Reviews (3)

An early Coppola Cult Classic!!
This 1969 Movie was way ahead of it's time,it reminds me alot of a more recent Movie "Thelma and Louise".What was also impressive was the beautiful scenery shooting around the Carksburg West Virginia area.It's a cult classic by all means!!

Unjustly Forgotten Classic
This movie isn't without its faults -- find me one that isn't -- but as one of the earliest movies about a woman taking her life into her own hands, it stands as one of the all-time greats. Compare this to the much better known "Thelma and Louise," in which two women, merely bored, take off on their own and wreak a path of destruction for no other purpose than to prove they can. By contrast, Shirley Knight's character is suffering real and believable angst for a concrete purpose, and actually does something about it. Even minor characters are three-dimensional, and it's interesting to see James Caan and Robert Duvall before they settle into the predictable stock roles that continue to dominate their careers. Watch the credits closely -- this was one of George Lucas' first movies.

Overlooked early Coppola effort
A brilliant character study of a pregnant woman who runs out on her husband and hits the road with no destination in mind. Years ahead of its time with its feminist viewpoint, this early Coppola film is sadly one of his least viewed. Shirley Knight is excellent as the troubled woman and James Caan is perfect as killer, a brain damaged ex-football player who Knight ends up befriending. The Rain People is a good example of 70's cinema when characters mattered more than special effects or action-packed plots. ... Read more

Product Description

John Haloran has a fatal heart attack, but his wife Louise won't get any of the inheritance when Lady Haloran dies if John is dead. Louise forges a letter from John to convince the rest of his family he's been called to New York on important business, and goes to his Irish ancestral home, Castle Haloran, to meet the family and look for a way to ensure a cut of the loot. Six years earlier John's sister Kathleen was drowned in the pond, and the Halorans enact a morbid ritual in remembrance. Secrets shroud the sister's demise, and soon the family and guests begin experiencing an attrition problem. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

"And Here Comes the Chopper, to Chop Off Your Head..."
Francis Ford Coppola's first film of note, graduating from the tutelage of schlock-meister Roger Corman. It was made hot on the heels of Hitchcock's more famous Psycho, and is very similar in content and style.

Con-woman Luana Anders' husband-married-only-for-the-family-money dies before she can be included in the will, causing her to seek out a new scam. Deceased hubby's wealthy Irish family is more than usually superstitious, yearly celebrating with a morbid ceremony the date that their matriarch's youngest daughter, Kathleen, drowned in the lake out back. Anders poses as a medium and stages a few tricks to make herself look good to the rich matriarch, who buys her act. Eldest son William Campbell knows she's a phony, and kid brother Bart Patton has been generally kind of creepy ever since the day Kathleen died - which makes it kind of a toss-up as to who follows Anders out to the haunted lake one night, and cuts her up with an axe...

This movie succeeds on its acting and its atmosphere, which are terrific. Anders was good in everything she did, and this was probably her best role. Campbell never disappoints, and Patton is wonderfully intense and unsettling. The always creepy - and always good - Patrick Magee is on hand as the family doctor, who seems to know a great deal more about the recent mysterious disappearances (Anders isn't the only one who goes missing) than he's letting on. The music score isn't quite as frightening as Bernard Hermann's for Psycho, but it's damned close - the opening theme and credit sequence are terrific, even for American International Pictures, which was usually good in that department. Anders' murder scene will haunt your nightmares about as bad as Janet Leigh's in Hitchcock's film.

Well worth the time and trouble, especially for fans of film noir.

Interesting but flawed
This is certainly an achievement for a $20,000 budget, even in
1963. And the direction is often striking, showing much promise
for Coppola's future but in no way anticipating the "Godfather"
epics. However, the original story by the director is pretty
derivative and doesn't really go anywhere, and most of the
acting is mediocre at best. I'd advise any horror fan to buy a
budget dvd of this as it is a cult item, as well as any fan of
Francis Ford Coppola. Just don't expect a whole lot and you will
be entertained for about 78 minutes.
The print on the dvd is flat out lousy; audio dropouts and
often such poor visual quality as to annoy the viewer. But the
price is low and the film is worth adding to your collection.

