This is generally considered a classic film of British Horror, but it looked pretty dated to me.
A framing device involving a man who dreams of traveling to a house where he meets a group of strangers who tell him their stories of supernatural encounters probably comes off best.
The film's reputation is based on the final story, which is about a ventriloquist played by Michael Redgrave and his possibly possessed dummy named Hugo. Redgrave gives a good performance as a wacko nutcase (or is schizophrenic?) and appears to be enjoying hamming it up.
However I think the problem with this film is that television shows like "The Twilight Zone" have gone down this road so many times that the novelty of these stories has pretty much worn off. The film also lacks visual flair, unlike almost any Universal horror film, which is an important element in setting a mood for a horror film.
The film relies on the actors and with the exception of Redgrave and Mervyn Johns they all kind of seem like they are overacting frequently and not in particularly good ways. Probably the framing device comes off best in the film and the situation of how the repeating dream sequence is finally resolved is pretty clever.
This is generally considered a classic film of British Horror, but it looked pretty dated to me.
A framing device involving a man who dreams of traveling to a house where he meets a group of strangers who tell him their stories of supernatural encounters probably comes off best.
The film's reputation is based on the final story, which is about a ventriloquist played by Michael Redgrave and his possibly possessed dummy named Hugo. Redgrave gives a good performance as a wacko nutcase (or is schizophrenic?) and appears to be enjoying hamming it up.
However I think the problem with this film is that television shows like "The Twilight Zone" have gone down this road so many times that the novelty of these stories has pretty much worn off. The film also lacks visual flair, unlike almost any Universal horror film, which is an important element in setting a mood for a horror film.
The film relies on the actors and with the exception of Redgrave and Mervyn Johns they all kind of seem like they are overacting frequently and not in particularly good ways. Probably the framing device comes off best in the film and the situation of how the repeating dream sequence is finally resolved is pretty clever.
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