Day 95: Theatre of Blood

My friend called this movie ambitious and he was pretty right to do so. Vincent Price stars as a washed up actor who has seemingly returned from beyond the grave to enact a series of gruesome murders on his former critics. Each murder is styled after a death from the works of Shakespeare. In that way, it reminded another friend of mine of Se7en. With all the themed murders, and the police seemingly helpless to stop them, can any of the critics of London survive?

Diana Rigg co-stars as Price's daughter in the movies most confusing aspect. The filmmaker seems to want us to wonder about Rigg's complicity in the crimes but she appears in a series of the worst disguises I have ever seen, obviously aiding her father. At the end, there is a big reveal that she was Price's right hand man all along but, unless you were hit in the head with a brick before viewing, you already knew that.

The movie is worth the cost of admission for Price's series of bizarre disguises alone. When we were approaching the Othello murder, I thought "uh-oh...blackface?" but they avoided that pitfall. Unfortunately, the next scene has Price portraying the ultimate swishy homosexual, a hairdresser named Butch with an afro...it...it was troubling. 

At any rate, the movie is filled with UK character actors, including Miles O'Shea who I know best as the doctor from Oz (the prison show, not the wonderful land of...). It is campy and cheesy, telegraphing most of the horror. It still manages a few chilling moments. I would say this is entertaining enough to watch but don't expect any real scares.