Coppola's first--a mixed bag
This is not the best horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the best films in terms of *atmosphere*. The frightening parts about it are less in the film itself than what the film suggests--the really psychotic point to which codependency can build, obsession, and a host of other disturbances, none of which involve the supernatural but suggest it. Along with the Vincent Price films he did, this is the best film you'll see that Roger Corman was involved in.

Luana Anders is, ironically, the strongest presence in this film. Thing is, she doesn't last very long, and the viewer isn't all that devastated when she does disappear. A scheming, money hungry witch, she preys on the co-morbidity of an elderly woman to the point of sadism. A young girl dies tragically at a young age. An Irish family living in Nowheresville idealizes her mysterious death to the point of madness. Someone is responsible, and we eventutally find out who. There are a few 'jump out of your seat scenes', one of them being the untimely (and grisly) death of Anders. It's been awhile since I've seen this film, but much of the imagery (dolls, truly 'demented' childhood memories, and the last exclamation by the ultimate culprit: "DON'T TOUCH THAT!") have remained with me. This is an odd blend, Corman and Coppola. A worthwhile old cinematic antique of misery.

WHY DOESN'T AMAZON REQUIRE WIDESCREEN OR FULL FRAME FROM....
WHY DOESN'T AMAZON REQUIRE WIDESCREEN OR FULLFRAME FROM SELLERS DESCRIPTIONS! WHY DOESN'T AMAZON SHOW ACTUAL PHOTO OF DVD BOX COVER AS WELL AS THE BACK OF THE BOX WITH ALL THE TECHNICAL INFO; TIME/FORMAT/SOUND ETC. FOR OUR CONVENIENCE? MAYBE THEY NEED A CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT AND I'M THE ANSWER? AMAZON PLEASE EMAIL WITH FISCAL OFFER, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

COPPOLA'S FIRST APOCALYPSE
In 1963, the movie audience had already experienced the new kind of psychological horror movie born with the great PSYCHO. Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at matching that horror is greatly inferior, of course, but as an exercise in mental terror, it works on its own subliminal level. The wonderful Luana Anders starts out the film virtually murdering her rich husband, and then tosses his body in a pond, telling the family he's off on a business trip. She wants his Mama to change the will to include the in-laws. As in PSYCHO, Anders is dispatched early in the film in a very surprising way, and although it can't touch Janet Leigh's demise in PSYCHO or Angie Dickinson's in DRESSED TO KILL, it packs a wallop. From there on in, it's time to figure out who the nasty killer is. It's fairly easy to pick the killer out, but there are some wildly frenetic scenes before getting there. Bart Patton and Patrick Magee provide excellent support and one can detect the future genious of Coppola in this atmospheric thriller. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Too many cooks?
This movie is a legendary mess - Roger Corman wrapped filming on THE RAVEN early, and not wishing to waste a castle set and the remainder of Boris Karloff's contract, started a gothic movie, then handed this unfinished flick to a series of proteges to complete. Jack Hill, Francis Ford Coppola, and Monte Hellman all took cracks at trying to make sense of an unfinished script. THE TERROR is often referred to as a movie without a plot - there's a plot in there alright, but you've got to be prepared to fight for it. Worth seeing if only for the combination of Karloff and an alarmingly young Jack Nicholson.

Not Really a "Terror", But It's Still Good!
I have watched this movie twice on TV in the past, and I enjoyed it. Even though it's called "The Terror", it doesn't seem like a terror movie, but it is still entertaining. Jack Nicholson starred in this one (he was young then, just like in the original "Little Shop of Horrors" he was in before this one), and he played a Napoleon soldier. His then-wife, Sandra Knight, played Helene who was a "ghost" in the movie, and Boris Karloff, a famous horror movie actor, played the Baron.
This movie is a little phony, like the "witch" in the movie...and how she died. I never dreamed that lightning can burn a witch to a crisp like in this movie, just because she saw the hawk flying in the sky! Same thing at the ending when Nicholson kissed the beautiful Helene, who then melted on the ground, revealing her skeleton. Nice special effects in the 1960s...I give them (and Roger Corman) credit for that.
This is a good movie, although not Oscar-winning, to watch on a rainy day for fun.

