Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

gorf Theater of Blood is for some strange reason called one of Vincent Price's best movies, but I personally think it's one of his worst (it's only beaten by From a whisper to a scream aka The Offspring). The best and scariest part is the opening scene where the first victim is chased by crazy hobos. The rest of the movie is just boring...I had to fight to stay awake.It's also a very sadistic and cruel movie, especially when they force the fat gay guy to eat his own dogs. It's probably supposed to be funny, but I thought it was disturbing and sick. Skip this garbage and watch House on the Haunted Hill or House of Wax instead.

GL84 After several top movie critics are viciously killed, the police discover it is the followers of a celebrated Shakespearean actor thought dead and ordering them to assist in his revenge on critics who savaged his work and race to stop him before his revenge is complete.This is one of the finest and most enjoyable efforts in his career. First and foremost, it must be said that this is Vincent Price's movie. Here, he delivers one of his finest performances to date, and it's simply a joy to see Price perform so splendidly in what was obviously a role written specifically for him. That makes his performance all the more watchable, as he's supposed to be acting ham which is due to the way the film carries itself out. The way the plot dictates matters makes it all the more watchable as it's quite fun to see how ham Price can be this involving a Shakespearean actor seeking revenge on movie critics for harmful reviews is a role Price was born to play, and in here it really works for the film. Besides the greatness of Price's role, the film is memorable for the method of murder as being one of the most creative and imaginative in horror cinema. Because of the way Price's character is written, basing the deaths on the movie the critic bashed, this is further proof of Price's genius in the role as the deaths are so much fun to watch, yet require a large amount of intelligence on the viewer to deduce what is going on with the deaths. That is quite a change and one that is quite welcomed in the film by giving this the kind of atmosphere to allow for quite an impressive time here. There are a couple of great action pieces in here that are quite entertaining going off of that, featuring a duel at a fencing school which is inventive and exhilarating going back and forth between the fighters, a stellar series of gruesome deaths as well as the opening attack in the theater which is an effective way to get the movie rolling and delivers lots of chills. The other big plus here comes from one of the best finales in a long while which includes a spectacular gathering and the overall burning-down-the-building finish that offers a rather touching finish. These make this one a blast to watch while not really offering up too many flaws. It's biggest problem is that this is a little bit more intelligent than what most of the usual horror fans are used to since the viewer is required to know Shakespeare and his works, for that drives most of the horror in here. Knowing that will increase the level of involvement in the script as well since the large amount of detail in here is not something for those that have very little experience with the works of Shakespeare to just get into. Otherwise, this is a great film.Today's Rating/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

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.

mark.waltz When an actor takes themselves as seriously as Vincent Price's Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart, the worst thing a critic can do is pan their performances or refer to him as the biggest ham since Porky Pig. In the case of "worst thing", that goes for the critics, not for Price, because after years of being rejected for London's top theater honors, he plots out a grand exit that would make Hamlet, King Lear, MacBeth and Othello applaud. You see, Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart does nothing but Shakespeare, and he overdoes it so much in the eyes of the critics, they have no choice but to condemn him. Confronting them at their annual committee meeting, Price curses them all out then makes his exit, through their skyscraper window to his supposed death.As time passes, several critics begin to meet their doom from extremely bizarre methods. The remaining begin to think there is some plot against them, and of course, they are right. If only they knew the truth, which is too funny in a macabre manner in which to describe here. This is a dark and funny grand guignol where the American born Price (still seeming very British, which I'm sure many of his fans thought he was anyway...) takes similar trails as he did in "Dr. Philbes", going from the medical profession into the theatrical. Decapitation, electrocution, suffocation and other brutal slayings, all done through Shakespeare's best plays, some grotesque, others hysterically funny, are presented in full bloody detail here, and are played with some of Britain's greatest character performers, including real-life future wife Coral Browne who really gives a hair raising performance here. Robert Morley gets a bit stuffed here too, and others such as Jack Hawkins and Michael Hordern have memorable demises as well. Milo O'Shea is properly confused as the detective, and Diana Rigg goes from lovely to looney as Price's grieving daughter. Think of this as "Sweeney Todd" on acid.