gothic movie reviews – Read First Chapter.com

ANOTHER GOTHIC HORROR (FUN)

This is another English gothic horror movie from the 1960s. I have added the word fun into the title because these movies are not particularly scary by today's standards but there is something so charming and fun about them that I cannot resist watching them over and over again.

This movie was uploaded by the Channel entitled New Castle After Dark where two guys present the movie and talk before, at an intermission, and after the movie is over. They are just as charming as the movies. They are movie buffs and share insider information about the movies as well as the actors who appear in their movie choices.

I love their format because it feels like you're not watching the movie alone. They appear just long enough before, during and after to add to the watching experience -- at least for me they do.

If this movie is taken down by YouTube for any reason, here is a link to JustWatch where you can find it somewhere else.

THE MOVIE STATS:

The movie was produced and directed in 1959 by British director Gordono Hessler. This movie stars Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. It is the first movie that stared both actors.

The movie was loosely based on the short story written by Edgar Allan Poe entitled "The Oblong Box". I say loosely because I don't believe voodoo is mentioned in the original Poe story.

Although Vincent Price is often accused of overacting, I think he fits perfect into the Gothic Horror Fun genre! I don't see his acting as anything but great in these films.

Christopher Lee plays a co-star role in this film but as usual he is, deadly serious, but great too! Below is a snapshot from the film from Wikipedia Commons.

QUICK SUMMARY OF THE MOVIE:

I don't want to spoil the story for anyone so I'll just give a very quick summary of what the movie is about. Sir Edward was disfigured in Africa and is now hidden away in an attic room by his guilt-ridden brother Sir Julian.

Sir Edward is tired of being couped up and comes up with a plan that he forces the family lawyer into carrying out with him. If everything went as planned, it would have given Sir Edward his freedom but of course, Julian throws a wrench into the plans and everything goes haywire.

The plot, although a bit crazy as all plots in British gothic horror from the 1960s is, is a good one. It's plausible and easy to follow. This is a great pick for autumn, even Halloween season. It's a great movie for enjoyment but a good one for writers to learn from as I'll go into below.

THE ATMOSPHERE: The movie is anchored in the late 1800s and brief atmospheric scenes support his. This is a good way for authors to learn about anchoring the story in England, in the historical time period and giving it the 'gothic vibe' which I'll be referring to throughout this review.

THE SCENERY: The scenery was beautiful but it played a supportive role in this movie. It was just beautiful enough to give the movie a great look and add to the beauty of the movie in general. Any snapshot still could be a writer's exercise is describing an 1800's historical scene.

SETS/STAGECRAFT: I love the sets used in this film. I also include the lighting in this category. Although it was a gothic movie, it takes place 'with the proper stage lighting'. This means that you can see everything and every scene is well-lit for drama and atmosphere. It adds to the beauty and enjoyment of the film. Is there anything worse than a modern horror film where you're squinting to see scenes shot in the dark with only one Bic lighter?

This is a great place for writers to look and learn from the ways the background scenes and objects support the scene, transmit additional information, and just anchor the scene into the time period.

COSTUMING: The costuming for everyone is great. All of the actors and actresses in this time frame were beautiful, thin and they all looked amazing in their costumes.

GOTHIC ELEMENTS: It wouldn't be a British gothic movie if it didn't have the prerequisite mansion, candelabra, harlots showing their ankles, wild pub scene, cabriolet, mist in the woods, silhouetted horse chase or a sinister 1800s grave-robbing scientist! It's all here and it's all delicious. This one even has a grave-digging scene which I always love!

STORYLINE/PLOTLINE: This is a great movie for beginner writers to learn from as there is a crazy horror plotline that does require the viewers to suspend their modern belief system to watch. For beginner writers, sometimes it's hard to imagine that you can rely on people setting aside their logic and reason to watch, but they do.

This is also a great plotline to learn about 'the plot twist'. The original plan that Sir Edward had, although it was crazy, it could have worked. But the twist is what happens as the result of his brother Julian wanting to do the right thing.

There are also a couple of additional turns in the plotline towards the end that have a lot to teach about keeping the tension and surprises coming. This would even be a good plotline for an author to reverse engineer to see how it all needs to be foreshadowed from the beginning.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND EMOTIONS:

Any movie with Vince Price is a good one to learn about facial expressions for an author. He is often teased about over-acting, but I don't agree. When you watch him from now almost 65 years later, his acting is perfect for this 1960s gothic horror. His face is very expressive and can teach new authors a lot about the raising of eyebrows, eye movement, and more.

Author Writing Exercise Idea: Make a gif of an actor responding to an action and then describe it. Use a thesaurus and see how many new ways to describe the facial movement you can find. Here is a gif from this movie as an example. See if you can write this scene.

And finally, this is a great script and storyline to learn about 'clipping dialogue tightly'. This storyline is a long one, and with the twists and turns, a lot is covered in each scene. Almost every word spoken -- with the exception of the romance scenes with the ladies -- are conveying important story information. It can teach a lot about how to keep scene lean and move the plot along.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY - PRODUCED BY DAN CURTIS - PRODUCER OF DARK SHADOWS:

I discovered this Movie Review channel on YouTube called New Castle After Dark. I love these two guys. They are a riot together. The atmosphere is very unique and the way they talk is very entertaining. It's very rare that you see smokers anymore, but these two are always smoking!

They present the movies on their channel and they begin with a short introduction and quick discussion about the movie and who plays what parts.

