HORROR HOTEL Review

JM Dobies here, hipping you to our main attraction, a creature feature for the ages, people, and definitely not for the faint of heart. I saw this on Chiller Theatre when I was eleven years old, and I still gotta sleep with the lights on. Originally released in Britain in 1960 as CITY OF THE DEAD (also the title of an excellent B-side by the Clash), it was issued in the US in 1961 under the snappy title HORROR HOTEL. Directed by the immortal John Llewellyn Moxey, it's all about creepy goings on in the foggy New England town of Whitewood, where a certain devil-worshippin' witch got herself barbecued by the local citizens back in 1692. Fast forward to the early '60s, and Professor Alan Driscoll, played by legendary cinematic super-creep Christopher Lee, is lecturing about Witchcraft to a bunch of college kids. One of his students, an impressionable young thing named named Nan Barlow, decides to visit Whitewood to bone up on all things witchy, and gets a whole lot more than she bargained for.

So lock your doors and keep some garlic and/or wolfbane handy as we come face to face with unspeakable evil, and a bunch of British actors doing American accents in HORROR HOTEL. It's scary, scary stuff. There's a plot twist straight out of Hitchcock's PSYCHO, but I won't reveal it here.

Patricia Jessel plays a dual role in HORROR HOTEL, as the evil witch Elizabeth Selwyn, and her latter day incarnation, Mrs. Newliss, proprietor of the Ravens Inn. Two different characters, both fans of human sacrifice and blood pacts with Ol' Scratch. Jessel won the 1955 Tony award for her role in WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, and also appeared in such films as BEWARE OF CHILDREN, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, and THEY ALL DIED LAUGHING. Patricia Jessel died in 1968 at the age of 47 of a heart attack.

The lovely Venetia Stevenson plays spunky undergrad Nan Barlow. She was born in 1938 to actors Anna Lee and Robert Stevenson, and at the age of 18 married American actor Russ Tamblyn on Valentine's Day 1956. They were divorced on Valentine's Day 1957.

Isn't that romantic?

In 1962, Venetia Stevenson retired from acting after marrying pop star Don Everly, who was half of the Everly Brothers. In 1965, she gave birth to Erin Everly, who would grow up to become Mrs. Axl Rose and the inspiration for Guns N' Roses classic power ballad "Sweet Child O' Mine."

Christopher Lee was born in London in 1922, broke into the movies in 1948, and has appeared in over 250 film and television roles since then. The six foot five inch Lee made his name starring in a series of horror flicks produced by Hammer Films Ltd, including CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, and HORROR OF DRACULA. He would go on to play the Count in such films as DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS, DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, DRACULA 1972, and DRACULA IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN LONDON. Tired of being typecast as a vampire, Lee hung up his cape for good, starring in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, THE FOUR MUSKETEERS, and as Scaramanga, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.

He relocated to LA in the mid-'70s, taking whatever projects came his way, from Steven Spielberg's 1941 to GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH to MEAT CLEAVER MASSACRE. In the last several years, Christopher Lee gained a whole new generation of fans with his roles as Count Dooku in STAR WARS EPISODES II and III, and especially as Saruman the White in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.

When visiting Massachusetts, be sure to avoid Whitewood, a charming little village where it's always foggy, and the Undead run the city council. If you happen to spend the night at the Ravens Inn, pay no mind to the chanting coming up through the floorboards, and remember, checkout time is 13 O'Clock.

Avaiable on DVD from any number of budget labels, and in a nice, widescreen edition under its original title, CITY OF THE DEAD, from VCI Home Video.