SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Lawbolisted Powerful

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Scott_Mercer If the goal here was to make a good movie, they failed miserably.If the goal was to confuse, disturb and disorient the viewer, then JACKPOT, baby! This movie is not scary because it evokes a disturbing real atmosphere of fear the way something like Night of The Living Dead does. The effect here in HOTBD is much more surreal.No, the world of House of The Black Death, aka Blood of the Man Devil is not a world that you or I might recognize. But it is a world that sucks you in. A world of grainy, back-and-white horror; a world of creeping, Gothic torment, a world of a furtively glimpsed fever dream while under the influence of absinthe or laudanum, as you are restrained with rubber hoses in a rusty dentist's chair from the 19th century and assaulted with various antique dental implements.The stark textures of the muddy, washed out print I viewed only added to the sense of ennui and nausea endured while watching this exercise in creepiness, a tableau which added death-desiring boredom to the mix during the endless talky scenes of people discussing the battle for the soul of the Dessard family between Carradine and Chaney. The extra added frisson provided by the poor condition of the print I viewed was clearly not intended by the filmmakers, but you know what they say, when life hands you lemons...or, more concisely, whatever works.Now that I have accidentally referred to Woody Allen and Larry David in this review, a highly inappropriate turn of events, I will end with just one command: I importune you to watch this film only late at night, with the lights off, preferably when you are so tired that you will not be able to stop dozing off (if you weren't already there, the dialog will see to that). The wretched visuals of this nightmare of a psychotic will mix with your own dreams as you drift off into an impenetrable trap amongst the ether, of both your own making and that of the (many) directors of this "film." Pleasant screams.UPDATE: As of 1/2014, now available on DVD from VCI Entertainment, who have released 2 volumes each of three Jerry Warren "classics." For those with strong constitutions only...

Michael_Elliott House of the Black Death (1965)* (out of 4) Two warlocks, one good (John Carradine) and one evil (Lon Chaney, Jr.) battle over human souls. I really don't have the faintest idea what this film is about because there are three story lines going on and none of them make any sense on their own so mixing them together is even more confusing. One of the stories deals with the warlock's other brother who's a werewolf but we never actually see the wolf. Again, here's a film that you hang onto because you're expecting something to happen but nothing ever does happen so in the end you've just wasted your time. To make matters even worse Chaney and Carradine don't share any scenes together.

Zontar-2 Relatives returning to their ancestral home tangle with warlocks and a family curse.If this was based on an actual novel, as the credits claim, it has to be filmdom's sorriest screen adaptation. (Then again, the book angle could have been fabricated by crudmeister Jerry Warren, whose cinematic transgressions include bogus credits.) Like MONSTER A GO GO ('65), this plays like an unfinished film. You pity old hands Tom Drake and Andrea King, clueless that they'll "star" in what amounts to a series of barely connected scenes.On the other hand, Lon Chaney and John Carradine probably knew exactly what type of muck they were standing in. Carradine hams his role of family patriarch so badly, Hormel could sue for product defamation. Chaney, possibly hired because the plot includes a werewolf, plays a horned satanist who limps with an (unseen) cloven hoof...or did he just drop a hooch bottle on his foot? Familiar TV face Jerome Thor is screendom's most pitiful lycanthrope, though he gives it what I guess is his best shot.Master film mangler Jerry Warren attempted to finish the film by randomly inserting new scenes that add nothing but running time. Sparse music cues contribute to the lethargy.

John Seal If not for the coupling of horror icons John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr.--who don't share a single scene together--House of the Black Death would be completely worthless. As it is, it's ALMOST completely worthless, being badly shot, appallingly lit, and poorly written. In a plot reminiscent of Roger Corman's version of The Raven, our two stars play brothers and dueling masters of the dark arts, with Chaney sporting a fetching pair of horns that mark him as the bad guy. (He's also called Belial, which doesn't help matters.) The endless exotic dancing sequences echo A.C. Stephens inept Orgy of the Dead, a film that, thanks to its colour photography, is a masterpiece in comparison to House of the Black Death.