Vampires and more. If the inimitable Christopher Lee is noticed in the film advertising, then there is a great chance to witness the next drama with the participation of an individual of the “blood-sucking man”. The British film Theatre of Death was no exception, shot by a little-known American Samuel Gallou, who had previously tried TV series and worked on only one full-fledged picture “Man from Nowhere”, just as completely forgotten to this day. His second picture quite deserves to be ranked by a strict spectator in the category of not worthwhile one-day films, but there are a number of moments in it that can attract attention, and then hold it to the final credits.
To begin with, everything that happens on the screen fits well into the very theme of the French theater of horrors "Grand Guignol", for more than a dozen years stirring the undemanding public, who came to tickle their nerves with the spectacle of generous outpourings of fake blood, various naturalized cruelties, mystical phenomena, hypnosis and other set of stamps, which then migrated to the cinema. In this regard, the reminder of this beautiful institution, despised by sensitive fans, is seen as a symbolic transfer of the baton to a more popular art form, competition with which by the early 60s of the last century lost all meaning.
True, it should be noted. that the "Theater of Death" in comparison with the child of boutique, which took place on the French stage, looks like a stiff Briton who did not deny himself the pleasure of looking into a Paris brothel. Bloodletting here is quite symbolic, which can be said about other elements designed to nervously yawn the heart, which is why when you get the impression of watching a television product cleaned of unnecessary contamination.
To fill the relaxed void, the variety of these elements is called upon, and there are plenty of them here. The notorious vampirism and hypnosis, references to the Jallo in the form of a mysterious killer in black gloves with a sparkling blade, a patient of a psychiatric clinic, hot dances of exotic dancers with an admixture of light eroticism (eroticism here is also very easy) coexist without much strain. And even lovers of gastronomic adventures of Dr. Hannibal Lector will have something to profit from! Yum-yum.
In addition, the film was very lucky with the operator. Gilbert Taylor is a truly legendary personality, which is why his work with Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski, Alfred Hitchcock and George Lucas, which was a significant part of the success of these directors, is responsible for this. Not an exception and "Theater of Death", where the camera, diluting banal episodes, pursues the heroes, turning the action into a kind of mocumentory, previously calming the observer with standard views.
What about Christopher Lee? He, like it or not, fully corresponds to the status of the main star of the tape, although he does not have to show the wonders of acting for this, and his participation is quite peculiar if we take the timekeeping. You do not have to strain and colleagues Lee, since the spectacle is purely entertaining, and deeply reveal the characters simply nowhere. The same applies to the scenario containing ragged threads, the refinement of which to the end could bring the picture to a higher level. A typical example is a story with a sick hand, about which we are somehow diligently told the whole first half of the film or a scene with the visit of a suspicious aesculapus performed by Julian Glover (the same General Virs in the fifth Star Wars) to the director's house.
Without a doubt, all this is enough to turn away from this work of some kind, but art. But we remember that this is a typical heir to the traditions of “Grand Guignol”, far from high calm. Therefore, a passing action-packed film performance for one time from Samuel Gallo is able to lift the mood of both lovers of the old-good “Tales from the Crypt”, and those who simply decided to pass the evening for a simple thriller crafts, in which there is a place for successful finds. Curtain!
6 out of 10