Yes, Adult Human Beings Really Got Together and Made This!
The history of the movie is far more interesting than the movie, itself. Corman had three extra days after his prematurely wrapped The Raven shoot, and tossed this thing together off the top of his (and everybody else's) head to end up making two features for the price of one. Considering the circumstances, the thing is a masterpiece.

Of course, the finished product neither knows nor cares about the circumstances, which is why this movie is doubly entertaining. The mix of costuming and acting styles, the endless anachronisms throwing the audience out of suspension of disbelief that they are in Napoleonic era Germany (or is it supposed to be Spain? and if so, why so many German names? and if not, where does one get a seaside cliff in Germany?) - not to mention the genuinely really bad acting from pretty much everyone involved (including Karloff, who almost certainly didn't take it seriously), and the grossly mixed accents of the cast - make this one endlessly entertaining, in that drop-your-jaw, I-can't-believe-adult-human-beings-actually-got-together-and-made-this-thing kind of way.

It actually has a plot, which if you're really attentive and diligent you can pick out in the last five minutes of the movie, and if you do, it's terribly clever and grossly improbable, which just makes it all that much more fun.

But you won't care about that. What you really want to see is Jack Nicholson performing flatter than a block of wood, his then-wife Sandra Knight with an accent and acting style flatter still (though she is quite beautiful), Dorothy Neumann as a cackling revenge-driven old witch, Bronx-accented Dick Miller as a supposedly very German manservant, and Karloff struggling to keep a straight face given all the preceding impediments.

Nicholson happily confesses in interviews that they all had a ball making this wonderfully absurd movie, and it actually shows. Interestingly enough, if you're in the right mood, you can even see the horror movie this almost was, if they'd had more time to make it really work. There are some good gore effects - a man's eyes gouged out by a killer hawk, and an incredibly goopy melting woman, topping the list - and it's pretty handsomely produced, even with a decently eerie musical soundtrack throughout.

Don't watch it because it's good - watch it because it's FUN.

The best B horror movie of its class!
The Terror is simply a fun B horror flick. Forget the acting, it's terrible, but that's its charm (it's worth it just to see the early Nicholson). It's the atmosphere that makes this movie a classic. The musical score gives it the true feel of the late night horror genre. Of course it's not scary, but that's beside the point. The ancient castle with its wonderful architecture, the ocean waves crashing on the rocky beach, the "old women" and her shack in the woods, and Stephan (the butler) whose performance is reminiscent of a Mel Brooks movie, make it a treat. For Karloff fans, this is a must see. I've been a fan of Corman's work for quite some time, and I think this is one of his better films. I would also recommend "Die Monster Die," directed by Daniel Haller, for those incurable Karloff fans.

Low-budget, snail-paced movie...typical Jack Nicholson stuff
This movie moves at a snail's pace as a soldier takes shelter at an old Baron's castle while searching for a mysterious woman he discovered at the beach near the castle. Boris Karlof's performance as the elderly Baron is the only one that makes this movie worth watching for the first half hour, and even then his acting gets lame and overleveled. Just like other typical Jack Nicholson movies, the movie is very slow, and extremely boring. It is not scary, and it is very easy to see that it is fake and stagy...Rent it, don't buy it. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Too many cooks?
This movie is a legendary mess - Roger Corman wrapped filming on THE RAVEN early, and not wishing to waste a castle set and the remainder of Boris Karloff's contract, started a gothic movie, then handed this unfinished flick to a series of proteges to complete. Jack Hill, Francis Ford Coppola, and Monte Hellman all took cracks at trying to make sense of an unfinished script. THE TERROR is often referred to as a movie without a plot - there's a plot in there alright, but you've got to be prepared to fight for it. Worth seeing if only for the combination of Karloff and an alarmingly young Jack Nicholson.

