Review of The Haunted Palace (1963) by Peter Guy B — 18 Oct 2015

If you've seen any of the other Roger Corman/Vincent Price movies, you've likely seen this one. A man living in a castle goes crazy, while other spooky things happen about (like ghosts and monsters), and it all ends with the castle burning to the ground.

All the same tropes are in place, and you can get the same experience, except... except this time it feels much cheaper. The sets in these movies usually range from noticeably bad to remarkably detailed, and The Haunted Palace falls on the cheap end of the spectrum.

None of the sets are as elaborate as some of the other Corman "Poe" movies, and there are plenty of times when the backdrops they used were folding in on themselves and you could see the wrinkles.

The plot is actually one of the more interesting of these movies, adapting from an HP Lovecraft story this time. But the monster at the end of the movie is incredibly fake looking, having no articulation and being hidden by effects (likely to hide how bad it looked).

The movie starts off well, with Vincent Price haunted in his new home, but the movie devolves into "what do we do with the extra time?" status when he has nothing better to do than to go out and kill people.

It had nothing to do with his master plan, he just wanted revenge on people who were descendants of his murderers. Overall, it's a fine film, and I didn't hate it because I love these movies and Vincent Price is always great.

But there are better ones you can be watching.