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The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
10/17
10/17:
Here's something interesting for the Halloween season: The House That Dripped Blood.
It may be the earliest film I can recall that takes the form of anthology. There are several others, but I haven't seen them
yet. This one, it's definitely in the vein of Hammer Horror pictures with three returning main stars: Christopher Lee,
Peter Cushing, and the floating Ingrid Pitt with black strings on her back.
The first segment, "Method for Murder," is the best of them, yet it's frankly old hat with an incomprehensible
conclusion. It stars Denholm Elliott who may have been mentally disturbed forever afterwards as evidenced in
Raiders of the Lost Ark and
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He was probably thinking of Dominic in these films.
However, the next three segments ("Waxworks," "Sweets to the Sweet," and "The Cloak") aren't good, showing
redundancy with poor acting, limited creativity, and lots of cravats. So much more can be done with them; that's why
the colorfully photographed Hammer Horror pictures have a lasting reputation for telling solid stories.
What shocks me the most, which is the main reason why I wanted to see The House That Dripped Blood in the first place,
is that there's not a single drop of blood the entire time. In fact, the film was originally slated to receive a 'PG' rating which is
much deserved, but fearing harm to its box-office returns, the producers asked for an 'X' rating and subsequently got it.
Maybe the most interesting, which is a curio, is the use of a framing device to allow a secondary character
to narrate what happened in the house despite not having been there at any point in time. Now, how the hell would he know?
All in all, The House That Dripped Blood is a decent horror film, but don't be fooled by the title like I was.