Written by Robert Bloch And Russ Jones
Directed by Peter Duffell
Carla (to Paul): "We loved your films so much we wanted you to become one of us forever. Welcome to the club!"
I'm going to honest. I found this movie at random and a huge motivation into watching it was down to a certain Doctor Who actor. I'm also glad I watched this film.
There's four separate but connected stories and they're supported by a Framework of course. This of course revolved the sceptical Detective Inspector Holloway (John Bennett) talking to Sergeant Martin (John Malcolm) about the house of the film and the dangers it posed. Holloway's scepticism would eventually be his downfall, so let's get to the stories.
The first one - Method For Murder kicked things off well. Horror writer Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott) and his wife, Alice (Joanna Dunham). Charles found that his writing was coming to life in the house a bit too well. For example, his character Dominic (Tom Adams) actually did come to life and it was driving Charles.
Nobody and that included Dr. Andrews (Robert Lang) believed he was telling the truth and that didn't end well for the doctor either. It also turned out that Dominic was an actor named Richard and a lover of Alice's. Yup, Alice was gaslighting Charles big time and it almost worked until she came afoul of her very method lover.
Second story - Waxworks was the weakest one for me. It's still pretty watchable and of course, I should note another Doctor Who actor was involved. Yup, there's Peter Cushing as Philip Grayson and Joss Ackland as Neville Rogers. Both men were friends. Both men were also in love with the same woman.
The woman in question also happened to be dead and also a waxwork creation. The creation was owned by the woman's vindictive and creepy husband (Wolfe Morris). He's a possessive and unsympathetic character, who's jealousy over his dead wife's hold over men resulted in beheadings. Like I said, it's the weakest of the stories but still engaging enough.
The third story - Sweets To The Sweet added some much needed witchcraft into the mix. It's nicely threaded throughout with a rather and daughter - John (Christopher Lee) and Jane Reid (Chloe Franks). Add in a governess named Anne Norton (Nyree Dawn Porter) and things got rather heated.
Anne genuinely thought that John was an abusive father and overly strict. It turned out that John's attempts of keeping Jane ostracised had merit. The little girl turned out to be a witch and had no problem using a wax doll to kill her father. It's a delightfully dark story, maybe the darkest story of them all.
The fourth and final story however turned out to be my favourite. The Cloak had my one of my favourite Doctor Who actors Jon Pertwee as horror actor Paul Henderson. Paul's an actor totally commited to his craft and not pleased with the current horror film he's making.
In fact, Paul's so annoyed that he went out and purchased a cloak from Theo von Hartmann (Geoffrey Bayldon) and found himself becoming a vampire. This caused problems with co-star and girlfriend, Carla (Ingrid Pitt) until the last moments revealed that Paul's commitment to horror was something the vampire community respected. It's a brilliant ending to a fantastic story.
- The last scene had A.J. Stoker (John Bryans) taking to the audience about the house reflecting the owner's personality.
- Robert Bloch, who co-wrote the film also wrote the book, Psycho.
- Paul was a fan of Bela Lugosi's Dracula. The man had good taste. No wonder the vampires wanted him as one of their own.
- Chronology: The Framework took place over a night before Holloway's encounter with Carla.
The House That Dripped Blood was a movie that I didn't even know existed until yesterday. It's an enjoyable watch with a strong framework but of course the vampire and witch stories were the ones that stood out the most.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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