Not Really a "Terror", But It's Still Good!
I have watched this movie twice on TV in the past, and I enjoyed it. Even though it's called "The Terror", it doesn't seem like a terror movie, but it is still entertaining. Jack Nicholson starred in this one (he was young then, just like in the original "Little Shop of Horrors" he was in before this one), and he played a Napoleon soldier. His then-wife, Sandra Knight, played Helene who was a "ghost" in the movie, and Boris Karloff, a famous horror movie actor, played the Baron.
This movie is a little phony, like the "witch" in the movie...and how she died. I never dreamed that lightning can burn a witch to a crisp like in this movie, just because she saw the hawk flying in the sky! Same thing at the ending when Nicholson kissed the beautiful Helene, who then melted on the ground, revealing her skeleton. Nice special effects in the 1960s...I give them (and Roger Corman) credit for that.
This is a good movie, although not Oscar-winning, to watch on a rainy day for fun.

Yes, Adult Human Beings Really Got Together and Made This!
The history of the movie is far more interesting than the movie, itself. Corman had three extra days after his prematurely wrapped The Raven shoot, and tossed this thing together off the top of his (and everybody else's) head to end up making two features for the price of one. Considering the circumstances, the thing is a masterpiece.

Of course, the finished product neither knows nor cares about the circumstances, which is why this movie is doubly entertaining. The mix of costuming and acting styles, the endless anachronisms throwing the audience out of suspension of disbelief that they are in Napoleonic era Germany (or is it supposed to be Spain? and if so, why so many German names? and if not, where does one get a seaside cliff in Germany?) - not to mention the genuinely really bad acting from pretty much everyone involved (including Karloff, who almost certainly didn't take it seriously), and the grossly mixed accents of the cast - make this one endlessly entertaining, in that drop-your-jaw, I-can't-believe-adult-human-beings-actually-got-together-and-made-this-thing kind of way.

It actually has a plot, which if you're really attentive and diligent you can pick out in the last five minutes of the movie, and if you do, it's terribly clever and grossly improbable, which just makes it all that much more fun.

But you won't care about that. What you really want to see is Jack Nicholson performing flatter than a block of wood, his then-wife Sandra Knight with an accent and acting style flatter still (though she is quite beautiful), Dorothy Neumann as a cackling revenge-driven old witch, Bronx-accented Dick Miller as a supposedly very German manservant, and Karloff struggling to keep a straight face given all the preceding impediments.

Nicholson happily confesses in interviews that they all had a ball making this wonderfully absurd movie, and it actually shows. Interestingly enough, if you're in the right mood, you can even see the horror movie this almost was, if they'd had more time to make it really work. There are some good gore effects - a man's eyes gouged out by a killer hawk, and an incredibly goopy melting woman, topping the list - and it's pretty handsomely produced, even with a decently eerie musical soundtrack throughout.

Don't watch it because it's good - watch it because it's FUN.

The best B horror movie of its class!
The Terror is simply a fun B horror flick. Forget the acting, it's terrible, but that's its charm (it's worth it just to see the early Nicholson). It's the atmosphere that makes this movie a classic. The musical score gives it the true feel of the late night horror genre. Of course it's not scary, but that's beside the point. The ancient castle with its wonderful architecture, the ocean waves crashing on the rocky beach, the "old women" and her shack in the woods, and Stephan (the butler) whose performance is reminiscent of a Mel Brooks movie, make it a treat. For Karloff fans, this is a must see. I've been a fan of Corman's work for quite some time, and I think this is one of his better films. I would also recommend "Die Monster Die," directed by Daniel Haller, for those incurable Karloff fans.

