Theatre of Blood (1973)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

So you're a horror fan, eh?

You have seen every horror flick in the last five years. The movies that routinely get dragged through the swamp of negative reviews, the unloved bastard children of Hollywood with their awful performances, laughable scripts, moronic ideas, and gallons of distasteful gore are the movies that capture your heart. Your heroes come from Crystal Lake or Haddonfield or Transylvania, your idols have fangs, and somewhere deep in the secret trappings of your heart you've got that little spark of glee that only comes to people who are a little bit monster themselves?

Then you need to know the classics. You need to know that Christopher Lee wasn't just a wizard; you need to know that Peter Cushing wasn't just Grand Moff Tarkin; you need to see Bela Lugosi in his hypnotic best. And you absolutely need to see Theatre of Blood starring Vincent Price.

Vincent Price, a long time favorite of mine, is mostly known for his performances in horror movies like The Abominable Doctor Phibes, The House Of Wax and the famous Roger Corman-produced Edgar Allen Poe adaptations The Raven, The Pit And The Pendulum, and The Masque of the Red Death among many others. His acting style verged somewhere between the dramatic and the hammy, but it cannot be said that he did not bring a sense of bombastic style that is sadly lacking in modern horror movies, which occasionally over-emphasize "realistic" depictions of the most wonderfully bizarre subject matter (excepting, of course, Bruce Campbell's wonderful turn in the Evil Dead series.)

Although he gained great popular success, Price ...

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