Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

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

morrison-dylan-fan With a poll being held on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles from 1965,I started looking round for films to view from that year,and I spotted on Ebay a fun sounding Horror starring Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine,which led to me getting ready to enter the house of death.The plot:Fighting over the family fortune,warlocks Andre & Belial Desard battle over who controls the fortune.Falling in love for Valerie Desard, Eric Campion and his friend Dr. Kate Mallory decide to go and try to help end the feud between Andre and Belial.Arriving at the Desard's,Campion and Mallory soon discover that they have entered the house of black death.View on the film:Getting passed along between 3 directors, Harold Daniels, Jerry Warren & Reginald Le Borg contributions are each cut in with a hacksaw,as the jarring pause of dialogue and abrupt change in scenes are spread across the movie.Whilst this pulled apart approach does lead to Richard Mahoney's adaptation of Lora Crozetti's novel to feel rather hazy,it also gives the title a peculiar dream-logic atmosphere,thanks to satanic chants being joined by monks and beautiful dancing girls,

Scott_Mercer If the goal here was to make a good movie, they failed miserably.If the goal was to confuse, disturb and disorient the viewer, then JACKPOT, baby! This movie is not scary because it evokes a disturbing real atmosphere of fear the way something like Night of The Living Dead does. The effect here in HOTBD is much more surreal.No, the world of House of The Black Death, aka Blood of the Man Devil is not a world that you or I might recognize. But it is a world that sucks you in. A world of grainy, back-and-white horror; a world of creeping, Gothic torment, a world of a furtively glimpsed fever dream while under the influence of absinthe or laudanum, as you are restrained with rubber hoses in a rusty dentist's chair from the 19th century and assaulted with various antique dental implements.The stark textures of the muddy, washed out print I viewed only added to the sense of ennui and nausea endured while watching this exercise in creepiness, a tableau which added death-desiring boredom to the mix during the endless talky scenes of people discussing the battle for the soul of the Dessard family between Carradine and Chaney. The extra added frisson provided by the poor condition of the print I viewed was clearly not intended by the filmmakers, but you know what they say, when life hands you lemons...or, more concisely, whatever works.Now that I have accidentally referred to Woody Allen and Larry David in this review, a highly inappropriate turn of events, I will end with just one command: I importune you to watch this film only late at night, with the lights off, preferably when you are so tired that you will not be able to stop dozing off (if you weren't already there, the dialog will see to that). The wretched visuals of this nightmare of a psychotic will mix with your own dreams as you drift off into an impenetrable trap amongst the ether, of both your own making and that of the (many) directors of this "film." Pleasant screams.UPDATE: As of 1/2014, now available on DVD from VCI Entertainment, who have released 2 volumes each of three Jerry Warren "classics." For those with strong constitutions only...

MartinHafer This film starts off wonderfully--with Satan himself introducing the characters. While this was inspired and clever, nothing else in the film was. In fact, it's pretty much a stupid mess about two warlocks who fight over the family fortune in some godforsaken (literally) town. While John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. star in the film, both were at the points in their careers where they would have appeared in ANYTHING--even ads for Playtex girdles if they'd asked! In addition to being an extremely dull and talky film, 'sexy' dancing girls are rather randomly inserted throughout the film to try to keep you awake. However, their alluring antics are about as alluring as a bowel obstruction."House of Black Death" (also known as "Blood of the Man Devil") is an absolutely horrible film that has not surprisingly slipped into the public domain. While IMDb often links such films to archive.org, this time they didn't--though if you go to this site you can download it for free. But, in many cases, why should you?! My advice is to only watch it if you love schlocky films--such as those of Larry Buchanan, Ed Wood or William Grefe. In this sense, it is watchable because it's THAT bad! Don't say I didn't warn you.

dbborroughs Sue me I liked this. perhaps seeing it late at night with the lights out and being half a sleep the film came across as a twisted dream. Perhaps I had to eventually like a film that Jerry Warren was involved in. What ever the reason I liked the film. (Actually I think its the fact that Sinister Cinema's print is dark and shadowy and very moody) The plot has a white magician getting involved with two warring brothers who are black magicians. Lon Chaney is one John Carradine is the the other.Its a strange film that has a rhyming opening intoned by Satan, a plot that wanders all over the place and plot holes that you could drive a rampaging demon through. Its not by any real normal sense a good film, but it has mood and a sense of place and a reality that is sort of bent, I liked it.I have no idea if anyone else will but its a dark tale that clicked with me.