Low-budget, snail-paced movie...typical Jack Nicholson stuff
This movie moves at a snail's pace as a soldier takes shelter at an old Baron's castle while searching for a mysterious woman he discovered at the beach near the castle. Boris Karlof's performance as the elderly Baron is the only one that makes this movie worth watching for the first half hour, and even then his acting gets lame and overleveled. Just like other typical Jack Nicholson movies, the movie is very slow, and extremely boring. It is not scary, and it is very easy to see that it is fake and stagy...Rent it, don't buy it. ... Read more

Product Description

John Haloran has a fatal heart attack, but his wife Louise won't get any of the inheritance when Lady Haloran dies if John is dead. Louise forges a letter from John to convince the rest of his family he's been called to New York on important business, and goes to his Irish ancestral home, Castle Haloran, to meet the family and look for a way to ensure a cut of the loot. Six years earlier John's sister Kathleen was drowned in the pond, and the Halorans enact a morbid ritual in remembrance. Secrets shroud the sister's demise, and soon the family and guests begin experiencing an attrition problem. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

"And Here Comes the Chopper, to Chop Off Your Head..."
Francis Ford Coppola's first film of note, graduating from the tutelage of schlock-meister Roger Corman. It was made hot on the heels of Hitchcock's more famous Psycho, and is very similar in content and style.

Con-woman Luana Anders' husband-married-only-for-the-family-money dies before she can be included in the will, causing her to seek out a new scam. Deceased hubby's wealthy Irish family is more than usually superstitious, yearly celebrating with a morbid ceremony the date that their matriarch's youngest daughter, Kathleen, drowned in the lake out back. Anders poses as a medium and stages a few tricks to make herself look good to the rich matriarch, who buys her act. Eldest son William Campbell knows she's a phony, and kid brother Bart Patton has been generally kind of creepy ever since the day Kathleen died - which makes it kind of a toss-up as to who follows Anders out to the haunted lake one night, and cuts her up with an axe...

This movie succeeds on its acting and its atmosphere, which are terrific. Anders was good in everything she did, and this was probably her best role. Campbell never disappoints, and Patton is wonderfully intense and unsettling. The always creepy - and always good - Patrick Magee is on hand as the family doctor, who seems to know a great deal more about the recent mysterious disappearances (Anders isn't the only one who goes missing) than he's letting on. The music score isn't quite as frightening as Bernard Hermann's for Psycho, but it's damned close - the opening theme and credit sequence are terrific, even for American International Pictures, which was usually good in that department. Anders' murder scene will haunt your nightmares about as bad as Janet Leigh's in Hitchcock's film.

Well worth the time and trouble, especially for fans of film noir.

Interesting but flawed
This is certainly an achievement for a $20,000 budget, even in
1963. And the direction is often striking, showing much promise
for Coppola's future but in no way anticipating the "Godfather"
epics. However, the original story by the director is pretty
derivative and doesn't really go anywhere, and most of the
acting is mediocre at best. I'd advise any horror fan to buy a
budget dvd of this as it is a cult item, as well as any fan of
Francis Ford Coppola. Just don't expect a whole lot and you will
be entertained for about 78 minutes.
The print on the dvd is flat out lousy; audio dropouts and
often such poor visual quality as to annoy the viewer. But the
price is low and the film is worth adding to your collection.

Coppola's first--a mixed bag
This is not the best horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the best films in terms of *atmosphere*. The frightening parts about it are less in the film itself than what the film suggests--the really psychotic point to which codependency can build, obsession, and a host of other disturbances, none of which involve the supernatural but suggest it. Along with the Vincent Price films he did, this is the best film you'll see that Roger Corman was involved in.

Luana Anders is, ironically, the strongest presence in this film. Thing is, she doesn't last very long, and the viewer isn't all that devastated when she does disappear. A scheming, money hungry witch, she preys on the co-morbidity of an elderly woman to the point of sadism. A young girl dies tragically at a young age. An Irish family living in Nowheresville idealizes her mysterious death to the point of madness. Someone is responsible, and we eventutally find out who. There are a few 'jump out of your seat scenes', one of them being the untimely (and grisly) death of Anders. It's been awhile since I've seen this film, but much of the imagery (dolls, truly 'demented' childhood memories, and the last exclamation by the ultimate culprit: "DON'T TOUCH THAT!") have remained with me. This is an odd blend, Corman and Coppola. A worthwhile old cinematic antique of misery.

