What's this about?

Lately, it seems like many of the movies/shows are just a rehash or reboot of things that have already been done. And so I started to dive into the past. It's been fun, but I find myself losing track of which ones I’ve seen and whether or not I enjoyed them. Sometimes the titles themselves just don't tell me enough to remember.

I wouldn’t have voluntarily watched a lot of these movies when I was younger. It’s strange how interests change. That goes for what I read, too. I have another blog that explores books. I’m mostly reading older fiction and memoirs, and some of the books have led me to movies/shows and vice versa. In those cases, I may post the book review over here as well.

There will be spoilers, which is different than my book reviews. That’s mostly because I want to have enough information to help me remember what I’ve seen. I’m getting older. The brain doesn’t cooperate like it used to. What can I say? The gray hairs are catching up with me!

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Theatre of Blood - 1973

I saw the title card for this while scrolling through Tubi and put it on. It's a Vincent Price horror movie. Diana Rigg is in it as well!

An actor is taking revenge on the critics who humiliated him at an awards ceremony. Edward Lionheart (Price) only ever played Shakespeare characters, and the critics weren't kind to him on any occasion. After the ceremony, he's seen falling into the river from a great height, and everyone thinks he's dead.

Now, these critics are being picked off one by one as Lionheart recreates the murders from the plays he was in that last season on the stage. He has the help of some street people and his daughter, but he also recites a lot of Shakespeare. He also has to alter one of the plays, because apparently The Merchant of Venice doesn't have any murder in it. Will all the critics die?

This movie cracked me up. I don't think it was supposed to, but it did. Everyone was so stupid. That included the police! They knew who the targets were after the second murder, and even if they didn't know who the murderer was at that time, they weren't able to prevent six more murders. That's just sad...At one point, the policeman was upstairs and didn't keep the woman in sight. Then she was frying downstairs, and the whole area was smoking up before he smelled anything? Sure.

Vincent Price cracked me up as well. He was overacting, which was one of the things he was criticized for, and it was glorious and tedious at the same time. I don't know much about Shakespeare, so I had no clue what was going on with the murders, but fortunately they explained them. The doggie pie was gross, but I could kind of see that one coming.

The end was glorious. I love how he was so determined to kill all the critics, but left the "most heinous" one in the chair so he could set the theater on fire. Then, he carts around his dead daughter and Spider-Man crawls with her up to the roof. Then he recites some more nonsense and falls into the fire. Amazing. I loved it, but Mom fell asleep. The movie cracked me up, but it was for all the wrong reasons.



on

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)