|
|
|
Curse of the Crimson Altar
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (6th September 2024). |
|
The Film
 When his brother and business partner Peter (Denys Peek) fails to return after a trip, antiques dealer Robert Manning (Seance on a Wet Afternoon's Mark Eden) has only a false bodkin – a spring-loaded blade for pricking witches – and a letter in his brother's handwriting on the letterhead of of Craxtead Lodge in Greymarshe, the village that also happened to have once been the family seat of the Manning family. Peter travels to Greymarshe, arriving on the Witches' Night celebration commemorating the burning of Lavinia Morley "the Black Witch of Greymarshe" which is a combination of traditional pageantry by the villagers and a wild party held by descendant Eve Morley (Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde's Virginia Wetherell) and friends from the city. Eve's uncle J.D. Morley (Horror Express' Christopher Lee) claims never to have heard of Robert's brother but nevertheless invites him to stay at the lodge for the festivities and a history lesson from family friend Professor John Marsh (The Comedy of Terrors' Boris Karloff) who reveals that through the centuries several of the descendants of Lavinia's persecutors have died mysteriously. That night, Robert starts dreaming of satanic rituals and Lavinia (Black Sunday's Barbara Steele) who attempts to compel him to sign over his soul. The dreams become more vivid over successive nights and Robert soon starts sleepwalking. When he discovers that his brother had indeed stayed at Craxtead Lodge under an assumed name, Robert starts to suspect that Peter never left and that he might be the next target of Lavinia's vengeance. An early, loose adaptation from Tigon of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House" – subsequently adapted for the Showtime series "Masters of Horror" by seasoned Lovecraft director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), for the Netflix series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities by Catherine Hardwicke (TwilightBrett Piper's The Dark Sleep – and, unlike co-producer American International's earlier adaptation of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" The Haunted Palace not attaching Edgar Allan Poe's name to the advertising as they and Tigon had with done concurrently with the American release of Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General as "The Conqueror Worm" and the Rudyard Kipling "Mark of the Beast" adaptation as The Oblong Box, The Curse of the Crimson Altar oddly enough does not even credit Lovecraft despite the potential literary hook which American International would finally exploit two years later with The Dunwich Horror even though the loose adaptation is about as faithful as some of the aforementioned adaptations. Like The Oblong Box and Scream and Scream Again, the film does promise the onscreen partnering of three horror stars – with Karloff even name-dropped as an in-joke – and, like those films, they cheat a bit as only Lee and Karloff appear onscreen together while Steele only appears in dreams and replaces one of the others for a final shot reveal. Eden and Wetherell are relatively engaging, driving the plot as much as secondary performers Michael Gough (Crucible of Horror) as the unstable servant dominated by Lavinia's will while trying to warn Robert away or prominently-billed Rupert Davies (Frightmare) who has one scene as the village vicar. Veteran director Vernon Sewell – who had previously helmed The Blood Beasts Terror for Tigon – no more had his finger on the pulse of the day's youth than Tigon or American International at the time or their writers (credited and otherwise), but one wonders how a younger director would have handled the material like John Hough (Twins of Evil) or Alan Gibson who managed to inject some style into the equally-middle-aged treatment of youth in Dracula A.D. 1972. Cinematographer did a respectable job here, although his work was nowhere near as dynamic as his work on the likes of Witchfinder General, Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, or even the more Gothic The Changeling more than a decade later. 
Video
The Curse of the Crimson Altar was released by Tigon themselves in the U.K. in 1968 but not until 1970 in America by American International where it was slightly censored and retitled "The Crimson Cult". When Orion came into ownership of the American International library, they discovered that the music rights had not been cleared for some titles and hired musician Kendall Schmidt to rescore the films with synthesizer music. Like their VHS and laserdisc of Witchfinder General as "The Conqueror Worm", Orion was able to source the European negative for a new transfer; as such, their release of "The Curse of the Crimson Altar" restored the title and the cut footage but Schmidt's score was not one of his better efforts, seeming cheap and making the film's sound design seem rather spare. While MGM was able to clear the music rights for most of the American International titles with a few exceptions, The Curse of the Crimson Altar and The Haunted House of Horror were titles for which they only had music rights for television so the MGMHD broadcasts and streaming mediums were the only way to see their restorations stateside. Elsewhere in Europe where Euro London owns the film, it has been available regularly on DVD and Blu-ray including twice in the U.K. – DD Video's 2005 release utilizing an older anamorphic master and Odeon's 2014 Blu-ray and DVD utilizing the MGM master – but when Kino Lorber finally licensed the film from MGM for Blu-ray in 2015, it featured the MGM restoration but the Schmidt score.  88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray comes from the MGM master with the original score intact as expected. Unlike older video masters, Lavinia is not the "green-faced witch" but has green decolletage and facial make-up that seems a bit green and a bit blue, but the greens and red gels look truly psychedelic while the green credits are actually readable here. Well-lit night exteriors hold up well, including a visit to the graveyard where the tombstones are obviously set dressing effectively positioned for a forced perspective shot while the house's stone and woodwork have more "character" than in SD and comparison to the location in Haunted House of Horror shows what wonders a splash of paint from the art department can do to making the house feel cozy.