WHY DOESN'T AMAZON REQUIRE WIDESCREEN OR FULL FRAME FROM....
WHY DOESN'T AMAZON REQUIRE WIDESCREEN OR FULLFRAME FROM SELLERS DESCRIPTIONS! WHY DOESN'T AMAZON SHOW ACTUAL PHOTO OF DVD BOX COVER AS WELL AS THE BACK OF THE BOX WITH ALL THE TECHNICAL INFO; TIME/FORMAT/SOUND ETC. FOR OUR CONVENIENCE? MAYBE THEY NEED A CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT AND I'M THE ANSWER? AMAZON PLEASE EMAIL WITH FISCAL OFFER, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

COPPOLA'S FIRST APOCALYPSE
In 1963, the movie audience had already experienced the new kind of psychological horror movie born with the great PSYCHO. Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at matching that horror is greatly inferior, of course, but as an exercise in mental terror, it works on its own subliminal level. The wonderful Luana Anders starts out the film virtually murdering her rich husband, and then tosses his body in a pond, telling the family he's off on a business trip. She wants his Mama to change the will to include the in-laws. As in PSYCHO, Anders is dispatched early in the film in a very surprising way, and although it can't touch Janet Leigh's demise in PSYCHO or Angie Dickinson's in DRESSED TO KILL, it packs a wallop. From there on in, it's time to figure out who the nasty killer is. It's fairly easy to pick the killer out, but there are some wildly frenetic scenes before getting there. Bart Patton and Patrick Magee provide excellent support and one can detect the future genious of Coppola in this atmospheric thriller. ... Read more

Product Description

John Haloran has a fatal heart attack, but his wife Louise won't get any of the inheritance when Lady Haloran dies if John is dead. Louise forges a letter from John to convince the rest of his family he's been called to New York on important business, and goes to his Irish ancestral home, Castle Haloran, to meet the family and look for a way to ensure a cut of the loot. Six years earlier John's sister Kathleen was drowned in the pond, and the Halorans enact a morbid ritual in remembrance. Secrets shroud the sister's demise, and soon the family and guests begin experiencing an attrition problem. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

"And Here Comes the Chopper, to Chop Off Your Head..."
Francis Ford Coppola's first film of note, graduating from the tutelage of schlock-meister Roger Corman. It was made hot on the heels of Hitchcock's more famous Psycho, and is very similar in content and style.

Con-woman Luana Anders' husband-married-only-for-the-family-money dies before she can be included in the will, causing her to seek out a new scam. Deceased hubby's wealthy Irish family is more than usually superstitious, yearly celebrating with a morbid ceremony the date that their matriarch's youngest daughter, Kathleen, drowned in the lake out back. Anders poses as a medium and stages a few tricks to make herself look good to the rich matriarch, who buys her act. Eldest son William Campbell knows she's a phony, and kid brother Bart Patton has been generally kind of creepy ever since the day Kathleen died - which makes it kind of a toss-up as to who follows Anders out to the haunted lake one night, and cuts her up with an axe...

This movie succeeds on its acting and its atmosphere, which are terrific. Anders was good in everything she did, and this was probably her best role. Campbell never disappoints, and Patton is wonderfully intense and unsettling. The always creepy - and always good - Patrick Magee is on hand as the family doctor, who seems to know a great deal more about the recent mysterious disappearances (Anders isn't the only one who goes missing) than he's letting on. The music score isn't quite as frightening as Bernard Hermann's for Psycho, but it's damned close - the opening theme and credit sequence are terrific, even for American International Pictures, which was usually good in that department. Anders' murder scene will haunt your nightmares about as bad as Janet Leigh's in Hitchcock's film.

Well worth the time and trouble, especially for fans of film noir.

