Sober Horror Fan

Day 26 of Sobriety. The Tomb of Ligeia is the last movie in what is generally referred to as Roger Corman’s “Poe Cycle” of films based (often very loosely) on the works of Edgar Allen Poe. If I am right there are eight such films, nine if you include the non-Corman directed, but very similar in style, The Oblong Box (1969). The Tomb of Ligeia is the sixth of the series that I have watched (or re-watched) recently, and although I greatly enjoyed it, quality wise I would place it in the lower ranks of those films in comparison to works like The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), and House of Usher (1960). Actually, although I still have a few films in the series to watch, I doubt any of them will reach the quality of those films, which I think are superb. In any case The Tomb of Ligeia still has a lot going for it. It has Vincent Price, of course, for a start, although I understand that he was not Corman's first choice for the part, having b...

Day 9 of Sobriety This could be described as the entry in Roger Corman’s Edgar Allen Poe cycle of films that wasn’t actually directed by Roger Corman. Perhaps that is why I found a little lackluster compared to the other films that I have seen in the cycle (so far House of Usher , The Pit and the Pendulum , The Haunted Palace , and The Masque of the Red Death —and most of the other titles are waiting on my shelf). But having said that, the actual director, Gordon Hessler, has made a fair number of good films, including The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), and (ahem) Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978). He also directed another Vincent Price film, Cry of the Banshee (1970), which I haven’t seen yet, but am looking forward to.   Apparently Hessler stepped in to replace Michael Reeves (of Witchfinder General fame) when Reeves became unavailable due to illness. I wonder what The Oblong Box would have been like if it had been directed by Reeves? We’ll never know. ...