Well after two hotel films, Eaten Alive and Hotel Hell I am
a bit leery of this travel guide book.
Let’s see what we have here…Whitewood Massachusetts has a lovely place
so why don’t we head there. Grab your
suitcases and pack them with all what we need.
This is Horror Hotel a.k.a. City of the Dead
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| College hazing is rough! |
The lighting of this
room clearly ascents the spoilers here.
Originally titled City of the Dead in the UK where it was
created the US wanted a less vicious title but set the tone that this was in
fact a thriller/horror movie. Director John Llewellyn Moxey’s (The
Saint, Magnum P. I., and Murder, She Wrote) debut into film from being
primarily a TV director and writer George Baxt (Circus of Horrors, Horror on
Snape Island, I Promised to Pay and The Shadow of the Cat) tells a story
of a young college student Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson of Darby’s Rangers, Day of
the Outlaw, Seven Way from Sundown and the Sergeant Was a Lady) who
spends her winter vacation researching a paper on witchcraft.
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| Hey what's with the dirty stone table? |
Her professor Alan Driscoll (Sir
Christopher Lee of Horror of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Island of
the Burning Damned, Five Golden Dragons, and The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism)
tells her she is best to travel to Whitewood Massachusetts and their vast
libraries on the subject matter. And hey
if you cannot trust Christopher Lee and his intentions on your well being, well
I ask, “Who can you trust?” Nan encounters a young woman but the name of
Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel of The Man Upstairs, The Queen and The Rebels and A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) who happens to look
identical to a woman accused of using witchcraft in 1852 where she was burned
at the stake. The town in fact is most
famous for such. Nan finds herself to be
abducted by hooded figures and dragged down to the catacombs directly below the
very hotel she checked in…but she does not check out.
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| Cosplay gone awry! |
Now, just a quick little tidbit for you Wicca folk out there
who might possibly be reading this. The
film portrays anyone practicing witchcraft as devil worshipers as well the
Black mass conglomerate and the like; so you have been warned and aside from
that slight offense to your religion, it really is an enjoyable movie.
Worried that Nan has not returned her brother Richard (Denis
Lotis of The Inbetween Age, Make Mine a Million and Glamour) and her
boyfriend Bill (Tom Naylor of Just My Luck, The Vise and No Safety Ahead) go
off to investigate her last known whereabouts.
The duo set off on said journey when a car accident happens and Bill has
been benched for unnecessary dumb driving.
Richard heads into town and meets the daughter of the town Reverend,
Patricia (Bette St. John of High Tide at Noon, Corridors of Blood and The Robe)
and perhaps she can shed light on the eerie quiet town.
This particular movie is shot in gorgeous black and white so
I am all tingly from that alone but of course the sound is captured in mono
which was common back in the day. Its
1960 people! There was no surround
Dolby digital yet. With an amazing
spherical lens capture the stages look amazing, lighting top notch and yes
there are more than a handful of movie clichés attributed of this type of
storytelling but it is a well groomed flick thanks to post production. What you have is an English production of
English actors speaking an American accent and hell they pulled it off.
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| I say, this dungeon is filthy and I wish to register a complaint. |
Funniest thing about this movie is it was
somehow compared to Psycho for the following reasons. Blonde protagonist dies in remote hotel and
male counterpart comes looking for her.
That’s it. And while this is no
Hitchcock I can honestly say this critic enjoyed it immensely. I hope you will as well.
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