User Reviews

This film is included as a DVD extra on the combination disk of HOMICIDAL and STRAIT-JACKET--definitely the best of the DVDs in the recent William Castle collection, as these two full-length films are both among the director's best.

An important thing to point out is that you should NOT see this featurette before seeing HOMICIDAL. That's because this short film is jam-packed full of spoilers and it probably will detract from your enjoyment of HOMICIDAL.

In this short, they talk about the making of HOMICIDAL--in particular its gimmick of the 'coward's corner'--yet another silly Castle innovation in order to draw attention to his film. And, not surprisingly, much of the short focuses on Castle the master showman.

Overall, a worthwhile extra, though it was amazingly short and I really think they should have given much, much more information about the film.

While I had acquired HOMICIDAL (1961) through other sources, I did land its accompanying featurette on DVD via "You Tube". As such, it puts the film into the proper context as both a Hitchcock imitation and as yet another gimmick-propelled outing from master showman Castle; to his credit, though, he did not disgrace PSYCHO – while the audience-grabbing "Fright Break" (which allowed one to retreat to the "Coward's Corner"!) was successfully incorporated into the main feature, as had also been the case with the lesser 13 GHOSTS (both 1960), as opposed to a movie- theater prank/dare; incidentally, this purely interactive moment would be reprised for the likes of TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1966) and THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974)! Among the 'talking heads' participating here are David Del Valle and Don Glut (who, as a boy, had been involved in the movie's ad campaign!); unsurprisingly, patrons being asked by the director of their opinion as soon as they emerged from the screening suggested it topped PSYCHO in chills but, of course, one needs to take such comments with a pinch of salt…especially at this juncture!