Sabrina F
Curse of the Crimson Cult is one of those movies that felt like it was made in a week. It is feels so slapped together. I watched this one because three horror legends were in it: Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, and Barbara Steele. Unfortunately, this film does not give these actors a lot to do. and, since they were my main draw, I was let down by this film.
The strongest aspect of this film was the atmosphere and setting. The movie begins with the people of Greymarsh, a rural village in England, celebrating the burning of Lavinia, a witch who was executed back in 1625. We follow Robert Manning, an antiques dealer, who is looking for his brother Peter. Peter went missing while visiting Greymarsh.
We get Craxted Lodge, the perfect gothic setting, with its antiques, secret passages, and occult decor. Craxted Lodge is close to a foggy cemetery. The witch burning ceremony is a bit eerie, and it shows us how evil Lavinia was, since her death is still celebrated to this day. Of course, we also get glimpses of her cruelty in dream sequences.
Our three acting legends do the most with the time they are given, which is not much. Karloff, who was not only at the end of his career at this point but almost at the end of his life, gives the standout performance here.
The rest of the film feels chopped together with quick edits. We don't get time for character development. We get scenes of Robert exploring Craxted Manor. We get dream sequences, and small bits of Robert interacting with Christopher Lee and Boris Karloff's characters and scenes where our hero tries to force himself on the niece of Christopher Lee, which are supposed to be cute...I guess, except that the actress plays it so straight that it is just cringey.
I wish I liked this film, but there was not enough time taken to develop the story or the characters. This film was clearly made for the drive-ins, where the expected audience were teenagers who spent more time necking than they did staring at the screen.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
06/10/24
Full Review
sean s
This is kind of a swinging 1960's movie meets the old English manor, little village witch cult deal. It has the great Christoper Lee, Boris Karloff and Barbara Steele in it all in one film, but doesn't make as much use of them as they could of. The photography is well done, the sets are nice and the actors at top game, but something doesn't gel with the movie and is out whack. But it is worth watching if you like these sorts of movies.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
dave s
While it was nice to see horror icons Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee sharing the screen, The Crimson Cult (aka Curse of the Crimson Altar) is an absolute mess of a movie. The borderline incomprehensible plot involves an antiques dealer who gets tangled up in witchcraft while visiting a lodge while in search of his missing brother. The story is absurd, the effects are embarrassing, the score doesn't fit the mood, and a film that is supposed to be a supernatural thriller fails to provide any thrills of any kind. Karloff and Lee both do a fine job, but there's not much to admire beyond that.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
joe m
Passable Hammer Studio-like film with Karloff and Lee in lead roles. Opens with a bang of a rather debauched witch initiation opening and then followed by risqué party with all the excesses of the go-go 1960's. Sorry to say, these are the highlights as this just goes in to a muddled story that is neither too supernatural or too mysterious. A strange sort of film that is worth seeing if you've got time to see two pro's hamming it up, one near his end (Karloff) and one at his peak (Lee).
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I'll be perfectly honest. This could have been the worst movie ever made and you put Barbara Steele in green body paint and I'll watch it anyway. Luckily, it's a pretty great movie.
Director by Vernon Sewell (The Blood Beast Terror) and written by Mervyn Haisman (Dr. Who, Jane and the Lost City) and Henry Lincoln (who wrote The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which Dan Brown completely ripped off to make The DaVinci Code, as well as one of the main researchers into Rennes-le-Château and an honorary Militi Templi Scotia knight in recognition of his work in the fields of sacred geometry and Templar history), this movie piles on the occult and I couldn't love it anymore for that fact. Or that it was based on "The Dreams in the Witch House" by H. P. Lovecraft.
Antiques dealer Robert Manning is looking for his brother, who has gone missing after visiting their family's ancestral home in Graymarsh. He arrives in the middle of a party — people are painted like they are on Laugh-In and there's a catfight tournament seemingly being held — and by the first evening's rest, his dreams are filled with images of ritual sacrifice. That's when he joins up with occult expert Professor Marsh (Boris Karloff!) to battle the forces of Satan himself.
Making this all the better, Morley, the owner of the Craxted Lodge*, is played by Christopher Lee.
Also — Michael Gough appears as a sinister butler!
When this was released by American-International Pictures in the U.S., all of the nudity in the virgin sacrifice scenes were, well, sacrificed.
Honestly, no one is going to blame you if you just watch the scenes with Steele leading wild orgies of death and psychedelic mayhem. They even distort her voice and toss all kinds of different colors all over these scenes, which make them more than worthy of the time it takes to watch this movie.
*It's actually Grim's Dyke, an allegedly haunted house that also was the setting for Zeta One, several episodes of the Avengers and Cry of the Banshee. It was also the home of W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Fun (and slightly cheesy and exploitative ) mix of the old (Boris Karloff) and the new Christopher Lee in a very late-60s tale of witchcraft with just a touch of Lovecraft's "Dream in the Witch House".
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
Full Review
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