• Directed by: Peter Duffell
• Written by: Robert Bloch, Russ Jones
• Release Date: February 21, 1971
• 102 Minutes

     Taking an honestly shocking amount of four years to follow up Torture Garden, Robert Bloch returned for the third of the anthology films, this time with initial creator/editor of Creepy Comics Russ Jones. While Bloch had returned from Torture Garden, Freddie Francis, the director of the first two films, did not. He was unavailable at the time of production so instead Peter Duffell had been sought out to do the job instead.

Framing Story
    A film star vanishes from his home and the investigater is told numerous stories that cover the history of the mysterious house.
    I love the wrap around in this film. After two previously films of “Person gets a story about them, as a little treat”, it was satisfying to have a change of pace, and it was even more satisfying to get something as great as “this house is effed up, man, stay away.” It just gives the whole thing a neat little umbrella that makes them feel connected a bit more. Plus, who doesn’t love a good ol’ evil house?

Method For Murder

     A horror writer begins work on a new story involving a serial killer that he starts seeing in his day-to-day life.
     This story is the one that makes me sit around rubbing my chin and saying “hmm” the most from this film every time I watch it. Not in a bad way, since this is honestly some good stuff. The performances are great as is the atmosphere and all-around mystery here. Also, the direction and blocking here really stands out, with the eventual reveals of where the character of “Dominic” is being genuinely creepy (there’s a sequence in the study where the character vanishes from a chair and then reappears that always gets me).
     So why the chin rubbing? Well, the segment ends with some little extra peppering of a secondary twist. Not a bad thing, of course, except that the secondary twist is the type of thing that (outside of your own personal feelings on whether it works) makes me kind of wish this story was explored in a film, or even a 45-minute episode of a series.
     In this short, the secondary twist feels slightly unnecessary, though I know why it is here (comeuppance, baby!). But in a lengthier piece, the secondary twist would genuinely work to wonderfully rev up the ongoings into an exciting final quarter of a film. The segment, as is, is a great start to the film and the best possible choice to start the film with but it ends up making me wish there was more.

Waxworks

     Philip Grayson becomes fascinated with a wax museum near the house when he finds one of the sculptures, that of Salome, resembles a woman from his past that he had loved and died.
     The premise here is one that I find pretty interesting, with the idea of someone still in some ways (uh, lust…fully?) bringing individuals into their orbit even though they are dead. There could be a lot of fun to work with there. I also love Cushing and Ackland’s chemistry here, I could have probably watched them sit around a table chatting for a while, not to mention Wolfe Morris also does some great lifting as the off-kilter, wacky wax worker.
     Yet, as much as it works in theory and I enjoy the majority of it, the ending has always kind of bugged me. That last minute or so just really gets to me. I know that usually in these types of stories it’s one for all and yet, at the same time, a chunk of the shorts we have experienced mostly end up swinging towards people getting their just desserts a large percentage of the time. This segment ends up feeling like someone that ends up getting the victim end of things doesn’t necessarily deserve it, maybe? I just always end up finding the last minute or so of the story kind of leaving me with a blah taste in my mouth, but outside of that it does have quite a bit going for it. Enjoyable enough, with a trio of strong performances.

Sweets to the Sweet

     A woman is hired to be a tutor, and as she connects with the girl begins to suspect that her father may not be the greatest at parenting, but is there a reason?
     Hell yeah, Christopher Lee returns and he’s playing an absolute jackass to fantastic effect, exactly what we are always missing.      A wonderful story with a quiet and great slow build, Sweets to the Sweet is the best of the stories here. While I already tongue-in-cheekly gushed about Christopher Lee’s general greatness here, it’s Nyree Dawn Porter and Chloe Franks that really end up shining here, their chemistry a heartwarming one as Porter is a genuinely, caring individual trying to connect with a child in need of some, well, anything really. I love that there’s an ‘issue’ with the child to begin with, since she likes fire a little too much. I love how it plays into the ending. I love that it takes a while to lay out why things are the way they are here along with why Lee is the way he is. It raises a pretty decent talking point, in terms of how Lee treats his child based on her maternal side along with just generally being a jackass, and the fact he never tries to be nice to her.
     Slight spoilers? Conversation wise? I used to be a bit torn towards the end, wishing that it played things a little more ambiguous in terms of whether or not Jane can be considered evil. I felt like there would have been a bit more weight to the whole thing if they had the ending sans the creepy, knowing smile at the end that backed up the father’s claims towards her. But over time I have found myself looking at it differently, less as the (obviously intended) look of an evil child and more of one knowing someone got exactly what they deserved. At least that’s the way I decided to see it, either way it works. A great segment that should have ended the film.

The Cloak

     Paul Henderson, horror film actor, has a vampire role in a currently shooting film that he is unhappy with, so he purchases a cloak to add some more realism into his role, but it seems to work too well.
     I just realized that Method for Murder being the one that I said made me rub my chin and such was probably jumping the gun a bit too quickly.
     The Cloak. Yup. The Cloak. I have seen The House That Dripped Blood countless times now and I still cannot place my overall feelings for this. It has a straightforward, good build to go along with its intriguing premise, especially as Jon Pertwee slowly realizes what might be.
     The issue is, while these are usually always cheeky anyway, The Cloak ends up leaning pretty heavier into its overall campness more than the stories that it follows. It’s a ton of fun (though I’m not entirely sure how much the end reveal was meant to make you laugh but it wrecked me) and Pertwee is great here, but your mileage may vary. I think that, since the first 3 stories were a bit more serious in nature, it might have worked better elsewhere.

Finale
     I like the way that it ties into one of the stories from the film, it’s a neat touch. Someone talking at the audience doesn’t work as well here as it did for Torture Garden. Needs more manic Burgess Meredith. Everything needs more manic Burgess Meredith.

     Overall, a pretty good top-to-bottom film, with the final story being one that might just come down to personal preference. Not necessarily my favourite group of stories, but the steady quality makes it good.