*** POSSIBLE PLOT SPOILERS ***
After a short prologue featuring an African tribal sacrifice, the story begins in England with Vincent Price as Sir Julian Markham, looking after his disfigured brother, Edward.
Edward is a chained up madman, the film using similar ideas to 'The Ghoul' (1975), which also had the story element of colonialism bringing its darker elements back to the English shore. After various rather confusing plot twists Edward ends up buried alive, then exhumed by body snatchers and waking to find himself in the house of Christopher Lee's Dr Neuhart.
Based, somewhat sketchily, on an Edgar Allan Poe story, the film retains a dark mood throughout and uses it's period setting effectively. There were numerous production problems though, principally director Michael Reeves who died during filming, to be replaced by Gordon Hessler. This, combined with a script which went through rewrites, results in a disjointed and frustrating effort.
Film has a multitude of themes and characters, which tend to trip over each other but always maintain interest - as well as the colonial element, premature burial and body-snatching, we also have a Jack the Ripper-like hooded throat-slashing killer, a family curse, an evil Doctor, a buxom maid and a splendid Hammer-inspired pub/brothel scene with groping hordes of lecherous men pawing at a multitude of drunken wenches.
Despite the plot devices which avid horror fans will appreciate, 'The Oblong Box' is flawed, has continuity problems, and will offer little worthwhile for the average film fan. Christopher Lee and Vincent Price put little meat on either of their roles, both coming across as bored and going through the motions. The scarlet hood worn by the villain is more comic than scary and the climatic revealing of his features is feeble.
Taking into account the troubled production, the film just manages to promote itself into the category of worth watching - more out of interest than entertainment though.
After a short prologue featuring an African tribal sacrifice, the story begins in England with Vincent Price as Sir Julian Markham, looking after his disfigured brother, Edward.
Edward is a chained up madman, the film using similar ideas to 'The Ghoul' (1975), which also had the story element of colonialism bringing its darker elements back to the English shore. After various rather confusing plot twists Edward ends up buried alive, then exhumed by body snatchers and waking to find himself in the house of Christopher Lee's Dr Neuhart.
Based, somewhat sketchily, on an Edgar Allan Poe story, the film retains a dark mood throughout and uses it's period setting effectively. There were numerous production problems though, principally director Michael Reeves who died during filming, to be replaced by Gordon Hessler. This, combined with a script which went through rewrites, results in a disjointed and frustrating effort.
Film has a multitude of themes and characters, which tend to trip over each other but always maintain interest - as well as the colonial element, premature burial and body-snatching, we also have a Jack the Ripper-like hooded throat-slashing killer, a family curse, an evil Doctor, a buxom maid and a splendid Hammer-inspired pub/brothel scene with groping hordes of lecherous men pawing at a multitude of drunken wenches.
Despite the plot devices which avid horror fans will appreciate, 'The Oblong Box' is flawed, has continuity problems, and will offer little worthwhile for the average film fan. Christopher Lee and Vincent Price put little meat on either of their roles, both coming across as bored and going through the motions. The scarlet hood worn by the villain is more comic than scary and the climatic revealing of his features is feeble.
Taking into account the troubled production, the film just manages to promote itself into the category of worth watching - more out of interest than entertainment though.