It's 1880 London. The movie starts with director William Castle introducing this story of a ghoul or evil being who robs graves and feeds on corpses. Sir Robert Cargrave (Ronald Lewis) is a teacher doctor at the Queens College Hospital. He's in love with Maude (Audrey Dalton) but she was forbidden to marry such a lowly man. She married Baron Sardonicus (Guy Rolfe) and Krull (Oskar Homolka) is the baron's man servant. He receives a pleading letter from the baroness, and immediately goes to Gorslava in central Europe. There he finds the mysterious creepy baron with a face mask experimenting on the maid Anna with leeches. There's a locked room which the servants call 'The Chamber of Horrors'.
This is a black and white B-horror. For what it is, this is quite watchable. The section where Baron Sardonicus recounts his story as Marek goes relatively slowly. The face is cheesy but I kind of like it. The mask is weirdly compelling. This old fashion horror isn't scary in the modern sense but it does have a good creepy factor. The story is interesting and compelling all the way til the end. The gimmick of the audience voting is just that, a gimmick. It's really only an afterthought in a pretty good old fashion horror.
This is a black and white B-horror. For what it is, this is quite watchable. The section where Baron Sardonicus recounts his story as Marek goes relatively slowly. The face is cheesy but I kind of like it. The mask is weirdly compelling. This old fashion horror isn't scary in the modern sense but it does have a good creepy factor. The story is interesting and compelling all the way til the end. The gimmick of the audience voting is just that, a gimmick. It's really only an afterthought in a pretty good old fashion horror.