Interesting but flawed
This is certainly an achievement for a $20,000 budget, even in
1963. And the direction is often striking, showing much promise
for Coppola's future but in no way anticipating the "Godfather"
epics. However, the original story by the director is pretty
derivative and doesn't really go anywhere, and most of the
acting is mediocre at best. I'd advise any horror fan to buy a
budget dvd of this as it is a cult item, as well as any fan of
Francis Ford Coppola. Just don't expect a whole lot and you will
be entertained for about 78 minutes.
The print on the dvd is flat out lousy; audio dropouts and
often such poor visual quality as to annoy the viewer. But the
price is low and the film is worth adding to your collection.

Coppola's first--a mixed bag
This is not the best horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the best films in terms of *atmosphere*. The frightening parts about it are less in the film itself than what the film suggests--the really psychotic point to which codependency can build, obsession, and a host of other disturbances, none of which involve the supernatural but suggest it. Along with the Vincent Price films he did, this is the best film you'll see that Roger Corman was involved in.

Luana Anders is, ironically, the strongest presence in this film. Thing is, she doesn't last very long, and the viewer isn't all that devastated when she does disappear. A scheming, money hungry witch, she preys on the co-morbidity of an elderly woman to the point of sadism. A young girl dies tragically at a young age. An Irish family living in Nowheresville idealizes her mysterious death to the point of madness. Someone is responsible, and we eventutally find out who. There are a few 'jump out of your seat scenes', one of them being the untimely (and grisly) death of Anders. It's been awhile since I've seen this film, but much of the imagery (dolls, truly 'demented' childhood memories, and the last exclamation by the ultimate culprit: "DON'T TOUCH THAT!") have remained with me. This is an odd blend, Corman and Coppola. A worthwhile old cinematic antique of misery.

WHY DOESN'T AMAZON REQUIRE WIDESCREEN OR FULL FRAME FROM....
WHY DOESN'T AMAZON REQUIRE WIDESCREEN OR FULLFRAME FROM SELLERS DESCRIPTIONS! WHY DOESN'T AMAZON SHOW ACTUAL PHOTO OF DVD BOX COVER AS WELL AS THE BACK OF THE BOX WITH ALL THE TECHNICAL INFO; TIME/FORMAT/SOUND ETC. FOR OUR CONVENIENCE? MAYBE THEY NEED A CHANGE IN MANAGEMENT AND I'M THE ANSWER? AMAZON PLEASE EMAIL WITH FISCAL OFFER, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!

COPPOLA'S FIRST APOCALYPSE
In 1963, the movie audience had already experienced the new kind of psychological horror movie born with the great PSYCHO. Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at matching that horror is greatly inferior, of course, but as an exercise in mental terror, it works on its own subliminal level. The wonderful Luana Anders starts out the film virtually murdering her rich husband, and then tosses his body in a pond, telling the family he's off on a business trip. She wants his Mama to change the will to include the in-laws. As in PSYCHO, Anders is dispatched early in the film in a very surprising way, and although it can't touch Janet Leigh's demise in PSYCHO or Angie Dickinson's in DRESSED TO KILL, it packs a wallop. From there on in, it's time to figure out who the nasty killer is. It's fairly easy to pick the killer out, but there are some wildly frenetic scenes before getting there. Bart Patton and Patrick Magee provide excellent support and one can detect the future genious of Coppola in this atmospheric thriller. ... Read more

Product Description

John Haloran has a fatal heart attack, but his wife Louise won't get any of the inheritance when Lady Haloran dies if John is dead. Louise forges a letter from John to convince the rest of his family he's been called to New York on important business, and goes to his Irish ancestral home, Castle Haloran, to meet the family and look for a way to ensure a cut of the loot. Six years earlier John's sister Kathleen was drowned in the pond, and the Halorans enact a morbid ritual in remembrance. Secrets shroud the sister's demise, and soon the family and guests begin experiencing an attrition problem. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

"And Here Comes the Chopper, to Chop Off Your Head..."
Francis Ford Coppola's first film of note, graduating from the tutelage of schlock-meister Roger Corman. It was made hot on the heels of Hitchcock's more famous Psycho, and is very similar in content and style.

