The House That Dripped Blood

Cast: Denholm Elliott, Peter Cushing, and Christopher Lee

Director: Peter Duffell

102 minutes (15) 1971

Second Sight 
Blu-ray region B

Rating: 8/10

Review by Donald Morefield

Despite their variable cinematic qualities, mid-century horror movies created by Hammer and Amicus remain studio productions made on limited budgets. These comparatively economical efforts are but often cleverly inventive and typically wittily, and they bridge the gap between essentially British theatrical traditions, where actors take primacy over special effects, and screen entertainments usually composed with innovative practical tricks and optical illusions, where the mind’s-eye imagery of grisly surrealism frequently breaks through the surfaces of human reality.

Written by Robert Bloch, adapting his own short stories, anthology picture The House That Dripped Blood is a fine example of its format and genre concerns, boosted to prominence by the finesse of top stars and excellent supporting casts, portraying sweaty anxieties and relatable frustrations, in four narrative depictions with sinister atmospheres and macabre frights. The residential property is question here isn’t just another haunted house, it is more like a place that’s suffering a curse of death for tenants unwary of the posted warning signs.

A troubled writer rents this place where he discovers a maniacal strangler is lurking and stalking him in the first segment, Method For Murder. ‘Gaslighting’ is the cunning plan of conspirators here, but one weird twist crashes criminality into insanity. Waxworks begins with lonely reminiscence in retirement, then conjures up a fantasy prompted by curiosity. After visiting a black museum, one particular exhibit has a fascinating appeal to men who have lingering memories of a special woman. 

Sweets To The Sweet confronts a deadly evil that is disguised as innocence for a chilling, nightmarish tale beginning with a little girl who seems afraid of fire. Nyree Dawn Porter (The Protectors) provides excellent support. Finally, The Cloak stars Jon Pertwee, taking a break from popular TV series Doctor Who (1970-4), to portray a rather snobby actor who becomes a vampire. This comedy-horror that wraps up a diverse story package of mystery and murders has Ingrid Pitt playing the leading lady for a trashy movie-within-a-movie. 

Furthermore, there’s a linking story about a policeman investigating the notorious house and its history of mysterious deaths, and this framework is startling for its inquiries by a Scotland Yard detective that recalls cases in the spy-fi show Department S (1969-70). The House That Dripped Blood, and Dept. S are home-grown dramas that proved to be  genre precursors to a pair of American TV horror movies, The Night Stalker (1972), and The Night Strangler (1973), that led directly to a classic series Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-5). Much later, Dept. S and Kolchak, in turn, were an influence upon Chris Carter’s phenomenal franchise The X-Files. And so, from an historical perspective on genre, this nearly 50-year-old UK film’s surprising legacy adds values to many other screen horrors.