This is the first film supposedly based on a Poe story that Roger Corman directed, though most of these films have little similarity to the Poe tales. In this case, the story owes a bit more to a story by H. P. Lovecraft.
This one is about a warlock and his curse upon the town that burned him for his unholy deeds. Over a hundred years later, his great-great-great grandson returns to take possession of the castle. Oddly, both the warlock and his progeny are exact duplicates--something that would only happen in films. Now perhaps this could be explained away due to the forces of darkness and all, but having all the people in the town be played by the same actors who played those in the beginning of the film (110 years earlier) made no sense at all. What also made no sense was that if the town was cursed, why didn't anyone leave?!? After all, people were having freaky babies right and left but no one thought to relocate?! Maybe it wasn't the curse--maybe there was just something in the drinking water or in the ground!
Now despite these HUGE plot problems, the movie is still very entertaining and is better than most of Corman's later Poe tales. Vincent Price's exceptional performance, a great mood and atmosphere and a chilling story made this a great film for viewing on Halloween--which is exactly when I saw it.
This one is about a warlock and his curse upon the town that burned him for his unholy deeds. Over a hundred years later, his great-great-great grandson returns to take possession of the castle. Oddly, both the warlock and his progeny are exact duplicates--something that would only happen in films. Now perhaps this could be explained away due to the forces of darkness and all, but having all the people in the town be played by the same actors who played those in the beginning of the film (110 years earlier) made no sense at all. What also made no sense was that if the town was cursed, why didn't anyone leave?!? After all, people were having freaky babies right and left but no one thought to relocate?! Maybe it wasn't the curse--maybe there was just something in the drinking water or in the ground!
Now despite these HUGE plot problems, the movie is still very entertaining and is better than most of Corman's later Poe tales. Vincent Price's exceptional performance, a great mood and atmosphere and a chilling story made this a great film for viewing on Halloween--which is exactly when I saw it.