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      Curse of the Crimson Cult

      R 1968 1h 27m Horror List
      Reviews 30% 250+ Ratings Audience Score A man stops at a lodge, where he meets a professor of witchcraft (Boris Karloff) and dreams of a green-faced witch (Barbara Steele). Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      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 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 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 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 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 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Sometimes weird, but mostly boring. Only really worth seeing for Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee sharing screen time together and Barbara Steele's crazy outfit. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Curse of the Crimson Cult

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (3) Critics Reviews
      Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Karloff and Lee give their usual mannered fine performances, but the story made no sense and was a bore. Rated: C+ Sep 12, 2021 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com Contains most of what you'd want from this type of flick and, with the exception of Eden, is a pretty darn good time. Rated: 3.0/4.0 Sep 5, 2020 Full Review Matt Brunson Creative Loafing Better direction would have benefited a film that nevertheless offers modest thrills for genre devotees. Rated: 2.5/4 Aug 8, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A man stops at a lodge, where he meets a professor of witchcraft (Boris Karloff) and dreams of a green-faced witch (Barbara Steele).
      Director
      Vernon Sewell
      Producer
      Tony Tenser
      Screenwriter
      Mervyn Haisman, Henry Lincoln
      Rating
      R (Brief Sexuality/Nudity)
      Genre
      Horror
      Original Language
      English (United Kingdom)
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jul 21, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 27m