The House That Dripped Blood (1971) starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Jon Pertwee
In short, Amicus’ The House that Dripped Blood is an anthology movie. It uses the vehicle of a house where various horrific things have happened to string together four short stories. All stories were written by the famous Robert Bloch (Psycho among many others).
The House That Dripped Blood begins with a police inspector investigating the disappearance of an actor who has rented the titular house. He begins by visiting with the local police, who tells some of the stories in flashback from police files. And then directs the inspector to visit the realtor, who tells the remaining stories.
The stories themselves are:
Method for Murder
A writer of horror stories, facing writer’s block, moves into the house with his wife, and begins churning out his next novel . It’s about a fictional serial killer named Dominic — whom he begins seeing, and may be living out. It’s a twist ending with it’s own twist ending. Frankly the sort of thing that could be seen on any number of TV murder mysteries.
Waxworks
Peter Cushing stars as a man who retires to this delightful house in the country, where he finally has time to work on his garden, read, listen to classical music — until he visits the wax museum in town, where he seems to recognize one of the people on display. And the man running the museum is quite creepy … and possessive.
Sweets for the Sweet
Christopher Lee stars as a widower who moves into the house with his young daughter. He hires a live-in tutor for her, since he won’t allow her to interact with other children, or even have toys. At first, the viewer’s sympathies lie entirely with the young girl. At first …
The Cloak
Jon Pertwee (the third Doctor in the classic BBC series Dr. Who). He stars in the final story, which is closer to comedy or goofiness than the previous three. Which I frankly appreciated, as it was a welcome break from the bleakness so far. He portrays an actor, who rents the house for a few months while he films a low-budget vampire film nearby. The self-important actor isn’t satisfied with anything, including the vampire’s cloak. He purchases one (from Geoffrey Bayldon, who does excellently in his small role). Only to find that he’s starting to act as a vampire while wearing it, including biting his lovely co-star Ingrid Pitt. Is it his imagination, or …
Ending
The movie ends with the Inspector heading to the house – alone, in the dark of night – which frankly had me thinking that this was another twist. Sadly, it wasn’t. It was simply the foolish inspector living up to every cliche of stupid people in horror movies, and dying as a result.
The actual ending is with the realtor, outside the house which is once again for rent. He espouses that the house simply matches the personality of the people living there. And perhaps the audience would like to live there?
In all, the ending of the movie was weak. But that didn’t detract from the movie overall, which I frankly enjoyed. The House That Dripped Blood was an above-average horror anthology movie.
Cast of characters
Method for Murder
- Denholm Elliott (Raiders of the Lost Ark) … Charles
- Joanna Dunham (The Greatest Story Ever Told) … Alice
- Tom Adams (The Great Escape) … Dominick
- Robert Lang … Psychiatrist
Waxworks
- Peter Cushing (The Mummy (1959)) … Philip
- Joss Ackland (Jekyll & Hyde) … Rogers
- Wolfe Morris (The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas) … Waxworks Proprietor
Sweets to the Sweet
- Christopher Lee (Horror of Dracula) … Reid
- Nyree Dawn Porter (From Beyond the Grave) … Ann
- Chloe Franks … Jane
- Carleton Hobbs … Dr. Bailey (uncredited)
- Hugh Manning … Mark (uncredited)
The Cloak
- Geoffrey Bayldon (Tales from the Crypt) … Theo Von Hartmann
- Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who: Inferno) … Paul
- Ingrid Pitt (The Wicker Man) … Carla
- Ann Barrass … Horror Film Actress
- Richard Coe … Mr. Talmadge (uncredited)
- Roy Evans (Here Come the Munsters) … Hunchback (uncredited)
- Bernard Hopkins … Assistant Director (uncredited)
- Joanna Lumley (The Cat’s Meow) … Film Crew Girl (uncredited)
- Jonathan Lynn (Clue) … Mr. Petheridge (uncredited)
- Winifred Sabine … Rita (uncredited)
Framework Story
- John Bennett (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) … Det. Insp. Holloway
- John Bryans … Stoker
- John Malcolm (Separate Tables) … Police Sergeant Martin
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