Horror Hotel (1960)

[Derf]

I picked up "Horror Hotel" for a buck at the Dollar Tree (along with several others). I bring it up here to rant about one character: Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson). She has to be le grande dame of stupid movie characters. As a grad student, she travels to Whitewood to study devil worship/witchcraft (yes, I know they're not the same thing). After coming upon a book ("Devil Worship in Puritan New England" or something like that), she reads a passage to the innkeeper. In that passage, she relates that on February 1st (which happens to be the current date for the scene), a coven of witches will select a young lady for sacrifice. They will take something of value from her and replace it with a dead bird and nail a twig of some specific kind on her door. With this binding, they will be able to call her from anywhere and sacrifice her to the devil. End of passage. Then she immediately tells the innkeeper that her locket is missing. When the innkeeper leaves the room, she opens her drawer to find...a dead bird! She opens her door to find...a twig! She looks out the window and sees hooded figures chanting while walking into the unconsecrated graveyard. So what does she do? Run to her car and head out of town? No! She decides she'd better explore a spooky staircase leading to a basement underneath her room. Could there be a stupider human being?

Has anyone come across someone doing anything this stupid in a movie? I realize it has become one of the staples of horror movies for someone to ignore warnings and go off (usually dressed only in underwear) to explore a deserted cabin only to find a cat trapped in a closet, breathe a sigh of relief and then be beheaded. These at least are usually stupid teenagers. This woman is supposed to be a graduate student, which implies a higher level of intelligence. Yes, I laughed out loud at the scene. It's hilarious. But she's still an idiot.

[Scott]

Good film Derf ! You really got a bargain with HORROR HOTEL. I really loved the atmosphere is all the fog and the cult. Christopher Lee is in this film but he doesn't  do anything interesting. The ending of the film is quite good. The film is a.k.a CITY OF THE DEAD.





Post Edited (10-19-04 19:42)

[Yaddo 42]

Bought the $1 version after reading about the Dollar Tree thread was that your thread Derf). I've seen the film before, but I tend to think it's a film you watch more for the look and atmosphere than for great plotting, so I give it a pass on that front.

Makes me glad that a such a good looking film that seems to have fallen into public domain limbo turns up letterboxed everywhere. Guess they're all working from the same source material. Even when I've caught it on channels like Amerca One (also on a syndicated creature feature show they carried for a while) they've shown it letterboxed. Since the ending in the cemetary is all about visuals and use of shadows and sillouttes, I'm glad we get to see the whole picture.

[Scott]

Actually HORROR HOTEL is the first DVD that I picked up from Diamand Entertainment on a double disk with CARNIVAL OF SOULS. It's a keeper.

[kriegerg69]

Yaddo 42 wrote:

> Even when I've caught it on channels like Amerca One
> (also on a syndicated creature feature show they carried for a
> while) they've shown it letterboxed. Since the ending in the
> cemetary is all about visuals and use of shadows and
> sillouttes, I'm glad we get to see the whole picture.

Not quite (depends on one's point of view): The movie was filmed in a 1.85:1 matted ratio....not a 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio (like the STAR WARS movies, for example). The HORROR HOTEL widescreen is achieved by composing the wide image during filming, and then matting the top and bottom of the frame to that ratio. TECHNICALLY....even though what you're seeing in widescreen is what the director intended it to be seen in.....you're actually not seeing the entire film frame AS it was filmed in the camera.

For comparison, trying looking at a non-widescreen/full-frame version, and you'll see what I mean: You'll see more at the top and bottom of the image.

[Yaddo 42]

Thanks for the correction, krieger69. To be honest I don't ever remember seeing a full-frame version of "Horror Hotel". Even when I've rented it from the video store, it had the same on-screen image. I've seen the film from at least 5 different "sources" (the rented VHS copy, the DVD copy I bought, and on TV on two different channels - with one channel having the movie themselves and also showing it as part of a syndicated show "Engima Theater" produced by someone else).

I don't doubt there are full-frame copies out there, I've just never run across one. Which is why it seemed odd to me.