Bad English Thing

 

 (imdb)

SPELLCASTER-1989-A bunch of dorks win a contest to the remote Diablo Castle for a treasure hunt hosted by skinny English VJ Rex (Richard Blade) and moronic English singer Cassandra Castle (Bunty Bailey). The first victim is a French woman killed by the chair she's sitting in. The drunken singer Castle is terrorized by a bunch of rotting corpses. A fat guy turns into a pig. A suit of armor comes to life. The VJ is killed by a winged monster. A female hunter is eaten by a dog. One woman meets Diablo (Adam Ant)), a sarcastic jerk with a crystal ball. In the end, when the crystal ball is destroyed, everyone comes back to life. Filmed in Rome by director Rafal Zielinski. Really bad

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A-Mazing!

THE MAZE-1953-Usually underrated horror mystery (originally shot in 3-D) was the last film directed by William Cameron Menzies (also an art director and production designer) who also made INVADERS FROM MARS the same year!

A baronet named Gerald McTeam (Richard Carlson; in IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE the same year) seems quite happily engaged to a woman named Kitty (Veronica Hurst) until he gets a telegram from the mysterious Craven Castle in his native Scotland. He rushes off promising to come back for their wedding in 2 weeks but over a month goes by and she hasn't  heard from him. Eventually she learns that Gerald's uncle has died and Gerald is next in line to take his place.  A few weeks later Kitty receives a letter releasing her from their engagement. But Kitty loves Gerald too much. So she and her Aunt Edith (Katherine Emory; the woman who goes mad after being buried alive in ISLE OF THE DEAD) venture to the fog shrouded castle. There they find Gerald cold and distant having aged prematurely. His dour kind of sinister butler William (Michael Pate) hangs around. Gerald insists they leave but Kitty makes several excuses. Everything seems to revolve around Gerald's midnight jaunts and a giant maze no one is allowed access too. There seems to be one other resident in the castle no one knows about even after Edith has a small run-in with him. Hoping to help Gerald Kitty summons their old friends for a surprise weekend visit. One of them is a doctor and Kitty hopes he can "examine" Gerald and do something for him. He comes to believe Gerald may be insane and should be taken away by force. Later Kitty and Edith enter the maze and discovery the dreaded family secret. The real baron was born in 1750 and is still alive. He's also part frog and part man having never evolved from an amphibian state!

Despite some low budget drawback THE MAZE is a good mystery thriller.  Almost a film noir horror movie I guess. The castle sets are very dark and sinister and though not one of the more memorable screen monsters the frog like baron is eerie until fully seen. His demise is a little ridiculous.
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Apparently although based on a novel by Swiss writer Maurice Sandoz, THE MAZE also takes inspiration from the Scottish legend of Glamis Castle involving a deformed child who was walled up its room.

Hilary Brooke (also in INVADERS FROM MARS) and Robin Hughes (later in THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE) are two of Gerald's friends who come to cheer him up.

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Late Corman, Early Coppola

DEMENTIA 13-1963-This begins with a husband and wife out in a row boat at night discussing his mother's inheritance. He has a heart attack and dies. She fears that she will be cut out of MIL's will if his death is discovered so she throws his weighted body into the water. After some brief credits, the woman Louise (Luana Anders) packs hubby's suitcase and forges his signature on a note to his mom (Eithne Dunne). Louise is living in an old Irish castle with her two brothers in law. William Campbell is the older brother Richard, an artist who works in metal and is engaged to Kane (Mary Mitchel). Billy (Bart Patton) is the younger bro, shy and weak. They are all haunted by the memory of Kathleen, a sister who drowned when she was a little girl. The woman schemes to make MIL change her will by making the old woman think Kathleen has come back. Her plan doesn't work as she is killed by a mysterious ax murderer who also decapitates an old poacher. Patrick Magee is the weird family doctor who figures it out. 

Producer Roger Corman wanted a low budget PSYCHO rip-off made with money left over form his THE YOUNG RACERS (which had featured Campbell, Anders and Magee). He hired Francis Ford Coppola (only his third film) to write and directed it in Ireland. It's dark and bizarre and the acting is very good. Corman and Coppola clashed over the final cut's running time and Corman added a  "gimmick" prologue (directed by either Jack Hill or Monte Hellman) to pad it out.  So Corman wanted to rip-off Hitchcock and William Castle??

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