Audio
The sole audio option is an uncompressed English LPCM 2.0 mono track in which dialogue – electronically-treated or otherwise – is clear, screams are shrill, and the scoring of orchestra conductor Peter Knight (Sunstruck) actually feels less bombastic and far richer a listen after hearing the Schmidt synth score. Optional English HoH subtitles are included. 
Extras
88 Films has not carried over the Steele commentary from the earlier editions but have recorded a new audio commentary by film critics Kim Newman and Sean Hogan who note that the film started out as a more faithful adaptation of the Lovecraft tale by Jerry Sohl who had previously adapted Lovecraft's other "unadaptable" story "The Color Out of Space" as Die, Monster, Die! and they wonder why Lovecraft was not attributed to the film in the advertising. They also note the early mentions of hallucinogenic drugs that is dropped early on, the middle-aged approach to its depiction of the young revelers, and how some of the elements from the story are more "survivals" of a muddled process of rewrites and revisions including uncredited input from AIP's Louis M. Heyward – as notorious a meddler as Tigon's Tony Tenser – associate producer Gerry Levy who wrote ruinous new scenes for Haunted House of Horror, and Michel Parry (The Uncanny).  "On the Cutting Room Floor - Howard Lanning on Editing Tigon Films" (18:04) features Lanning's impressions not only on the film but also The Body Stealers and Haunted House of Horror. He conveys his admiration for Karloff and how sad it was to see him exerting himself during the production but he does not think highly of the production itself. His remarks about the other two films are mainly with reference to working with his brother Levy and are more positive. In "The Altar of Sacrifice - Sean Hogan on H.P. Lovecraft & Curse of the Crimson Altar" (20:31), Hogan discusses how Lovecraft's works were kept in circulation by a following of writers who he allowed and encouraged to incorporate his universe into their own works, as well as how the counter-culture of the sixties were attracted to its more existential elements (while also noting how Lovecraft would likely have viewed hippies and drug use). He also discusses the various adaptations and suggests that the faults of Tigon's adaptation and Del Toro's "fairy tale" adaptation are due to the superficial treatment of the story without engaging with its ideas. "Creating the Curse of the Crimson Altar" (35:01) is a 2016 re-edit of the 2014 documentary with actors Eden and Wetherell, continuity supervisor Mary Spain, editor Lanning, as well as actress Annette Whiteley (The Black Torment) who has not seen the finished film so misremembers her role as the "young Lavinia" based on appearing as the witch in the reenactment but was also one of the girls in the "paintbrush fight" during the party scene. Eden and Wetherell recall Karloff pleasantly while Lee was standoffish and even refusing to run lines but otherwise professional. Wetherell also recalls her love scene and her refusal to do nudity and her dissatisfaction with the double they picked. Lanning repeats some of the remarks from his more recent interview while Spain recalls the challenges of shooting in a real location with a ceiling that required a second take of the scene where wheelchair-bound Karloff had to stand. Another uncredited actress (here and in the film's cast list) from the film appears briefly at the end of the segment recalling shooting the night exterior with Karloff and the state of Grim's Dyke House before its more recent renovation. The disc also includes the U.K. "Curse of the Crimson Altar" theatrical trailer (2:39) and the U.S. "The Crimson Cult" theatrical trailer (2:00)m, as well as a stills gallery. 
Packaging
The disc comes with a reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore & original US "The Crimson Cult" poster on the inside, while the first pressing includes a reverse-board gloss O-ring slipcover and booklet notes by Andrew Graves (not provided for review).
Overall
Although The Curse of the Crimson Altar did not exploit its status as a Lovecraft adaptation, it was really no more or less faithful to the source story than any of the other takes but also has the bonus of the pairing of Lee, Karloff, and Steele and the old-school Tigon/AIP horror elements beneath its pseudo-psychedelic sheen.
|
|||||
|