This week I have another creepy house and another Hammer Horror film: The House of Long Shadows and the Curse of Frankenstein. While both star great actors (with quite a bit of overlap), the quality differs wildly.
Warning: lots of spoilers!!
The House of Long Shadows
The premise of the movie is that an American author visiting his British publicist makes a bet that he can write a novel in the mold of "Wuthering Heights" in under twenty-four hours. The prize is $20,000 and the stage for his feverish writing is a creepy and long abandoned mansion. As one might expect the author does not find himself alone up there. He soon finds himself enmeshed in a revenge scheme 40 years in the making.
Let's start with the fundamental flaw of the movie: the viewing experience. I watched this on Amazon Prime and the version available has terrible contrast. Given that there is little lighting of any sort, the result is watching a lot of black screen.
I'm not a fan of dark (as in poorly illuminated) movies in general. Some of the recent Batman movies and the Alien vs. Predator franchise can be included in the category of movies I might otherwise have liked if I could just see the damn thing.
Anyway let's look at the good stuff. There's a lot of weirdness as the author approaches and begins writing in the house. A woman he was eyeing at lunch follows him to the house, the caretakers that his agent claims should not be there seem to be readying a party, people keep turning up to this isolated home during a dreadful storm on the flimsiest of excuses, and no one gives a sensible answer why they are here.
Slowly this chaos becomes clear. The woman reveals she is his publicist's secretary here to play a joke. The caretakers used to live here as do the brothers Lionel (Price) and Sebastian (Cushing). They are the surviving members of the Grisbane clan, forced to leave after a tragedy 40 years prior.
Along the way we get signs that there is a fifth member of the family, the missing Roderick Grisbane, a monster whose actions forced them to punish him and flee their ancestral home.
Most of this information only comes out half way through the movie when Corrigan (Lee) the new owner arrives. He plans to tear down the building and is unhappy to find the old family here. They do finally convince him to allow them to complete their reunion.
For the truth is that Roderick was sealed up in the house, imprisoned for killing a pregnant village girl and fed by his sister Vivian (one of the caretakers) for forty years. Corrigan forces them to release the child they so cruelly punished. But they discover that not only is he still alive, he has escaped!
Some of the character try to get the police only to find their tires slashed (and of course the phone is out). Meanwhile Roderick begins to kill them one by one. A young couple arrive midway through this carnage to provide us extra bodies. They perish from traps of poison and acid that Roderick laid for his relatives.
Eventually we are left with the author, the secretary, Corrigan and Lionel. Corrigan as I had guessed by now was the long absent Roderick and he reveals that Lionel was the one who truly killed the girl. Corrigan/Roderick kills Lionel with an axe and then goes after the only surviving witnesses.
In the end a lucky kick by the seemingly strangled author knocks Roderick down the stairs onto his axe saving the day.
Or does he?
The movie then tries to do a triple plot twist and only succeeds in irritating me.
Turns out this was all a joke by the publicist. The Grisbanes are actors. The secretary wasn't falling for him at all. If I'd been the author, I suspect I'd storm off and/or break off working with the publicist. As a joke, its pretty cruel (and dangerous!).
But wait no! It turns out that was just how the author wrote the ending. The entire movie was just in his head as he wrote his novel. In other words it was just a dream...
No wait! As he turns over the manuscript, we discover some of the character resemble people in real life (because that never happens?). So it tries to make us think it might have been real?
It's an idea that only works if you are bad at following plots.
- shadows on black wallpaper in a lightless house at night with men in dark suits.
This movie has great characters. But for a great story you also need good writing, a plot that drives the characters forward, and an ending that doesn't void the reader's emotional investment. This movie fails at that.
Gaming thoughts
This movie frustrates me. A game like this would frustrate the players.Imagine this: the players bring their A-game, they have backgrounds, great insight into their characters, and a story ready to happen. But the game master muddles the beginning and doesn't bring the action (dramatic, investigative, or violent) until the last third of the session.
Two character, the author and secretary, essentially have to sit and watch this parade of weirdness play out until the Grisbanes are allowed to start dropping off.
Finally once they survive the horrors, they discover it was all a dream. "It was all a dream" (by which I mean your accomplishments meant nothing) is perhaps the number one worst ending for a story or game. Never steal agency from your players. Never end by dis-empowering them.
Curse of Frankenstein
Much like the Horror of Dracula, the film takes many liberties with the original story. Much like that film, the result works great, painting a much darker version of the scientist, one capable supporting several films (as you'll see in later weeks).
We begin with the doctor confessing his crimes in jail to a priest as he awaits the guillotine.
In this tale, Victor Frankenstein learns his skills from a tutor, Paul Krempe, after the death of his mother. Paul first acts as his teacher and later his partner. Together they work on the science of reanimation. Paul acts as the conscience to Victor's obsession. For Paul, the process holds potent tools for helping mankind while Victor wants to play god.
Refreshingly the science is kept alchemical in nature and the characters actually sound like scientists for the most part. Eventually they obtain a body and restore it to functionality. All they need is a brain. Unfortunately Victor is willing to go to any lengths to get the perfect mind for his creature. When Victor resorts to grave robbing, Paul threatens to leave.
Complicating things, Paul encounters Elizabeth, Victor's cousin and betrothed. He naturally seeks to protect her from the horror of their work and is force to stay as a result. Victor for his part has been having an affair with the house maid.
Eventually Victor invites an aged but brilliant professor to the house and murders him by pushing him off a railing. Since the professor lacks any family, Victor generously buries him in the ancestral vault and then promptly removes his brain. Paul tries to stop him and in the process wrecks the brain. Victor proceeds anyway with the result of the creature being a murderous idiot.
I should note that by this point only a half hour of movie remains.
The creature escapes, murders some helpless townsfolk and spurs a manhunt by the police. Paul and Victor track it down first where Paul slays the creature with a shot to its eye.
Lee's portrayal is shockingly different from his Dracula. Where Dracula was all predatory menace, the Creature wears a slack sad expression and seems unsure of what to do his hands.
The maid Justine tries to blackmail Victor into marrying her (claiming she is pregnant with his child) but he rebuffs her. When she seeks evidence of his crimes, he locks her in with the creature. There is no ambiguity here about who is the true monster.
Victor's wedding to Elizabeth approaches. Paul returns and tries to stop Victor but in the chaos, the creature again escapes and chases after Elizabeth. Victor blames Paul for its actions since he damaged the brain. As Paul goes to the authorities, Victor chases the creature. He kills it but it falls into a pit of acid leaving no remains.
With his life's work destroyed, he snaps. He has no evidence he didn't commit the crimes the creature did. He blames the creature for Justine's death. Paul chooses to remain silent and lets Victor be led to the guillotine.
So is he crazy? Was the monster real? Did Paul let Victor die for crimes he didn't commit (but certainly aided)?
Tellingly, we never see the guillotine blade drop. We will see Baron victor Frankenstein again.
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