Red-Barracuda This may very well be the greatest horror-comedy of all time. Theatre of Blood is essentially a film which reworks the same basic ideas that the earlier 'Dr. Phibes' movies had played around with. In all of these films we had an insane, eccentric genius seemingly return from the grave to enact a series of highly elaborate murders based on historical sources on a group of individuals who had wronged him in his earlier life. These films also shared a colourful, stylish and campy nature, which was quite unusual for British horror films; while they also shared a large ensemble cast of quality British actors with the unique American horror legend Vincent Price at the helm in over-the-top splendour. The 'Phibes' films are certainly classics but with Theatre of Blood the level is upped even further. The central idea of the film is fantastic. A stage actor returns from a presumed watery grave to carry out a series of theatrical and over-the-top murders on a series of theatre critics who refused to reward him with the best actor of the year award at the annual critics award ceremony. Given he had been mocked for never acting in anything other than William Shakespeare productions, he kills them all in the style of the Bard's famous plays. It is a brilliant, relatively simple idea which is executed to perfection, with Price on top form - in fact he was never better.It is unique among the vast majority of horror comedies in that both the horror and the humour work alongside each other perfectly without one compromising the other. It is a hard trick to pull off and it rarely works but in this one the comedy is genuinely hilarious and the horror not shy in being properly grotesque. It is a huge testament to the skills of Price in particular that this fine balancing act is navigated to perfection as he was an actor who uniquely understood the comedy in horror, and how to deliver it on screen. It has to also be said that the ensemble cast around him is really quite stellar, with a succession of quality British actors pitching up to be high calibre cannon fodder for the homicidal Price. We also have the great Diana Rigg appear as his embittered daughter, in a film which she still has extremely good memories and opinions of. I guess one of the problems with a film like this is that it feels like a bit of a shame that Price's character has to be defeated in the end, we sort of definitely want him to take out Ian Hendry as well to be perfectly honest! But really, the pacing and set-pieces in this one are truly of a fantastic standard. All of the murders an absolute riot with Price adorning all manner of ludicrous disguises on the way - a particular hilarious highlight being his afro sporting hairdresser Butch.I may even have to go as far as to suggest that this may well be the greatest British horror film ever made. Its uniquely successful combination of horror, wit, style, imagination, high-calibre acting, camp costuming and Grand Guignol excess, makes it a particularly satisfying movie which is endlessly re-watchable. A true cult classic and one of the high points of the horror genre in general. And to think I used to always think the theatre was pointless and boring!

Mark Turner Vincent Price was the king of horror in the early 60s having just successfully bringing Edgar Alan Poe to the screen with director Roger Corman. To this day those films are treasured by horror fans and used in English classes to demonstrate the transfer of the written word to the screen. After those films Price starred in several other horror films but nothing that was as popular and for a time he did little more than TV appearances.That changed in 1971 when he came back to the forefront in a small film called THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES. It was followed in 1972 with a sequel, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN. So it only seemed natural that he would come out with another horror film the following year which is where this film comes into play.Using a theme that was found in the Phibes films we have another series of deaths at the hands of a madman. This time around the protagonist is Edward Lionheart (Price), a Shakespearean actor who supposedly committed suicide after being shamed by the critics circle. But death was not meant for him yet and he survives with the help of a group of vagrants who become his henchmen/women.The critics circle is still around and doing well. But suddenly they begin to be killed off one by one. And with each death is some cryptic message involving the plays of William Shakespeare. The initial suspect is Lionheart's daughter, Edwina (Diana Rigg). But top critic Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry) doesn't believe it. Of course the rest of us know she's involved in one way or another as we've witnessed her at each murder in disguise, a bit that tried to make the viewer unaware but which we can see through easily.Each of the deaths of the critics is played for both disgust and humor of the darkest sort. For example one critic, fond of his two tiny dogs, has them fed to him in meat pies. As with Phibes we have her examples of cleverly written murders that are involved in a countdown to the last one. The problem is it doesn't quite work as well this time around.The fault here doesn't lie in the performance of Price or of Rigg for that matter. Both do a great job here, Price especially. It's one thing to perform a role poorly but quite another to perform it as someone trying to do it justice but doing it over the top unintentionally. The movie just doesn't have the same feel that the Phibes films did even though you can see the obvious attempt to replicate those films.In the end the move remains a fun horror film to watch but moves along at a much slower pace than the aforementioned films. That does more damage than good here. Price fans will find this a must see if for no other reason than to see his performance. The same goes for fans of Rigg.The presentation lives up to the standards of all releases from Twilight Time with the best picture quality found. Extras include an isolated score track, an audio commentary track with film historians David Del Valle and Nick Redman and the original theatrical trailer. As with all Twilight Time releases they've limited it to just 3,000 copies so if you're interested in one order it today.

