2/22/2012

The Old Dark House (1963)

Nudity:  No way
    Gore:  None
       Body count: Four


Review after the jump.




The Old Dark House is a remake of a 1932 movie of the same name.  The movie starts off with a bouncy dude, Thomas, delivering a car to a very wealthy man, Casper, at a small private casino.  Casper asks Tom to re-deliver the car to his mansion in the country.  Of course, as soon as Tom arrives at the mansion it starts storming, in [stereo]typical horror fashion.

Right off the bat it's obvious that this movie is not a straight-up horror flick, but definitely a comedy as well, not only with some of Tom's facial expressions and quips but also with slapstick humor, such as Tom ringing the doorbell to the mansion which opens a trapdoor (as Tom falls through the trapdoor, we hear a very comedic tuba sound cue).  Also lines such as "I'm an American.... from America."

"Beethoven's 5th?  Guilty."

After Tom's goofy entrance into the mansion he discovers that Casper is dead.  In fact, he had just died an hour ago, due to an unknown person pushing him down the stairs, and his body now lays on display in an open casket (eyes still open).  Tom then goes about meeting the eccentric cast of characters that are stuck in the house in order to gain their inheritance.  Shortly after we, unsurprisingly, discover that something (or someone) is trying to drive them out of the house.


The rest of the movie pretty much light-heartedly follows horror stereotypes, with a healthy does of slapstick thrown in (Noah's Ark?  WTF?).  Definitely got an Addams Family feeling a couple of times.  There is a cool death of someone having two crochet needles through their neck.

Not a bad movie, all around - an okay way to kill an hour and a half, but not something I'd recommend unless you're into 50s/60s horror and/or goofy "clean-cut" comedy. 

5 out of 10 skulls.

No comments:

Post a Comment