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Review

During the gradual collapse of the British horror genre during the seventies there existed a small clutch of independent filmmaker’s whom while insufficiently acknowledged continued to make interesting additions to the genre while Hammer, its pioneers, continued to serve up the tired and formulaic.

Arguably the foremost and certainly the most knowingly idiosyncratic of these filmmakers would have to be the much respected Pete Walker, who with a series of latter day. Low budget shockers would push back the boundaries for British genre cinema. While typical Walker fare such as The House Of Whipcord and Frightmare (both 1974) were highly worthy, acerbic and often shocking efforts which remain firm favourites with genre buffs, times were changing and a waning marketplace was making it increasingly hard for low budget horror films to find financing and distribution. Discouraged by this changing climate Walker, following the failure of his later efforts such as Schizo (1976) and The Comeback (1978) to gain much attention, opted to retire from the film industry.

Five years later, despite having forged a profitable career in property, Walker was briefly lured back into horror when infamous Cannon producers Golan and Globus came knocking on his door looking for him to formulate and direct a vehicle for the jaw-dropping line up of Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and John Carradine. Walker settled upon utilising this showcase of legends in a Michael Armstrong screenplay based around Earl Derr Biggers classic novel Seven Keys To Baldpate that would be entitled House Of The Long Shadows. The film would prove to be a deliberate, stubbornly old-fashioned effort – a mystery chiller done in the typically creaky Old Dark House style. The stellar cast and skilful emulation of the vintage style have made House Of The Long Shadows somewhat of a minor favourite in horror circles but, needless to say, this was all incredibly outdated stuff for 1983 and proved to be a predictable flop upon its original release.

The plot of House Of The Long Shadows follows cocky, successful American novelist Kenneth Magee (Arnaz) who, whilst visiting Britain on a publicity tour, enters into a foolhardy $20,000 bet with his publisher Sam Allyson (Todd). Mocking what he perceives as the unrealistic, overwrought style of classic novels such as Wuthering Heights, Magee wagers that given the chance he could write a comparable novel in the space of just 24 hours, Allyson promptly takes him up on his bet. In order to grant Magee the necessary solitude and atmosphere, Allyson arranges for Magee to spend his allotted 24 hours at Baldpate Manor – an old mansion located in a remote region of the Welsh Countryside, which has lay derelict since 1939.

Upon his arrival Magee is dumbfounded to find the eerie old manor a hive of activity as two sinister caretakers (Carradine and Walker regular Sheila Keith), Allyson’s comely secretary Mart Morton (Peasgood) and an odd, shelter seeking stranger (Cushing) all appear unexpectedly, disrupting his planned solitude. When the sinister Lionel Grisbane (Price) arrives it is revealed that he along with fellow cohorts Cushing, Carradine and Keith are really not servants/lost strangers at all but in fact the infamous Grisbane family who once sway at Baldpate for over 300 years until being forced out prior to the war. When Baldpate’s prospective new owner Mr Corrigan (Lee) arrives a little later it goes without saying that he is more than a little put out by the unexpected mass intrusion.

For Magee, Norton and Corrigan disquiet turns into full blown horror when they leran that some forty years earlier the Grisbane’s locked up their deranged, murderous brother Roderick in Baldpate’s attic room. He has remained imprisoned in the attic ever since and it is with terror that the true intention behind the Grisbane’s sudden return is to finally free Roderick from his attic prison.

By 1983 much had changed since the heyday of the creaky, stagy old chillers House Of The Long Shadows tries to emulate. It was unbelievably almost a decade already since Tobe Hooper’s seminal The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) had ushered in the new era of graphic, full-blooded horror, the once mighty but suddenly outdated Hammer had been driven to their grave following a brief flirtation with television and going back to America, the commercial phenomenon of Halloween (1978) and Friday The 13th (1980) had ushered in the long reign of contemporary slasher film. In this sort of climate irt beggars belief anyone could ever have envisaged House Of The Long Shadows having any shout at commercial or popular success. The Old Dark House chiller format had only been out of date for nearly three decades meaning that despite its terrific ensemble and semi-satirical tone House Of The Long Shadows was 100% reliant on the nostalgia card as there was simply no market for such a film in 1983.

This is not to say though that House Of The Long Shadows is in any sense a bad film. On the contrary, viewed now in retrospect it is a highly enjoyable and involving old-fashioned exercise in the gleefully macabre directed with a playful sense of wry, understated self-parody.

The cinematic world in which Walker was usually comfortable was typically that of a bland, grounded suburbia in which he would sweep away the curtains to unveil the depraved and horrific underbelly that existed under the bland façade of normality. Essentially Walker’s seventies horror and exploitation pictures were the polar opposite of traditionalist horror – grisly, low-budget urban parables characterised by an unremittingly grim and fatalistic tone. It is therefore a pleasant surprise that with House Of The Long Shadows Walker captures the requisite atmospherics of the traditionalist chiller so impeccably. The obligatory scenes of protagonists trudging apprehensively down darkened passageways are executed with a palpable atmosphere of spooky menace and appropriately dim, gloomy, cobwebbed chambers are utilised to fine effect. The distinct air of self parody is also well done, amusing but done with enough restraint to maintain the integrity of the films status as a horror picture. The clichéd exchanges between protagonists are knowingly tongue-in-cheek and Walker achieves several inspired, theatrically OTT coup’s of which Price’s show stopping grand entrance (“I have returned!”) is easily the standout.

It goes without saying that the cast of wonderful, old horror stars all give faultless performances. Price, by far the standout, is a delight, carving up some fine ham while still holding the viewers attention in a vicelike grip as only he ever could. Carradine makes for a grimly commanding presence, Cushing plainly has fun playing against his usual type as a stammering alcoholic and Lee, whilst saddled with by far the least colourful role of the four golden oldies, is as reliable as ever. Elsewhere Walker regular Sheila Keith (cinema’s definitive Granny From Hell) is well cast and although the scenario of an American protagonist presented as a fish out of water is a tired and overused cliché in British horror cinema, Desi Arnez makes for a personable, likeable male lead whose wry, laconic cynicism brings a welcome edge to the picture.

Although I personally felt it to be a masterstroke, some viewers may find themselves put out by the eventual twist ending, which ultimately confirms ones suspicions that House Of The Long Shadows, despite its macabre overtures, is essentially a pastiche at heart. Nonetheless it is an unavoidable this does not alter the fact that the ending (out of sort with Walker’s usual horrific, downbeat denouements) really does tend to negate everything that has gone before it, which may prove a trifle frustrating for some especially considering that Michael Armstrong’s script has already thrown several wild plot twists at the viewer throughout the films running length.

House Of The Long Shadows would prove the end of the line for Walker who would return once more to his property dealings following the films commercial failure. He can however take some solace hopefully from the knowledge that with House Of The Long Shadows he has fashioned a film that while dreadfully out of touch with viewer demands for its time, emerges as far more than a mere vehicle for its stellar cast. Indeed House Of The Long Shadows is a veritable treat for anyone with a love for the age of the classic British chiller where floorboards squeak and something nasty resides in the attic. It would not at all be folly to say that had it been made in 1953 or even 1963 as opposed to 1983 this film would be looked upon as one of the revered, classic examples of its type. As it stands though House Of The Long Shadows, for the time being, must remain a much underappreciated delight – a creepy, stylish and often warm, amusing homage cum parody to the vintage horror pictures of yore, unfortunate to have been released at a time when nobody was buying what it had to offer.

Also Try: The Old Dark House (1932 Version) / What A Carve Up! / The Haunting (1963 Version) / Frightmare / The House Of Whipcord / Bloodbath At The House Of Death.

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Piczo