penetrate these walls to the slightest degree. The atmospheric photography really bring an aura of foreboding fear that few other haunted house movies can match, much less surpass.

Being perpetually fog-shrouded should have been warning enough.

"Of course I'm not gay, where did you ever hear that rumor? By the way, that is a simply horrid outfit you're sporting. Who dressed you, the dog?"

For a great review of the movie, check out the typically-insightful post at John Morehead's typically-insightful "Theofantastique" site. With stuff like that out there, I won't even embarrass myself with doing one.

"Oh, no... how did the FBI find out about my pirated film collection?"

In case the above reference leaves you stumped, here's the story. It's quite an interesting read! Makes you appreciate the availability and low prices of films for the individual now. Poor Roddy just lived at a bad time for movie collectors.

The cat knows something, but he ain't telling. Cats are notorious for not volunteering information, and for leaping on your back when you are least expecting it.

"I'm sensing something... Flicka? Is that you?"

Below are pictures of the actual location used for filming; Wykehurst Park, near the village of Bolney, East Sussex, in England. Not exactly a place to vacation to recover from depression.

Image source

Wikipedia entry:
Wykehurst Park is an elegant 130 room 150 year old mansion located near the village of Bolney, East Sussex, in England. The house came into prominence in the early seventies when the external shots of the house were used to film the horror film, "The Legend of Hell House," a psychological horror film, where the house lends its image to the horrifying nature of the story. It is a gothic mansion with turrets and arches and conical roofs, and many architectural devices to give it the appearance of a fairytale mansion from bygone days. The large black gates are fashioned in wrought iron. Alongside these gates, massive griffins with spread wings, perch on either side, and guard the entrance to the property which leads through a pebble drive to a grassed patio surrounding it, descending to a garden laid to lawn at the back. If you are able to get right up to the French windows you will just be able to view a grand, wide, polished wood staircase beginning the passage to the numerous rooms and accommodation upstairs.

Wykehurst Place, Bolney, West Sussex, England, UK

Also featured in "Hammer's House of Horrors" TV series, as well as other movies.

P.S. Don't forget to check out my other blog: "Monster Memories!" The latest post recalls those scary "Lost In Space" monsters.

Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors

The Skeletal Spotlight shines this time on:
"Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" poster
(Click all images for larger versions.)

Had the title been more accurate it would have been "Dr. Terror's
Train of Horrors" but it would have lacked the alliterative punch.

Here it is, folks... the first in the long line of Amicus horror anthologies. Released in 1965 and directed by veteran horror film director Freddie Francis, written by Milton Subotsky and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, it set the tone for nearly a decade's worth of awesome Amicus anthologies.

Inspired by the 1945 film "Dead of Night," Milton Subotsky patterned "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" on that portmanteau format. When his film was a big hit, he stuck to that format for the rest of the series: "Torture Garden" in 1967, "The House That Dripped Blood" in 1970, my personal favorite "Asylum" in 1972, "Tales from the Crypt" in 1972, "The Vault of Horror" in1973, "From Beyond the Grave" in 1973 and "Tales That Witness Madness" in 1974.

Dr. Terror has the last laugh on his doomed traveling companions. But, at least he kept them entertained, long train trips can be murder.

After Amicus founders Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg went their separate ways, Subotsky was still active in the early 80s, producing yet another anthology "The Monster Club," directed by Roy Ward Baker, veteran of several Amicus efforts. So I really consider that film to be a part of the group of films.

If you'd ever heard that Kenny Rogers song you'd know it was time to run.

Synopsis: Five strangers board a train and are joined by a mysterious fortune teller who offers to read their Tarot cards. Five separate stories unfold: An architect returns to his ancestoral home to find a werewolf out for revenge; a doctor discovers his new wife is a vampire; a huge plant takes over a house; a musician gets involved with voodoo; an art critic is pursued by a disembodied hand.

Since this blog is mainly devoted to the image of the scary skull as used in horror movie posters, etc., I won't try to review it... also for the simple reason that I have not yet seen it, although I'm familiar with the stories from various sources. I look forward to the DVD release and viewing it for the first time. I am enjoying the US releases of the Amicus films as they come out, for I am finally getting a chance to see and enjoy these films I have read about since I was a kid.

To stop his wife from maxing out the credit card, Donald was forced to take drastic measures.

Here are some poster variations to feast your worm-eaten eyes upon!

"Frenzied Fright! Screaming Nightmare! Freezing Terror!" And Horrifying Hyperbole!

"I actually do have a house of horrors... but it wasn't in the cards that you should see it."

"Not only do the cards predict your future, but they can
help you clean your teeth when you don't have time to floss."

Newspaper insert that tried to look like an actual article.

Cover to the paperback novelization of the film.

SEE! Really crappy artwork ! The poster for the 1943 spook show that claimed the title first.

The title had been used before for a traveling roadshow (not a movie, as I had thought before knowledgeable blogger Karswell corrected me) making the rounds in 1943, in which a live host known only as Doctor Terror recounts seven stories from his casebook of personal encounters with evil and the supernatural. The blurb reads "For the first time on any screen!" However, the stories which he introduces and then shows on the screen, are only segments of reused footage from such films as Carl Dreyer's Vampyr, White Zombie, The Scotland Yard Mystery, Le Golem, and the serial The Return of Chandu. Talk about a ripoff. A crummy clip show.

