I'm kicking off this blog with yet another review of a film from the end of an era, in this case for Vincent Price's tenure as the master of 60s/70s horror at American International Pictures. In the wake of The Exorcist and Jaws, Hollywood was changing. The gothic period horrors of Hammer and the creature features of AIP were becoming less popular as Hollywood and audiences began to focus on horrors taking place in the modern world, in contemporary settings. And that's what makes this Amicus/AIP co-production so charming. It's one of the last of its kind. It feels like a film made in 1968, not 1974. Serving as a farewell to Price's career at AIP in a very meta way, the film has him as aging actor Paul Toomes, a parallel for Price himself who was at the end of the glory days of his prestigious horror career, after Madhouse he would go on to sporadic parts in some genre films (The Monster Club, House of the Long Shadows, Dead Heat), commercials (Cousins Subs, anyone?), and voice acting (The Great Mouse Detective).
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