Movies: The Atomic Brain / A Bucket of Blood / House on Haunted Hill

Been a hellish couple of weeks, which may even get blogged about shortly. In the meantime here's some more movie reviews as I catch up on the significant backlog of flicks.

House on Haunted Hill 1959

black screen, screaming, much screaming, vincent price. floating heads. this starts well !

there’s a gathering at the house, a haunted house party, hosted by vincent’s wife. lots of moody dark shots. good stuff. mr and mrs vincent want to kill each other, good stuff there too.

the guests get a payout if they stay the night. so pretty standard scoobydoo set up ;)

fuck yeah there’s a theremin

7 strangers gather for a party, and we’re on the tour of the house describing the murders including stabbing and acid (this is led by the alcoholic of the group). 

“boy I’ve never seen so many doors” scintillating stuff, but oddly it worked.

some nice very creepy turns, really enjoying this.

mrs lawrence / price is now showing people their bedrooms. saucy ! she’s concerned mr lawrence/price is going to kill her. 

Vincent Price just said ‘It’s close to midnight’ !!!! OMFG. 

hysterical woman (tick) - offered sedative by psychiatrist. sigh.

oh noes. vincent’s wife is dead !! she’s been hung. the harmonium is now playing itself, except it sounds like a hammond organ. (or farfisa??)

The Atomic Brain (1963)

A movie dedicated to eternal life. Explained, extensively, by voiceover. rich 80yo wants new body, pet scientist does the nasty business. And implied nasty with 80yo in a 20yo body.

Black and white, but lighting so bad it’s mostly black with hints of lighter grey.

There’s a problem, all he can produce are zombies. No brain. It’s a quandary all right!!

the evil Dr is using the hired help as his test subjects, our pick is th blonde is next to go - ooohhhh he’s carrying a black cat. The dude *is* evil. Oh hang on, voiceover has informed us the cat is being used as the brain transplant. 

A Bucket of Blood (1959) Roger Corman

A 1959 beat poet jazz influenced movie. It promised much, and I think I’ve seen it before, the Burroughs-like introduction continues throughout the movie. It’s a beat poet movie made by Roger Corman, so I guess it may actually have reflected the late 50s beat generation. Walter has made a cat, out of clay, only we know it’s made from his actual cat. This won’t end well for Walter needs to make more art works.

Walter is accused of being a drug dealer by an undercover cop - damn those square narcs, things spiral a bit and the cop ends up permanently poorly. I’m guessing his next artwork is about to happen… Everyone loves Walter's art, it's very lifelike. The critics love him too. It's all coming up mill house for Walter. Oh dear, except someone has seen through him, and is breaking his exhibits. poor Walter, exposed, just like Damian Hirst.

Enjoyable soundtrack too.

Because they're so good, here's the opening credits, and then as the movie is public domain, the full thing. I'm too good to you.