Nonureva Really Surprised!

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

TarkovskyFanGirl Alternatively titled Horror Hotel, which is admittedly a more fitting title, seeing as the outdoor set that consists of no more than a few wooden facades (with spooky low-hanging fog) can hardly be seen as a city. Not sure if one influenced the other or not, but the setup is similar to Psycho (also 1960), where the main heroine disappears after the first half and people whom she knows search for her.It begins with a witch being burnt at the stake (the puritans with the hats sure look funny). The story is fairly predictable, with a fun villain played by Christopher Lee, who lures young women to be sacrificed on two occasions of the year. It's amazing his activity hasn't attracted much attention, since he seems to recruit the women from university classes held in his swanky room with a plethora of interesting artifacts related to witchcraft or tribal superstitions and loads of expensive alcoholic beverages (nice advertising shot for afficionados). His success as a lecturer hinges on getting his students hammered, obviously (really bad pun). Seems weird for such a little town to have two university girls disappear each year... and somehow related to Lee's character... You know you're going to a good place when it's always night time and the fog is unrelenting, and some weird guy named Jethro (looks and sounds like a serial killer) hitches a ride with two different young women and disappears before even opening the door, then you're given obvious red flags by a servant woman who has a speech impediment, a crazy, old blind man, and the mean horse-faced villainess. The often film noir-esque lighting is the highlight of the film. Sufficiently spooky with rich, high contrast blacks and whites-many of the interiors are well-lit, though not draped in darkness--but the inn in particular has deep pools of blackness, many practical lights strewn about the frame--such as a burning fireplace and lamps--and a heavily flickering light from above that appears to be simulating a torch. Really excellent example of horror film lighting here. Even the stereotypical horror set really looks quite nice, though a softer, grainier image and maybe a bit less low-hanging fog might have made it look more convincing (but, frankly, the obviously fake graveyard is great), but that's just a minor quibble. Art direction and score are also decent for a b-horror film (the chants remind me a bit of The Wicker Man).One of the more interesting parts is probably how they perfectly mirror the walking scene of both Nan and Richard. The denizens all stop at the exact same locations to watch both the hero and heroine--even the camera work appears to be the same, if not roughly the same. Definitely gives the impressions that those who inhabit the town are long dead and have repeated the same process since 1692. Though I'm rating it a 4, I did enjoy the film, and I'd recommend it to those looking for a decent B&W supernatural b-movie horror.

Tweekums Student Nan Barlow is fascinated by the lectures given by Professor Alan Driscoll on the subject of witchcraft in seventeenth century New England and tells him of her intention to spend a fortnight investigating the subject in the area. He suggests that she goes to the town of Whitewood in Massachusetts and stay at the Raven's Nest Hotel. She heads there and finds a particularly spooky town with constant swirling mists and strange locals. She explores and is warned to leave by the vicar. After that she goes to a shop run by the vicar's granddaughter, Patricia, and borrows a book. It tells of witchcraft and devil worship in the area… particularly of interest is the story of Elizabeth Selwyn who was burnt in the site of the hotel in 1692. Talk of what happens next would spoil one's enjoyment of the film!This may be a low budget film from almost sixty years ago but it is still surprisingly creepy. It contains some good twists; including one genuinely shocking one. The town is very atmospheric… a fair portion of the budget must have gone on all the dry ice used to make the fog! There are some scary moments and a few violent moments… they may be tame by the standards of modern horror but are still effective. The cast is solid; Christopher Lee puts in an impressive performance as Professor Driscoll. The other, less well known cast members are good too; most notably Venetia Stevenson as Nan; Dennis Lotis, as her brother Richard and Betta St. John as Patricia. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of classic horror.

Wuchak RELEASED IN 1960 and directed by John Moxey, "The City of the Dead" (aka "Horror Hotel") takes place in Massachusetts when a curious college gal (Venetia Stevenson) vacations in the remote village of Whitewood to investigate its infamous roots in witchcraft/satanism. When she doesn't return her brother (Dennis Lotis) and her boyfriend (Tom Naylor) come to find out what happened. Christopher Lee plays her solemn professor while Patricia Jessel appears as the town's hotel proprietor. Betta St. John plays the the only normal person in the strange hamlet.The movie was released in the UK at the same time as Hitchcock's "Psycho," but this one went into production six weeks earlier. I point this out because they share a plot similarity that was groundbreaking at the time (which I'm not going to give away). The film appears set bound, but it doesn't really matter since it was shot in B&W. Regardless, there's an effective spooky ambiance with fog galore. The intelligent and winsome Venetia Stevenson shines as the principal protagonist. WATCH OUT for her surprising "Whoa, Mama!" scene (surprising for 1959, when the film was concocted).FYI: The film was not released in the USA until two years later (1962), albeit with the name "Horror Hotel." Important dialogue bits from the opening burning-at-the-stake sequence were censored from the American version, which was the version I viewed. Key scenes were used in the Iron Maiden video for their song "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" (1990).THE MOVIE RUNS 78 minutes and was shot at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, England. WRITERS: George Baxt (screenplay) & Milton Subotsky (story).GRADE: B+

Roman James Hoffman 'City of the Dead' (US: 'Horror Hotel') is one of those cult classic horrors that you blearily stumble across in the late night TV schedules, promptly get sucked into, and which the next day you find none of your friends has heard of let alone watched and consequently has you wondering if it wasn't all just a vivid dream. A good part of this lingering feeling no doubt comes from the stifling atmosphere of gloom which the film positively oozes thanks to the fog-soaked contained soundstage sets shot in stark black and white and the presence of the ever foreboding Christopher Lee. In the movie Lee (famous for clocking in the most amount of screen representations of Count Dracula) plays Professor Driscoll, an American demonologist who is encouraged by the interest one of his students, Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevens), has shown in the legend of the 17th Century witch Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel), who was burned at the stake in Whitewood, Massachusetts in 1692, and advises her to visit the town to conduct first-hand research. She arrives and promptly disappears after checking into the Raven's Inn, a local hotel owned by Mrs. Newless, a woman who (unbeknownst to Nan) bears an uncanny resemblance to the Elizabeth Selwyn of lore. Following Nan's disappearance, concerned friends and family trace her to the town and in seeking to discover her whereabouts uncover the occult secrets of the town.The "town cursed by a witch consumed with flames" story comes from the pen of Milton Subotsky (who would later go onto to found Amicus productions which would go toe-to-toe with Hammer Films in the classic British Horror sweepstakes) and unfortunately suffers from having been done-to-death (no pun intended) since, well, the Sixties. Indeed, maybe the film has suffered from a similarity to Mario Bava's classic 'Black Sunday' which was released the same year, has many of the same plot contrivances, and was even also filmed in black and white. This is a shame as while 'Black Sunday' has taken more than its fair share of praise since its release, 'City of the Dead' certainly deserves much more recognition than it has received as the film carries its story along well and maintains suspense throughout with a tight script, good performances, and manages to hit the kind of creepy New England Gothic atmosphere that H. P. Lovecraft was so fond of right on the mark. So while the movie may be dated and lack the ability to scare, if watched alone at night it creates such a vivid atmosphere that you shouldn't be surprised if Black-robed figures appear in your dreams that night. So mote it be.