The House That Dripped Blood (1970)

I've never been an Amicus fan the way I've been devoted to the Hammer 'House of Horror'. It has only been in the last year or two that I've begun to appreciate the Amicus films on their own terms, beginning with films such as Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965) and Torture Garden (1967), both in the studio's trademark 'portmanteau' style.

Where Hammer concentrated on gothic horrors in period settings, Amicus usually opted for contemporary settings, and their films typically featured four macabre stories linked by a common thread. In this film, we witness the bizarre fates that claim four residents of a single house. I found them mostly quite contrived, but not without their moments.

The first segment had as its main asset the impressive Denholm Elliot as an author who becomes obsessed with one of his characters. The second featured Peter Cushing and Joss Ackland as two friends enraptured by a waxwork of the biblical Salome. This part boasted a nicely lit nightmare sequence, which the accompanying documentary (R2 DVD) revealed was the idea of director Peter Duffel. The third brought in Christopher Lee as a stern father who seems determined to keep his distance from his daughter; and the fourth (and possibly the most fun) was a camp comedy about a horror film actor (Jon Pertwee, pictured) driven mad by a vampire's cloak. This last segment also featured upcoming horror queen Ingrid Pitt. There are some great gothic touches in this part, including haunting cobbled streets and a camped-up Geoffrey Bayldon in an Ernest-Thesiger-inspired turn as a theatrical costumier. I also liked the in-jokes such as (possibly a sly dig at Hammer) when Pertwee laments that horror films aren't like they used to be: "Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, Dracula - Bela Lugosi, I mean, not that new chap"!


Like several other Amicus portmanteau films, this was scripted by Robert Bloch from his own stories.

I'll never trade in my Hammers, but this is still a pleasing effort from their main rivals.

My rating? * * * * *