Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2017
Images from the Internet
Curse of the Crimson Altar [aka The
Crimson Cult]
Directed by Vernon Sewell
Cheezy
Films / MVD Video
87
minutes, 1968 / 2017
In my life, I have been a member of three cinema-related
fan clubs: for Pamela Franklin, Peter Cushing, and William Henry Pratt. Who was
that last one, you ask? Well, when he started acting in 1919, he changed his
name to Boris Karloff.
Karloff had quite the illustrious career thanks in
part to the ego of Bela Lugosi, but that’s not what this review is about.
Despite that profession, as with many genre actors of b-films from the studio
years, his golden age was not quite filled with gems. With the exception of Peter
Bogdanovich’s stunning Targets (1968,
the same year as this one), Karloff arguably hadn’t made a standout film in quite
a while, and that would be true until his demise in 1969 (although his pictures
were being released until 1971).
 |
| Boris Karloff, Mark Eden, Virginia Wetherell |
This British flick, now rereleased by the
wonderfully relentless Cheezy Films, was originally put out by Tigon British
Film Productions; the US version of The
Cult of the Crimson Altar [TCotCA] was release two years later as The Crimson Cult by American
International Pictures (AIP); I saw it at the Thalia revival house in the
mid-‘70s with Targets. Honestly, I
don’t remember it at all. Tigon was no Hammer Studios; it did, however, produce
some cult classics, such as 1968’s Witchfinder
General and 1971’s The Blood on
Satan’s Claw. And yet, TCotCA had
four major horror stars, namely Karloff (born in England, then moved to
Canada), Christopher Lee (d. 2015), Michael Gough (d. 2011), and the enchanting
Barbara Steele.
The film is certainly a child of its time: Britain
was post-Sgt. Pepper’s, and psychedelia
was certainly on the mind of the public, if only in its infancy of hippie-dom.
As with most youth cultures, since movies are written by adults catering to a young demographic, this is more how
the writers probably imagined the
scary times that were a-changin’ at its highest peak, trying to appeal to teens
and young adults, yet scare the middle aged parents and up who were curious to
find what all the noise in the papers and telly was all about. The motorcycle gang
films of the period just before this used the same formula.
 |
| Christopher Lee |
For example, early on in TCotCA, there is a wild party (though “the boys were wearing ties,”
as the Shangri-Las sang in “Sophisticated Boom Boom”) with lots of drinking
(drugs are assumed, considering the relatively strict film permission laws), half
naked women in bikinis and underwear dousing themselves with alcohol while the
guys drink the run-off, or having paint stripes across nearly bare boobs, and all
the wild, chaotic laughter over formulaic and forgettable music. A standout
moment is when two couples play “chicken” in the main room with the women on the
dudes’ shoulders, attacking each other with paint brushes. It made me tense as
I kept thinking, “Watch out for that chandelier!” (yeah, I’m gettin’ old…).
There is, however, a nice-yet-subtle self-referential
humor, such as the following dialog:
Female lead: It’s like a house in an old horror film.
Female lead: It’s like a house in an old horror film.
Male lead:
I know what you mean; it’s like Boris Karloff is going to pop up at any moment.
As for the story, there is an introductory scene about
a certain character who’s more felt than seen going forward in the story, while
we meet an evil supernatural being in a low-cut blouse named Lavinia Morely (the Barbara Steele), the “Black Witch of
Greymarshe” (but her skin is blue, not black nor grey…never mind). You can tell
she’s beyond human because her voice is so highly reverberated, it’s hard to
make out what she’s saying-aying-aying-aying.
 |
| Barbara Steele |
Karloff the
Great makes his entrance in a wheelchair (he suffered from severe arthritis in
his later years) as Professor John Marsh, in order to catch Manning – and the
audience – up with the history of Lavinia, or as we critics like to call it,
the exposition. He explains the party is to celebrate Lavinia, as the participants
march through the woods in a scene that is reminiscent in hindsight (as this
came first) to The Wicker Man (1973).
Lee was also in that one, and actually both roles are similar. It’s also
interesting to see both Karloff and Lee together, considering they played some
of the same icon horror creatures, Frankenstein’s monster and the Mummy (although
Karloff was Im-Ho-Tep, and Lee was Kharis…yes, I knew that from memory, and
yes, I’m showing off).
I could go into a whole rant about the subtle yet rampant
sexism that goes on, though it was common enough in that time period. Beyond the
party scene where many of the women are nearly naked (to be fair, there are a
few skimpily clad men, as well) and the sacrifices are all female, there’s a
moment when Marsh is dishing out a rare brandy and states, “Completely wasted
on women” (even though it’s Manning who it proves to be unappreciative of the
high-end hooch). But it’s important to note that it’s not just then: when marching through the woods in
the ceremony with torches, the party revelers chant “Burn the witch! Burn the
witch!” which has the exact tone of the more modern “Lock her up! Lock her up!”
 |
| Michael Gough |
The thing about the main male protagonist, Manning
(aka “Bob”), is that he is an absolute boor and brute. I found him totally
unlikeable. When he isn’t insulting his hosts and the local traditions (which
the audience accepts, I’m positing, because of the assumption they are evil,
and that makes it okay) or trying to
get Eve in the sack by grabbing and kissing her in unsolicited fashion, he just
clamors around like a buffoon. For example, he’s warned to leave by someone,
and then doesn’t, but that’s to be expected. However, he tells everyone which
person told him that without anyone even asking. What an ass. Bull in a china
closet, he is. I kept wishing him
harm, but that would make the film way too short.
Considering the age of the film, it’s a decent
copy, though it’s hard to tell if it’s from a negative or a video. Cheezy Films
has once again managed to find a version that is watchable of a somewhat fun
film, relatively speaking for its time period and b-level. What should be a
considered a big bonus is that they found the original British version, which
is somewhat different than the American release (for example, the British government
detested violence like the US government was scared about nudity, so there was
more of the latter there than the former).
There are few surprises and an amazingly small body
count. While it doesn’t live up to what Hammer produced, this is certainly
worthwhile a watch if merely for the historical document of who was involved
onscreen. Thankfully, even with an obnoxious protagonist, the story is still
decent enough (and is certainly, in rear-view mirror viewing, dated). It’s a hoot,
anyway, and is an enjoyable night’s screening.
The only extras are chapters and a few
similar-period British horror trailers.
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