Truly Dreadful Film

Dreadfully Boring

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 one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

People sometimes complain that horror movies nowadays lack originality, and that most of them are uninspired and blatant imitations of just a few half-decent films. Well, that may be correct, but it's definitely not a phenomenon that only popped up now. Shameless rip-offs always existed, and here's an example of the late 50s/early 60s to prove it! Sidney J. Furie's "Dr. Blood's Coffin" clearly got made to cash in on the tremendous success of Hammer Studio's first real horror production; - "The Curse of Frankenstein". It must be said that, in spite of the obvious budget restrictions, "Dr. Blood's Coffin" is a grisly little flick with reasonably gruesome make-up effects and quite a bit of violence. On the other hand, "The Curse of Frankenstein" was gruesome as well and, unlike "Dr. Blood's Coffin", it also had a solid screenplay, terrific scenery, great acting and a continuously tense atmosphere. Furie's film is rather incompetent and overall boring, to be honest. The film opens with a feeble attempt to keep the identity of the mad doctor secret, but after ten minutes or so, they realize that idea was just dumb and unfeasible. Dr. Blood Jr. (with a name like that, you're just destined to make a career in mad science) gets kicked out of the medical university in Vienna for conducting unorthodox experiments on deceased patients, although he personally prefers to think of them as revolutionary and courageous. He returns to his hometown in Cornwall, where he settles at his father's small doctor's practice and flirts with the widowed nurse. His main objective naturally remains to complete his research, and thus Peter Blood paralyzes unsuspecting villagers with curare and subsequently drags them to an improvised laboratory in an abandoned mineshaft. Personally, I don't think it's very smart to kidnap people in a town with a population of barely 50 people and I also don't really see the added value of killing people only to revive them via primitive heart transplants. But hey, the idea is sick enough for a horror film and there are filthy make-up effects, especially during the utterly grotesque climax with a revived zombie husband! The rest of the film is unfortunately dull and endlessly repetitive. One of Blood's victims escapes, for example, and the poor sucker spends the next fifteen minutes crawling over the ground. Dr. Blood himself whines so much about his cowardly fellow scientists that he forgets to seduce the nurse! "Dr. Blood's Coffin" is passable Brit-horror from the early sixties, only worth seeking out in case you already watched all the much more superior Hammer, Amicus and Tigon productions from the same era/decade.

Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961) ** 1/2 (out of 4) British horror film about a doctor (Kieron Moore) who is kicked out of his academy after wanting to do experiments on the dead. He goes back to his hometown where he begins working with his father but also killing so that he can work on the experiment of bringing the dead back to life. There are a few nice elements to this film but in the end you can't help but be somewhat disappointed. Like many British productions this one here has the unfortunate problem of being way too talky. I'm really not an expert on British horror, outside seeing hundreds of the films, but I've always been curious as to why many of them felt the need to add endless dialogue scenes and quite often one right after the other. This film goes a bit further and has various scenes repeated for no good reason at all and in the end we've probably got 15-minutes worth of stuff that could have been taken out and it wouldn't have impacted the story at all. We get countless scenes of the doctor explaining that other doctors are scared to take chances. We get countless scenes of the doctor trying to be romantic with the nurse (Hazel Court) working in his father's office. Outside the boring dialogue we've got a rather interesting movie. I thought the performances were a major plus with Moore doing a good job at being "civil" enough to have us believe him as a doctor and also eerie enough for us to believe he's crazy. I thought he did a good job playing the crazy bit and was effective doing it. Court is good in her role as well even though she doesn't have much to do except tell Moore how crazy he is. The supporting players are better than you'd expect even though none of them really jumps out at you. Director Furie does a nice job at building up the atmosphere and I thought the small town setting was a good one and that he did a very good job at bringing it out. The mine sequences are a bit too dark for their own good but they too contain some nice atmosphere. The ending is when things really start to pick up with the monster finally appearing and it was pretty much worth the wait. The monster looks extremely good, which is a plus. I think the police here are incredibly stupid because it's obvious who's doing all the killing but with that said, once you get past all the dialogue you're left with a mildly entertaining horror film.

Doctor Blood's Coffin is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, Ian Hunter, Kenneth J. Warren, Gerald Lawson, Fred Johnson, Paul Hardtmuth, Paul Stockman, Andy Alston, John Romane, and Ruth Lee. The acting by all of these actors is very good. The thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, Ian Hunter, Kenneth J. Warren, Gerald Lawson, Fred Johnson, Paul Hardtmuth, the rest of the cast in the film, Horror, Thrillers, Dramas, and interesting classic films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today! Movie Nuttball's NOTE: I got this film on a special DVD that has Doctor Blood's Coffin, The Brainiac, and The Fury of the Wolfman from Vintage Home Entertainment! See if you can find this winner with three bizarre but classic films on one DVD at Amazon.com today!

(Some Spoilers) Thrown out of the prestigious Vienna Medical Academy for his illegal experiments Dr. Peter Blood, Kieron Moore,is now back home in the lovely and scenic coastal town of Port Carron England to continue his work undercover and underground. Using his fathers position as the town doctor Robert Blood, Ian Hunter Peter builds a laboratory in the deserted coal mines outside the town to do his business undisturbed. While vacationing in the South American jungles Peter discovered the drug Curare from the local native tribesmen and has been using it in his experiments in his theory of eternal life. A brilliant but arrogant student Peter felt that he's smarter then all the professors and teachers in the academy put together. Which lead to him being run out of town, Vienna, on a rail. Still not learning his lesson Peter is back on the road to destruction with him kidnapping people in and around town and after knocking them out working them over, in his secret lab,by taking organs out of one and putting them in another to keep the one receiving the organ going until he needs a new transplant. Looking and acting normal on the outside the tall dark and handsome Peter attracts, his fathers Dr. Robert Blood's assistant, pretty nurse and recent widow Lnda Parker, Hazel Court,who at first falls in love with him. Peter putting on an act that he's in love with Linda takes her to his secret lab in the coal mines to, what seems to me, knock her out put her under the paralyzing drug Curare. Peter then use her in his experiments of involuntary organ donations. Lucky for Linda Peter's mad scheme is interrupted by the local town hobo Tregaye, Fred Johnson, who unknowingly to himself, and Linda, saved her life by popping up just at the right time. Actually the brilliant Peter didn't come across that smart at all in the movie with all his experiments falling flat on their faces. All of Peter's victims from mine inspector George Beale, Andy Alston, to the local town undertaker old man Morton, Gerald Lawson, to the before-mentioned hobo Tregaye didn't produce the results that he hoped for. In the end Peter ended up being the victim of one of his experiments that went very wrong for him but just right for the town and people of Port Carron. That experiment finally put and end to his insane actions once in for all.