JasparLamarCrabb Certainly not the worst horror film to come out of England in the 1960s, but it's surely one of the dullest. Considering that the cast includes both Boris Karloff AND Christopher Lee, one expects a whole lot more. Director Vernon Sewell brings zero sense of pacing to the film and instead of delivering thrills, it turns out to be all build up and no pay-off. Mark Eden, who looks, acts and sounds like Rod Taylor, searches for his missing brother at a lodge run by Lee, only to find there's witchcraft, human sacrifice and murder afoot. There's a high priestess played by the inimitable Barbara Steele (donning ram's horns and purple make-up). Lee & Karloff appear in a couple of scenes together but there's really nothing special here. Added to the mix is Michael Gough as a loony servant. On the plus side, there's a great and creepy music score by Peter Knight.

Spikeopath Curse of the Crimson Altar is directed by Vernon Sewell and co- written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. It stars Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Mark Eden, Barbara Steele and Michael Gough. Music is scored by Peter Knight and cinematography by John Coquillon. Plot sees Eden as Robert Manning, who travels to the village of Greymarsh in search of his missing brother. What he finds, however, is a village of secrets..."..and drugs of this group can produce the most complex hallucinations and under their influence it is possible by hypnosis to induce the subject to perform actions he would not normally commit" (extract from medical journal)Hmm, so begins Curse of the Crimson Altar (AKA: The Crimson Cult), maybe in an attempt to capture the drug taking hippie culture of the late 1970s? What transpires is a rather dull devil-worship movie that wastes the actors on show whilst also trying to expand an hours worth of film into an hour and half. I really think that to enjoy this picture you need to yourself enter a drug induced altered state.More often than not many a horror fan can forgive illogical narratives and cheaply constructed sets and costumes, but normally there is a good vibe to the production, or some visual pleasures elsewhere. Helps, too, if the picture has a strong mystery element to it. Sadly, away from the genre legend actors on show, Sewell's movie has nothing to make one forgive it its flaws.The dream sequences induce smiles instead of chills as the underused Steele turns up in green paint, there's lots of filler scenes that never amount to much and the finale is very weak. Throw in a schizophrenic music score that lurches from harp to low bass and then to organ, without marrying up to the scenes, and it's barely worth the time spent watching the damn thing.Karloff at 82 is the best thing in it, in a wheelchair he puts his awesome voice to good use and gets to be part of the film's best passages of dialogue. Lee is on professional auto-pilot and Gough works real hard to make a routine butler character shifty and interesting. All in all quite frankly it's bitter disappointment and tough to recommend to anyone other than drug addled hippies. 4/10

gavin6942 Robert Manning (Mark Eden) searches for his vanished brother in a rural English village, where he is entangled in the legend of Lavinia (Barbara Steele), a witch killed 300 years ago. Lavinia's heir, J. D. Morley (Christopher Lee), wants revenge on anyone related to her killers, such as Robert. Robert romances Morley's niece, Eve, and is aided by occult expert Prof. Marsh (Boris Karloff), but it is up to him to repel Morley's evil designs.Boris Karloff became ill with pneumonia while shooting this project in the freezing rain. It was his last British feature, begun January 22 1968, and he would recover enough to shoot four Mexican features in May 1968, his final screen work. Barbara Steele is always a treat, and she is especially interesting with green skin and a large, feathery hat (if you can call that a hat).Loosely based off of H. P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House", how does it stack up to the Stuart Gordon version forty years later? Honestly, you cannot even compare them. If there is a connection, it is very limited. There is a witch, there are dreams, but the two films are worlds apart.Howard Maxford calls the film "dated and somewhat slow", having "a better cast than it deserves". How a film that runs only 87 minutes can be slow is a legitimate question. Ivan Butler also feels the film falls short, saying the "promise of a combination of Lee, Karloff and Barbara Steele is not fulfilled". These are fair assessments.I recommend the film for the cast and the awesome organ track that opens the film. Beyond that, it is hit and miss and you could skip it.

bob the moo When Robert Manning doesn't hear from his brother for some time, he sets off to look for him to make sure he is alright. He travels to a remote country house where his brother was staying when he last was in touch with Robert. He finds a strange place with relaxed young people engaging in ceremonies and two older men living out their years as country gents (Morley and Prof Marsh). The place does have a slightly odd feel to it but that is so often the way with such isolated places and Robert puts this out of his mind with the help of Morley's attractive and bubbly niece Eve. The mystery of his brother's location remains though and for some reason Robert has started having very odd dreams.A strange affair this film. Like many others I was attracted to this by the top billing given to Karloff and Lee, hoping that it would be a classic horror worthy of their names. What it actually is though is a rather dated 1960's British horror movie that has a simple mystery plot spiced up with the star names, bits of nudity, drug use, young people and so on. As a total product its main value comes from being a curio piece rather than anything else as it doesn't actually thrill, scare, mystify or really even engage all that much. It isn't awful by any means but it is just the type of British horror movie that one feels was pushed out for the sake of making it as one of countless others – sure nobody pretends it is that good, but at least we're still making them. It is helped by the weird atmosphere that makes it at least distinctive. The colourful lights, the use of colour as part of the Gothic rather than the shadow I thought worked reasonably well, but these are not enough.The story does drag a bit as it has little to offer and it is hard to escape the feeling that 1960's material of drugs and kids have been added along with certain S&M-inspired design in the dream sequences to give the film a feeling of freshness and originality. If it worked back then it doesn't really now as I just felt like these were slotted in regardless of the film – just to get this effect. The two lead names are both reasonably good – nothing to really get their teeth into but they are both still good presences and seem to enjoy themselves. If only the former could be said of Eden, who looks and acts more like someone who should be doing TV adverts of the period – not leading such a film. But I suppose, in his defence, he is the type of person that often lead this type of film while the "stars" were in the darker roles rather than being narrative devices such as Robert. Steele is weirdly sexual as the witch while Wetherell doesn't really have the looks or charisma to be a good person for the Eve character.It is not awful though and that is worth repeating since I have pointed out lots of weakness without a lot of praise going back the other way. It does have a weirdly dated feel to it that is quite nice, while the star names are a massive draw for any fan – just a shame that ultimately it is quite straightforward and seems to have been made with a certain amount of "production line" mentality. A curio piece then that has some entertainment value but is not what the Karloff/Lee banner would make you hope for.