Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

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

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Spikeopath Horrors of the Black Museum is directed by Arthur Crabtree and written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel. It stars Michael Gough, June Cunningham, Graham Curnow, Shirley Anne Field, Geoffrey Keen and Gerald Anderson. A CinemaScope/Eastman Color production, with music by Gerald Schurmann and cinematography by Desmond Dickinson. Thriller writer Edmond Bancroft (Gough) has his own private black museum modelled on the one at Scotland Yard. Needing ideas to spur on his muse, Bancroft hypnotises his assistant Rick (Curnow) to commit increasingly horrific crimes that he can then write about.You can understand why it has become a cult favourite in horror circles, it's so cheese laden and ridiculously lurid it's almost impossible to not have fun with it. Though the much celebrated novelty murder sequences do tend to detract from the many passages of dullness and bad acting on show. The blood beams bright, the girls flash their undies and Michael Gough is a wonderfully demented villain. We are of course asked to buy into the fact that the coppers must be dense to not know who is behind the killings, whilst you would think that anyone would notice that someone has built a guillotine over their bed and that there is a man perched above that as well! But hey, that's just being picky; right?Bonkers, Boring, Brutal, Bloody, all things that make it unforgettable... 5/10

Paul Andrews Horrors of the Black Museum is set in London & starts as woman receives a parcel in the post & opens it to find a pair of binoculars, intrigued she puts them to her eye's to look through & two large spikes shoot out puncturing her eye's & brain. She has become the latest victim of a crazed & sadistic killer who is targeting young women in London, a series of bizarre & senseless murders have left the police baffled & crime writer Edmond Brancroft (Michael Gough) criticizing them at every opportunity he gets in his books & newspaper columns. Another woman is found dead with her head missing, again no clues but at least the police have a description of the killer this time. Each murder seems to use some macabre item of evil from Scotland Yard's notorious Black Museum of crime & punishment but only a select few have access to it, as the net closes in on the killer can the police prevent yet another death...This British production was directed by Arthur Crabtree who had previously made the sci-fi horror film Fiend Without a Face (1958) the year before, while Horrors of the Black Museum is a little dated when viewed today it's still a fairly entertaining film with a few nice moments. Horrors of the Black Museum was apparently inspired by producer Herman Cohen's visit to Scotland Yard's real life black museum where other murder weapons are kept, the spiked binoculars seen in the opening sequence in particular are supposed to be based on a similar item used in actual real life murder case. I suppose the script is just a collection of novelty death scenes strung together with a fairly threadbare plot to justify them, the murder scenes are certainly the films highlight & I doubt many people will remember much about the character's or the flimsy motives behind everything. Even though Bancroft has these huge computer banks in his basement there's never any reason given for him to do so, despite being a so-called genius he makes lots of mistakes like openly buying his murder weapons from an old antiques shop or killing his old girlfriend to whom he could be traced back to & we never know why Rick turns all pasty faced when under Bancroft's control or how much control Bancroft has over him or why Rick obeys Bancroft even when he isn't in his pasty faced look. At less than 80 minutes at least it's fairly short & has a few memorable kills & the odd unintentionally funny line (largely due to the dated dialogue) which kept me entertained if not exactly enthralled or amazed.The original US released version of Horrors of the Black Museum featured an entire 12 minute opening scene spliced in by the US distributors called 'Hypno-Vista' & featured some London psychiatrist explaining hypnosis. Although tame by today's standards the lurid & colourful murder scenes have a certain invention about them, a woman is decapitated in bed with a guillotine, a woman has spiked binoculars pierce her eye's, a man is lowed in a vat of acid & comes out as a skeleton, a woman is killed with ice tongs & there are a couple of stabbings. Shot in full 2:35:1 widescreen the bright colours & late 50's setting give Horrors of the Black Museum a nice lurid & sometimes garish look.Filmed in London this probably had a low budget but it makes the most of it. The acting varies, most of the performances are poor except for Michael Gough who gives a none too subtle acting performance here & shout's & exaggerates & pulls faces whenever he can.Horrors of the Black Museum isn't a classic by any means but it's entertaining enough for what it is, the novelty kills are quite cool & the bright colourful look of the film gives it a certain lurid appeal. Not bad for what it is.

radhaone The Horrors of the Black Museum is a diabolical film. I was not more than eleven or twelve when I saw it. Dropped at the curb to enjoy Quarter Saturday at the Movies.It left me so traumatized that I was sitting in the lobby when my mother came, uncharacteristically silent. I had spent most of the time after the "binocular" murder, trembling alone with the thought, " What grown-up dreamed this stuff up for a child to watch? What are grown-ups really like?" I knew some of them didn't care what they exposed kids to to make a quarter! I remember trudging to the lobby as if in a fugue state, afraid to turn my back on that abomination. I know there are folks who love this genre, and as long as they are grown-ups, they can do the backstroke in ketchup blood and wallow in sadism. Free country. But this movie gave me nightmares into adulthood. It's probably still lurking in my psyche today. It is why I know that children must be sheltered from material adults can handle. I guess it was effectively gruesome and twisted for the fans of the genre.

mlraymond Some viewers seeing this movie decades after it was made may never have seen the thirteen minute prologue that was tacked on for American audiences. If at all possible, try to see this version. The lecture/demonstration on hypnosis by Dr. Emile Franchel is more entertaining than anything in the movie that follows it. Dr. Franchel does his best to convince the audience that anyone can fall under the spell of a hypnotist, especially those people who claim they can't be hypnotized. He experiments with making the audience feel cold, then hot, and to resist the overpowering urge to yawn when you see someone else yawning. The actual movie starring Michael Gough is likely to keep most viewers awake, even if the film is dated. The shocking violence that occurs at the beginning sets the tone for the rest of the picture. There are parts that seem unintentionally funny at times, but the overall impact is pretty disturbing. It has less to do with the murders and torture machines than the truly sick and twisted character of Edmond Bancroft, played by Gough. It's hard to define, but he brings this repulsive character to life almost too convincingly. You actually begin to believe that he is the monstrous character he's playing. The film isn't very remarkable, aside from Gough's performance, except as a peek beneath the surface of respectable English life in the Fifties.SPOILERS AHEAD: I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, or will agree with my theory, but I get a very strong and uncomfortable suggestion of an unhealthy homosexual relationship between Bancroft and the young man who assists him. The older man's possessive nature, his fury at finding the young man kissing his girlfriend right in the Black Museum that Bancroft has previously described as being their own private world, his raging denunciation after the young woman has left that women can't be trusted with secrets, and especially the scene where Bancroft acts fatherly in a creepy way. He tells his young assistant that it's really his own fault for not having given the lad his injections often enough, and proceeds to dose the passive youth with some kind of drug, telling him it's for his own good. There is something way beyond creepy in these sequences, though whether it was intentional or not, I couldn't say. This infamous cult film should be seen at least once, just out of curiosity, but be warned, it leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth.