I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Lack of good storyline.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I first read about the golem in a list of all the monsters from popular culture. The main ones were the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein (as well as title characters from 1950s sci-fi/horror flicks), but it included the golem, and listed the golem's origin as Prague. I later learned the story of the golem from a book about how a rabbi supposedly animated one to protect the Jews from pogroms in Central and Eastern Europe. A "Simpsons" Halloween episode even had a segment about a golem.Well, it should come as no surprise that there have been a couple of movies about golems. The first one that I've seen is the corny but enjoyable "It!". Roddy McDowall - with his name misspelled in the credits - plays an assistant to a museum curator in London. When they find a mysterious statue, the assistant realizes that he can animate it and make it obey him. But power has a price.Mostly a silly movie with one element ripped off from "Psycho", it's nonetheless fun. And damned if Jill Haworth isn't a babe! Basically, it's a nice way to spend an hour and a half. I suspect that they had fun making it.

Disturbed assistant curator McDowall and his boss Ernest Clark discover an unscathed stone statue while surveying almost complete fire destruction of one of their warehouses. Clark is killed while McDowell is running an errand and he suspects the statue of foul play. McDowell is frustrated that he is passed over for the promotion to the boss's job and that quintessential 60's beauty Jill Haworth doesn't return his affections. Following a death in the museum involving the statue, the decision is made to sell it to a New York museum. Enter Jim Perkins, an expert from the New York museum to assess the authenticity of the statue. He and Haworth are attracted and he believes the statue is genuine. McDowell investigates the statue himself and discovers the secrets to its power and how to control it. He uses it destructively to address his frustrations and then becomes conflicted about his use of it. This is a well-done and acted British production. As the story progresses, it gets a little silly. Perkins would not have been my first choice for his role as the chemistry between he and Haworth isn't believable. This is still recommended for those who enjoy a fairly well-made horror flick.

I have a feeling that I wasn't the only baby-boomer boy to fall in love with British actress Jill Haworth after seeing her, over 50 years ago, in her very first film, 1960's "Exodus." Then only 15 years old, Jill--via her sweet portrayal of Karen, a tragically fated Jewish immigrant to the new Israeli state--was certainly an actress to move hearts and garner attention. Over the next few years, that attention was mainly centered on her budding romance with "Exodus" costar Sal Mineo, and as the decade wore on and the '70s began, Jill gradually became enamored by those devotees of less mainstream, more "psychotronic" fare. Today, Jill is admired by those horror fans for her appearances in five films: the 10/14/63 episode of television's "The Outer Limits," the one entitled "The Sixth Finger" (an especially fine episode, by the way) and four middling, British theatrical films, "It!" (1967), "The Haunted House of Horror" ('69), "Horror on Snape Island" ('72) and "The Mutations" ('73). Although the last of these films has been available on DVD for some time, "Haunted House" and "Snape Island" only seem to be viewable via an occasional airing on TCM, and "It!," until recently, had never been available on home video. "It!" was the only horror picture of Jill's that I'd never seen, so it was with great pleasure that I learned of the Warner Bros. DVD release that pairs "It!" with another British horror film from 1967, "The Shuttered Room." Besides their common year of release, both films were creations of Seven Arts Productions and both feature a beautiful blonde actress in the lead role (Carol Lynley, in the case of "The Shuttered Room"). And sadly, both films feature rather disappointing endings, although the Lynley film is clearly the more artfully composed of the two.In "It!," we meet a rather odd assistant museum curator named Arthur Pimm (played by the great Roddy McDowall, one film away from "Planet of the Apes," and referred to by everyone as just "Pimm"). Pimm's sole existence seems to consist of coveting his boss' job at the museum (the film was partially shot at London's Imperial War Museum), lusting after his coworker Ellen (well, he's got good reason...she's played by our Jill!), and purloining jewelry from the museum to drape around the neck of his mother, with whom he shares an apartment. Oops...almost forgot to mention that Pimm's mother is dead, a corpse with a marked resemblance to "Psycho"'s Mrs. Bates, bunhead, shawl and all! Pimm's life markedly changes for the better, however, when the museum acquires a 3,000-lb. Czech statue that turns out to be no less a figure than the legendary Golem...the stone figure that is, according to myth, able to come to life and perform services for those who know how to animate it. And when Pimm discovers the mystical scroll that enables him to do so, he realizes that powers for vengeance and advancement--not to mention impressing the heck out of Ellen--are now within his grasp....Never rising above a mediocre level of entertainment, "It!" yet still reveals itself to be a film of modest pleasures. Roddy, of course, is simply marvelous, an actor in complete control of his every vocal inflection and facial nuance, and he almost makes his whacko character an object of audience sympathy. Jill is sweet and appealing, as usual, although she is given too little to do, while the film's various supporting players are uniformly fine. Director Herbert J. Leder, who had previously written the script for the miniclassic "Fiend Without a Face" (1958) and directed "The Frozen Dead" (1966), has brought this particular picture home in a fairly prosaic, unimaginative manner; a little more style might have helped some. The FX in the film range from good (the walking Golem) to poor (the sight of the Hammersmith Bridge that the Golem destroys at one point), and the picture gets progressively loopy as it draws nearer to its atomic ending. The film also sports some very bizarre touches, such as when Pimm hallucinates the naked Ellen in his bedroom one night, only to realize, to his horror, that he is actually seeing the corpse of his mother. Unfortunately, the film makes pretty much nothing of the fact that Pimm DOES live with his dead mother; this little tidbit has seemingly been added to the film to serve as a mere character quirk! I also could not figure out how the Golem managed to kill curator Grove and the museum electrician early on, it supposedly being a creation with no independent will until activated by Pimm and that scroll. Equally bewildering is the film's final reel, in which Pimm is said to have just stolen his mother's body from a mortuary (Wha? How'd she get THERE?) and kidnapped Ellen from her apartment (Huh? How did he accomplish this, and why were we not shown this key scene?). A decidedly mixed bag, "It!" is a film perhaps best watched with your favorite 8-year-old, or by Jill Haworth completists, such as myself. It is certainly pipsqueak stuff when compared to the 1973 Roddy film "The Legend of Hell House" (one of the real horror champs), but yet still makes for a modest evening's entertainment. Try it...you might like "It!"

Anyone who has every followed the rich full and popular life of actor Roddy McDowall, knows and understands that here was a very underrated individual. Praised by the high and mighty for his unflagging integrity as well as his immeasurable friendship, he played many parts, but was seldom seen as a heavy. This film is called " IT " and has him playing Arthur Pimm, a museum curator who discovers a strange and powerful statue. It's original intentions were benign at first, the statue does whatever he is ordered to do. Eventually however it's limitless abilities leads to self-aggrandizement and disaster. From petty theft to ultimate murder, Pimm eventually realizes that such power in the hands of even the most innocent individual can and does lead to corruption. Despite becoming delusional and diabolical, his character is seen as pathetic and obsessively two dimensional, yet Roddy makes him dependent and sympathetic. The film is not considered among McDowall's best, indeed it is still a milestone for his many fans. Much time has elapsed and today stands as a cult Classic. Easily recommended to all. ****