Nigel P Down the main road that runs alongside the home of pompous local Civil Servant and critic George Maxwell (Michael Hordern) runs a delivery van – Shakespeare's Deliveries, of course. Maxwell is immediately a caricature of authority; self-important, arrogant and very easy to manipulate. His ego is massaged sufficiently by a call from the local police to help rid a doomed warehouse of a gang of meth drinkers and vagabonds. The first glimpse we see of the mighty Vincent Price is behind a heavy moustache and police uniform, as he ushers Maxwell towards the unsightly crew of grubby tramps. Clipping them with his umbrella and advising them to leave the vicinity immediately, Maxwell finds the atmosphere quickly turns sinister as bottles are broken and the sneers and gurgles of the incapacitated characters are directed towards him. The two policemen stand by as the vagrants rip him to shreds. An exaggerated establishment figure he may be, it is nevertheless very satisfying to see his pomposity pricked like a balloon as it slowly dawns on Maxwell he is beyond help.Maxwell is part of a group of similarly snotty art critics who have all savaged the career of hopeless Shakespearian ham Edward Lionheart (Price), who apparently killed himself as a result of their hostile reviews. Even his apparent suicide is an embarrassing over-the-top performance (the final goodbye to his critics is greeted by cruel sneers and jibes as, tortured by his own madness, he throws himself into the sea). Yet, he still lives, and with the aid of his daughter Edwina (Diana Rigg, unconvincingly disguised as a male throughout – I mention that not as a criticism; she is an extension of her father's lack of subtlety after all), aims to kill every one of the group utilising scenes from Shakespeare's finest.And what a group they are. Among the many elaborate and memorable deaths, Horace Sprout (Arthur Lowe) is beheaded as he sleeps next to his wife. The maid comes in with the breakfast, screams as she sees the blood, which wakes Mrs Sprout (Joan Hickson), allowing the dismembered head to roll onto the floor, giving her convulsions. Later that morning, Peregrine Devlin (Ian Hendry) idly retrieves the milk bottle from the front step only to find Sprout's head wedged onto one of the bottles. Later, Robert Morley's camp dog-lover Meredith Merridew (and his beloved poodles) appears to win a celebrity competition in which he is treated to a painstakingly prepared delicacy, lovingly crafted by a disguised Lionheart and his crew. Naturally, Lionheart's chef is a ham with an awful accent, casually plucking hairs from Merridew's dinner. That he is eating his own dogs may not be a huge surprise, but the revelation is horrifying and utterly repellent ("Pity. He didn't have the stomach for it").It is difficult to name a favourite film from Vincent Price's incredible career. For my money it comes down to his restrained performance as the cruel Matthew Hopkins in 'Witchfinder General (1968)', and this, the opposite extreme and a gift of a part for Price's finely honed excesses. Often caked in the grotesquery of theatrical make-up, his playing of OTT Lionheart allows him every opportunity to give the largest of performances, whilst always remaining in character. And yet such is Lionheart's self-belief and misplaced dignity, he becomes far more than a hopeless ham: he is a truly tragic, misunderstood figure, so engulfed in his theatricality that he is little else without it. His loyal daughter adds to this awful nobility, as do his audience of the meth-drinkers we saw at the start (they pulled him from the stagnant waters after his elaborate suicide). They applaud his over-acting in return for the coins he throws benignly toward them. Douglas Kickox's tremendous direction adds further colour to this, closing his cameras tightly on Lionheart's performances, barely containing them, and then zooming out slowly to find it being paraded in the isolation of an abandoned and ramshackle theatre. What an incredible creation Lionheart is.With a cast including further veteran stalwarts as Joan Hickson, Arthur Lowe, Jack Hawkins, Dennis Price and Diana Dors, this is as great a horror film as Lionheart perceives himself. The finale is spectacularly sliced grand-guignol, with Rigg imploring the band of stoned vagrants to help her doomed father before being killed herself, leaving him trapped, totally deranged and beyond hope, in his burning theatre. This time, there is no mockery or sneering at his final performance. Hendry's admiration for him is so grudging, however, it makes us wish he too had been one of the victims. An outstanding film.

Gabriel Teixeira After losing the Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor, which he felt he deserved for his recent season of Shakespeare plays, enraged and mad actor Edwin Lionheart (Price) commits suicide. Unbeknownst to everyone, though, he survives and with the help of some vagrants start dealing his revenge on the critics, killing each of them in accordance to his plays' deaths.A darkly humorous horror/thriller, performed magnificently by Vincent Price and an excellent British supporting cast (such as Milo O'Shea, Ian Hendry and Diana Rigg); this is easily Price's best role and one of his best films. Leagues above his previous 'Abominable Mr. Phibes', even if the two feel very similar concept-wise.One of the film's main sources of profit comes from the way Price's character is set. Lionheart is a theater actor with a tendency to overact (which is acknowledged by one of the critics); this simple fact gives Price an excuse to overact as he wishes, to ham things up as he goes, and makes his performance both fun to watch and consistent with his character. Seeing him in outrageous make-up, performing for the city's bums, is priceless (excuse the pun).The Shakespearean motifs are also very well done. Not only the killings, which are both amusing and quite consistent with the plays they are based on (including a 'rewrite' of 'The Merchant of Venice's trial), but Price actually does play Shakespeare's characters nicely: he pulls off some of the monologues (in special Hamlet's and King Lear's) better than some Shakespearean actors I've seen.The film is quite colorful, a especially delightful trait of 50's-70's British horrors; this, coupled with the pervasive humor even in the more serious scenes, makes this work more as a comedy-horror than as a pure horror/thriller. No matter how you wish to look at it, though, the fact is that 'Theatre of Blood' is a very entertaining and fun film.