Then they return again in the middle of the movie, like an intermission and again participate in a short maybe four minute discussion -- and some more smoking. They always add very interesting trivia about either the actors or the movie itself. They are never boring.

For some reason, watching the movie on their channel with them popping in twice makes it seem like you're watching it with someone else. I really think this makes it even more enjoyable.

OVERALL REVIEW: I LOVED IT RIGHT OFF THE BAT:

The New Castle guys in their commentary said the beginning of the movie was a little slow but it got better. However, it had such a great spooky, gothic, old England feel to it, I loved it right off the bat. It didn't seem too slow to me at all. I absolutely love movies that are shot like Broadway plays and this is one of those. The sets are beautiful although some of the scenes take place in the seedier and darker parts of town and those are not quite as beautiful. Like most movies in the '60s and '70s, everyone in the movie was handsome or good looking -- not just the mediocre-looking sons or daughters of stars of yesteryear like we get today. I miss seeing the best looking people from all over the country!

DIRECTORIAL STYLE: THERE WAS A TOCUH OF SOAP OPERA ABOUT THE MOVIE:

Anyway, because of the play-like atmosphere, no laugh track or crazy 70's music in the background, there was a bit of a TV movie (which I believe it was when it debuted) or soap opera feel to this film but I tend to love this style anyway.

Fairly early on in the movie, I recognized the actor named John Karlen in one scene. He played Willie on the old Dark Shadows soap opera back in the 1970s. I'm a recent but big fan. Once I saw him and saw the style of the movie, I suspected that Dan Curtis was associated with it, and, sure enough, he was. He was the producer. During their intermission chat, the Dark Castle guys confirmed that the movie was a Dan Curtis production. No wonder I loved it. They even mentioned that Dan had reused some of the music from Dark Shadows which I recognized in the second half of the movie.

Although the actual Dark Shadows movies were crazy and terrible, I assumed Dan Curtis was just cashing in on the Dark Shadows craze back then and they were just quickly thrown together. I've seen a few of his other films which he took more time with and they were great, as this one was.

THE QUICKEST SYNOPSIS IN THE WORLD

The story for anyone that doesn't know it is that an artist paints a picture of Dorian Gray while he is in his youth. He wonders out loud that wouldn't it be great if the picture could age and he could stay young, instead of the other way around. Well, that's what happens.

However, the moral tale underlying this concept was done so well in this adaptation that I hope you will take the time to watch this movie.

PRODUCTION STYLE: THE MOVIE WAS SHOT ON SETS EVEN WHEN THEY WERE ON LOCATION:

These movies that are shot almost like plays are very helpful in setting a scene for a book. Nothing is ethereal or being described with shooting camera angles or other MTV style movie effects.

The play-like atmosphere gives each scene a stable setting that is easy to take in and think about "describing" as an author. This is a great exercise for new authors or ones that want to get better at describing castles or cobble stones or whatever. I'm sure you get the point.

The beautiful sets always add so much to the enjoyment of the movie. Beauty raises the spirits and lifts the heart. There's nothing worse than watching a movie in a dirty city being shot live with a hand-held camera. Nothing like that here. This film was an upgrade from watching a play in the front row.

THE CHARACTER ARC:

The main character arc was with Dorian Gray. The production did an excellent job at portraying Dorian's youth and innocence at the beginning of the movie. You saw the one ch

THE MORAL TALE:

I have seen many other movie adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray, but this was my favorite because it didn't gloss over the moral tale behind the story. It addressed it head on. The other adaptations didn't really focus on the underlying morality of the story and without it, it was almost like a crazy fantasy movie. This one was done so well because it was guided by the moral tale that was underneath the story.

I also like that the homosexual aspects of the movie were done with discretion. They were unmistakable but not in your face like some of the more modern movies. There's nothing worse than these virtuous lectures that are written into modern movies.

Because the moral tale is handled so well, there is a sense of true justice or true satisfaction at the end.

THE ACTING:

Here was John Karlen who played Willie in Dark Shadows

Because it was shot like a play, the actors had to be really good and they were. Many modern movies shoot back and forth from one to two lines spoken by an actor in a close up to another close up with the actor responding with two lines. There's no real acting so to speak. The older movies and certainly this one showed the actors in action, speaking and moving along the sets interacting with props and each other. It was great.

As an author, it is a great way to learn how to embed dialogue tags into little snippets of movement in a scene. By doing this, it's a way to anchor the reader in the scene and to also create movement on the black and white page.

In a movie shot like a play, there are so many opportunities to see the actors interacting with props and each other, how they stand and face one another, how they turn to add a dramatic effect. There's so much to absorb.

WHERE TO FIND THE MOVIE:

I'm not sure how this YouTube Channel gets to show movies on their channel, so if they take it down anytime soon, here is a link to find just about any movie in the world. It's called Just Watch and it gives you a tiny synopsis and tells you where you can find the movie to watch for free, rent or buy.

Here is a direct link to it on Just Watch.

DISCUSSIONS ON MOVIES ANYONE?

Every now and again I stop into two reddit subgroups where people talk about movies, especially when I find one that I really like:

HorrorLit Reddit Group

Book Discussions

ANY OTHER DARK SHADOWS FANS?

Dark Shadows Reddit Group
Dark Shadows Everyday
Dark Shadows from the Beginning
Dark Shadows Fandom

Tag: gothic movie reviews

Movie Review – The Oblong Box