Orgy of the Living Dead

Today's skeletal spotlight shines on..."Orgy of the Living Dead."

Click the images to see a hi-rez versions.

Folks, you are looking at one of the single most horrific, (and to my teen self, thrilling) pieces of artwork for a movie ad ever made, that ever fell under the category of "never appears in the movie." When this showed up in the newspaper on the movie ad page back in spring of 1972, my dark little heart skipped several beats as I feverishly cut it out to put in my scrapbook.

You see, I could never go see the movies they advertised, both because I was underage (13 years old), but also because my parents would never let me. The newspaper ads were often the only thing I could collect in association with the films I could never go see. So, I could only longingly feast my eyes on the promotional artwork, and imagine how awesome the movie must be. Little did I know then, that what I imagined was so much better than the actual movie. As I know now, the artwork was much better than the film, and misleading as to what you would see.

Right up front you should be warned that there is no orgy; not even a petting party... and precious few living dead, and those are of the vampiric variety and not zombies. The titular "orgy" was actually the name of the triple-feature under which all three of the films would show: "Revenge of the Living Dead," "Curse of the Living Dead," and "Fangs of the Living Dead." What I little dreamed was that the three films were not even related! One would think that they were all in a series of films that connected, like the Apes movies making the rounds in the butt-numbing "Ape-o-thons," but no... they were three movies completely unrelated to each other, simply renamed to make it seem that way.

But you have to hand it to the promoters here: they did a great job of packaging and promoting the films to maximum effect. The titles, picked to capitalise on Romero's zombie movie, though there were no zombies; the artwork, depicting an imaginary character that never made an appearance; and the idea of "three-movies-for-the-price-of-one" which made it a real bargain. Similar to a cheap smorgasboard of crummy food, you might complain that it didn't taste that good, but you had to admit you sure got a lot for your money.

The zombie/vampire artwork, indeed, the entire campaign, was created by Alan Ormsby, who was a multi-talented man indeed. Besides being an artist, he was a director and actor. You may have seen one of his more famous movies: "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things," another of those movies talked about in awed whispers on the playground. But I'm most in awe of his artwork for the promotion, which remains famous to this day. Look at the detail on that gruesome death's-head: rotted skin peeling back to show an exposed skull: with a hole in said skull revealing the brain beneath! An empty eye socket! A hole for a nose!

My 13-year-old mind could scarcely conceive of such horror. It was the most gory image I had ever seen, even considering the monster magazines I was beginning to get interested in, as I could find them. This was before I had found the comic magazines such as "Tales From the Tomb" and such, which took gore to a new level. Those I would find later, and we'll take a look at some of the outrageous images available to any kid, in a future posting.

Having such an impact on my impressionable mind, the image stood as the pinnacle in scary movie artwork, and was never surpassed. (Inspired, I drew my own copy of it, being somewhat talented in drawing things I could look at. Using felt-tip markers, I colored in my version, supplying the blood and gore that the paper ad didn't have.) So when, about ten years later as a young man I happened upon the entire press kit for the movies in a south Florida collector's shop, I snatched it up like a starving zombie gnoshing upon a handfull of fresh entrails. This was a true find! And seeing the entire ad campaign made me appreciate even more what went into promoting this event.

Here is the front of the actual press kit:

Inside page of the poster-sized pressbook:

Page three of the kit:

The ad I had seen and saved from the local paper (and still have, taped in my scrapbook) was only a small part of the overall kit.

Included with the kit was a sample "Madman 1 Sheet," that the theater owner could order to hand out to patrons (see below). On the front here was a photograph of a raving lunatic in a straitjacket, presumably a viewer who was driven insane by seeing the movies. The copy on the other side read, in part: "This is John Austin Frazier. It has been reported that he now resides at a Mental Hospital, the result of attending a showing of "Orgy of the Living Dead!" Because of this tragic event, we, the producers, have secured an insurance policy, insuring the sanity of each and every patron. If you lose your mind as a result of viewing this explosion of terror, you will receive free psychiatric care, or be placed, at our expense, in an asylum for the rest of your life! We urge you to take advantage of this protection! The insurance is free - anyone entering the theater without it does so at his own risk. Remember: WE WARNED YOU!!!"

The copy about the handout reads "This hair-raising 'Madman' special one sheet, taken directly from ORGY's key art, is a guaranteed attention-getter! The Madman's distorted face screams out in anguished horror while the text of the poster contains a WARNING note for those about to enter the theater! A guaranteed crowd-raiser that will draw a quick line at the boix office!" I'm sure it did.

Front of the handout:

Back of the handout:

Screengrab from the trailer for the film featuring the raving madman...
There is also copy in the kit about the trailers, TV spots and radio ads that the owner could order to help promote the event. Of particular interest is the language used to describe certain ones of the radio ads: "Two of the spots have been specially prepared for Black audiences, and all convey the spirit of the show-biz excitement that will draw the crowds to your box-office!" One supposes they sprinkled in some jive-talk in those.

Well, if you ever ran across this image of a skull with skin rotting from it in your youth, and it haunted your memory, now you can revel in it till your eyes ache. Thanks, Alan, for contributing not only to success of three movies that were ill-deserving of it, but mainly for enriching our childhoods with such a lasting image.

Here's the infamous TV advertisement itself!