Con-woman Luana Anders' husband-married-only-for-the-family-money dies before she can be included in the will, causing her to seek out a new scam. Deceased hubby's wealthy Irish family is more than usually superstitious, yearly celebrating with a morbid ceremony the date that their matriarch's youngest daughter, Kathleen, drowned in the lake out back. Anders poses as a medium and stages a few tricks to make herself look good to the rich matriarch, who buys her act. Eldest son William Campbell knows she's a phony, and kid brother Bart Patton has been generally kind of creepy ever since the day Kathleen died - which makes it kind of a toss-up as to who follows Anders out to the haunted lake one night, and cuts her up with an axe...

This movie succeeds on its acting and its atmosphere, which are terrific. Anders was good in everything she did, and this was probably her best role. Campbell never disappoints, and Patton is wonderfully intense and unsettling. The always creepy - and always good - Patrick Magee is on hand as the family doctor, who seems to know a great deal more about the recent mysterious disappearances (Anders isn't the only one who goes missing) than he's letting on. The music score isn't quite as frightening as Bernard Hermann's for Psycho, but it's damned close - the opening theme and credit sequence are terrific, even for American International Pictures, which was usually good in that department. Anders' murder scene will haunt your nightmares about as bad as Janet Leigh's in Hitchcock's film.

Well worth the time and trouble, especially for fans of film noir.

Interesting but flawed
This is certainly an achievement for a $20,000 budget, even in
1963. And the direction is often striking, showing much promise
for Coppola's future but in no way anticipating the "Godfather"
epics. However, the original story by the director is pretty
derivative and doesn't really go anywhere, and most of the
acting is mediocre at best. I'd advise any horror fan to buy a
budget dvd of this as it is a cult item, as well as any fan of
Francis Ford Coppola. Just don't expect a whole lot and you will
be entertained for about 78 minutes.
The print on the dvd is flat out lousy; audio dropouts and
often such poor visual quality as to annoy the viewer. But the
price is low and the film is worth adding to your collection.

Coppola's first--a mixed bag
This is not the best horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the best films in terms of *atmosphere*. The frightening parts about it are less in the film itself than what the film suggests--the really psychotic point to which codependency can build, obsession, and a host of other disturbances, none of which involve the supernatural but suggest it. Along with the Vincent Price films he did, this is the best film you'll see that Roger Corman was involved in.

Luana Anders is, ironically, the strongest presence in this film. Thing is, she doesn't last very long, and the viewer isn't all that devastated when she does disappear. A scheming, money hungry witch, she preys on the co-morbidity of an elderly woman to the point of sadism. A young girl dies tragically at a young age. An Irish family living in Nowheresville idealizes her mysterious death to the point of madness. Someone is responsible, and we eventutally find out who. There are a few 'jump out of your seat scenes', one of them being the untimely (and grisly) death of Anders. It's been awhile since I've seen this film, but much of the imagery (dolls, truly 'demented' childhood memories, and the last exclamation by the ultimate culprit: "DON'T TOUCH THAT!") have remained with me. This is an odd blend, Corman and Coppola. A worthwhile old cinematic antique of misery.

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COPPOLA'S FIRST APOCALYPSE
In 1963, the movie audience had already experienced the new kind of psychological horror movie born with the great PSYCHO. Francis Ford Coppola's attempt at matching that horror is greatly inferior, of course, but as an exercise in mental terror, it works on its own subliminal level. The wonderful Luana Anders starts out the film virtually murdering her rich husband, and then tosses his body in a pond, telling the family he's off on a business trip. She wants his Mama to change the will to include the in-laws. As in PSYCHO, Anders is dispatched early in the film in a very surprising way, and although it can't touch Janet Leigh's demise in PSYCHO or Angie Dickinson's in DRESSED TO KILL, it packs a wallop. From there on in, it's time to figure out who the nasty killer is. It's fairly easy to pick the killer out, but there are some wildly frenetic scenes before getting there. Bart Patton and Patrick Magee provide excellent support and one can detect the future genious of Coppola in this atmospheric thriller. ... Read more