I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Brilliant and touching

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is a minor horror film with a superior cast but uninspired scripting and directing. It's certainly enjoyable enough, but this viewer wouldn't consider it classic. The actors are better than the material (which is apparently inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House"). Mark Eden stars as Robert Manning, an antiques dealer whose brother has gone missing. So he tracks him down to the last place he was supposed to have visited: the Craxted Lodge. Robert discovers a predictably strange community where the people pay tribute to a figure from their history: the witch Lavinia (a green skinned Barbara Steele). Robert does some sleuthing while meeting locals played by the likes of Sir Christopher Lee (as Morley, the lodge operator) and Boris Karloff (as witchcraft expert Professor Marsh).The ingredients are there for a decent horror feature: sets, special effects, atmosphere, entertaining characters. There's also some brief nudity (supplied by beautiful blonde Virginia Wetherell, who plays Morley's niece Eve) and little flashes of gore. In the tradition of old black & white shockers, there's a secret passage as part of the fun. Hypnotism is also one of the elements. Eden is likable, but the lovely Ms. Steele is mostly wasted; she's not required to do much. Michael Gough has his moments as the perpetually harried lodge employee Elder. Rupert Davies has a fine cameo as a helpful vicar. As always, Sir Christopher is elegant and dapper and has a commanding presence. It is a treat to see him sharing scenes with Boris (this was the last film Karloff made that played theatres during his lifetime), who enriches the film with his appearances.Not helping matters is the fact that the story is overly predictable, and that the ending is rather underwhelming. While admirers of the actors and lovers of the genre may find this well worth watching for completion's sake, it's not really essential viewing.Six out of 10.

Curse of the Crimson Altar is directed by Vernon Sewell and co- written by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. It stars Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Mark Eden, Barbara Steele and Michael Gough. Music is scored by Peter Knight and cinematography by John Coquillon. Plot sees Eden as Robert Manning, who travels to the village of Greymarsh in search of his missing brother. What he finds, however, is a village of secrets..."..and drugs of this group can produce the most complex hallucinations and under their influence it is possible by hypnosis to induce the subject to perform actions he would not normally commit" (extract from medical journal)Hmm, so begins Curse of the Crimson Altar (AKA: The Crimson Cult), maybe in an attempt to capture the drug taking hippie culture of the late 1970s? What transpires is a rather dull devil-worship movie that wastes the actors on show whilst also trying to expand an hours worth of film into an hour and half. I really think that to enjoy this picture you need to yourself enter a drug induced altered state.More often than not many a horror fan can forgive illogical narratives and cheaply constructed sets and costumes, but normally there is a good vibe to the production, or some visual pleasures elsewhere. Helps, too, if the picture has a strong mystery element to it. Sadly, away from the genre legend actors on show, Sewell's movie has nothing to make one forgive it its flaws.The dream sequences induce smiles instead of chills as the underused Steele turns up in green paint, there's lots of filler scenes that never amount to much and the finale is very weak. Throw in a schizophrenic music score that lurches from harp to low bass and then to organ, without marrying up to the scenes, and it's barely worth the time spent watching the damn thing.Karloff at 82 is the best thing in it, in a wheelchair he puts his awesome voice to good use and gets to be part of the film's best passages of dialogue. Lee is on professional auto-pilot and Gough works real hard to make a routine butler character shifty and interesting. All in all quite frankly it's bitter disappointment and tough to recommend to anyone other than drug addled hippies. 4/10

I'm neither old enough to have seen this sort of horror at the time (barely born, in fact) nor a real horror fan, but this came up late on BBC2.The opening scene is nicely weird enough, with various symbols of witchcraft, with various symbols in sorts of colourful panto vignettes and then soon settles into normal life, old cars, Britishness and all that.Looking for his disappeared brother, Robert Manning (a fairly ordinary, nice Mark Eden) drives off to this lodge, from where his brother's last letter was addressed from. On the way up, he is told that the village in question is holding an anniversary witchcraft celebration and finds cars of men chasing a girl running through the woods.Reaching the Lodge, the owner, one J D Morley (Peter Cushing, no less) naturally denies any knowledge but offers him a room for the night. As one (naturally) does, in a big, strange old house, where there was a party that involved painting young lady's breasts (and similar!), Manning accepts. A joke with one young seductress about 'the sort of old house from the movies, where Boris Karloff appears' is nicely tongue-in- cheek, as the other big star here, is indeed, Karloff himself.He plays a wheelchair-bound professor, who's hobby is collecting instruments of torture. And, of course there's a dodgy chauffeur who goes around shooting at things in the woods (including 'our' man) and who so happens to be mute and an even stranger caretaker. Them there's loads of kaleidoscopic hallucinatory nightmares, with electronically distorted sound FX that our Robert suffers, which are interesting, at least. Then he toddles off, sleepwalking down to the local graveyard.It's all hoary nonsense, of course, but whilst a bit dated, there's enough interesting characters played by interesting - and/or sexy people, if you get my drift, for the film to remain entertaining and enjoyable.I'd give the actual film 5/10 for its real merit and maybe 7 for the other, entertainment aspects, as I've outlined. I don't think many fans of this genre would be too disappointed either and for them it's definitely worth checking out.

Boris Karloff was a wonderful actor and amazing guy--especially since he kept appearing in films well after death! If you check IMDb, you'll see three films that all came out AFTER he died in February, 1969. This film, while released in the UK in 1968 was released in the US in 1970--making it a fourth post-mortem film Karloff made! Much of the reason for this is that late in life the man made a ton of "guest appearances" in cheesy horror films, since he was a big name and apparently would work for little money. A few of these late appearances, like TARGETS, were exceptional films and many, like CHILDREN OF BLOOD, were cheap Mexican productions that should have embarrassed Karloff. I can only assume he really, really needed the money as he was confined to a wheelchair for many of these films--though he could walk about a bit if needed.CRIMSON ALTAR is a post-death film that falls between the bad ones and the exceptional ones. It has the benefit of good supporting acting from Christopher Lee but isn't as original or cool as TARGETS (a very under-appreciated classic) but is a genuinely chilling and interesting tale about witchcraft.The film begins with a witch trial back in the good old days. After the witch is roasted to a crackly perfection, the scene switches to the present time. A man is concerned because his brother was visiting a town (the same one that held this witch trial) and has disappeared, so he goes there in search of clues. And, naturally, given the cast, it isn't surprising when it turns out that there is a cult that worships this dead witch and they are responsible for the brother's disappearance.The film has many red herrings--false leads and twists. Many of them are very good, though the end almost seemed like it was concocted at the last minute. Still, there were enough chills and excitement to merit watching this film--particularly if you are a fan of Karloff or Lee.By the way, get a look at the guy with antlers and a leather thong, the goat-man as well as the sexy green witch! You just have to see them--trust me.