Last night, I watched:
The House That Dripped Blood (1971).
Despite the macabre title, the house itself does not drip blood, nor is there any blood in the entire film. It is the setting for four stories that make up the movie, all of who were written and scripted by horror veteran Robert Bloch. The movie is directed by Peter Duffell who has mostly got TV credits in his resume and it doesn't surprise me. The House That Dripped Blood feels like a TV show more than a movie, not that it really matters. The House That Dripped Blood was distributed by Amicus, the second fiddle to Hammer Horror. It can be hard at times to distinguish the difference between the two studios, but it is classic British horror in the end anyway.
The house is the central theme that unites the stories, and the plot is driven by a Scotland Yard inspector who is investigating the disappearance of a famous actor who rented the house.
The first episode Method for Murder is about a horror writer, Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliot) and his wife Alice (Joanna Dunham). They rent the house in order to help Charles get over his writers block. This works too well as he invents a mad strangler and can't stop writing. Soon he starts seeing his creation in real life and things spiral out of control.
The second part is called Waxworks and stars Peter Cushing as the retired stock broker Philip Greyson. He wants a quiet life and is content to listen to music and work on the garden. He broods over a woman he was obsessed about and is shocked to find her likeness in a local wax museum of horror. An old friend and romantic rival, Neville Rogers (Joss Ackland) visit him and well, things don't go well.
The third entry is Sweets to the Sweet and here we find that John Reed (Christopher Lee) movies in with his strange daughter Jane. He soon hires Ann Norton (Nyree Dawn Porter) to be the girls tutor as he insists on keeping Jane isolated. Ann is puzzled by his decisions but he promises to tell her everything in time. I'm sure you can see the pattern as horrible things soon happen.
Last but not least, we have The Cloak starring Jon Pertwee as Paul Henderson, a veteran horror actor and amateur occultist. He and his costar/girlfriend Carla (Ingrid Pitt) are starring in a new horror movie together and he likes the house as it is convenient for him. He is however disgusted at the cheap props that are being used and goes off to buy a cloak from a creepy shop. The cloak however causes him some... trouble.
The four stories themselves are not really anything new, but they each contain something different. A twist on a familiar trope, a variation on a common theme and so on. The direction is fine, nothing to really comment on, but the music is a bit atrocious. The actors are outstanding as you can see above. Cushing, Lee, Elliot, Pitt and Pertwee who at the time still portrayed Doctor Who are excellent and to be fair carry the movie a great deal. The atmosphere is surprisingly good though. Even in the weaker stories, there is a good sensation of doom lurking around the corner.
So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, I think I do. Seasoned horror fans will likely fall asleep unless they love older movies like this, but for someone who wants to dip their toes in the murky waters of horror, The House That Dripped Blood might be just scary and tense enough.
That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!
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