Vincent Price vs The Critics (Theatre Of Blood (DVD))

Member Name: edie

Product:	Theatre Of Blood (DVD)
Date:	03/05/01 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nastily satisfying entertainment

Disadvantages: Uneven tone-neither truly horror or comedy

Theatre of Blood is blessed by an irresistible premise that I’m sure will be secretly related to by any actor who’s received a bad review. Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart a hammy, Shakespearean actor who after one insult too many enacts a bloody revenge on the critics who've slated him. He fakes his suicide but returns to murder them in methods derived from Shakespeare plays. One is knifed like Julius Caesar, one fried like Joan of Arc in Henry IV, and most memorably, another is fed poisonous (dog) pie like Titus Andronicus etc. on a delirious theatrical killing spree better summed up by the alternative title Much Ado about Murder.

With its violent sensationalism and garish camp, Theatre of Blood is still obviously part of the late 60s/70s English Hammer-esque horror school. Unlike those films it is distinguished by a spirited direction from Douglas Hickox and a superior cast who seem to be enjoying themselves including Robert Morley, Michael Horden, Corale Browne (Vincent's future wife), Dennis Price and Arthur Lowe as the critics, Diana Rigg as Lionheart's daughter/ assistant and Price himself in a career best performance. Lionheart was the apotheosis of the "madman on a revenge trip" characters that Price played in almost all his previous films (Dr Phibes, House of Wax, the Poe/ Corman films) and it was his last great role. Between them they manage to push the mediocre script beyond the limits of its genre.

The movie occasionally plays like a more light-hearted version of Seven, using literary quotes to justify the slaughter (they both share the Greed/ Merchant of Venice "pound of flesh" deaths). They also offer deeply ironic demises as each critic is killed in the way that exposes their personal foibles- an alcoholic is drowned in a vat of wine, a foul lady critic is given the witch’s traditional fiery demise. And like Seven, the murder set-pieces are the inventively nasty highlights of
the film.

Shakespeare purists might find Theatre of Blood an unpleasant degrading of his work. And it does satirically uncover the deeply violent tendencies in Shakespeare's work, showing that the high/ low division between the respectable playwright and common horror film like Theatre of Blood not as great as we (or the unfortunate critics) might think. But like its main character Theatre of Blood has a deep if twisted appreciation for the Bard. As with Shakespeare in Love (probably the only thing the two films have in common), it's best enjoyed if you have a knowledge of his plays.

The director also followed Shakespeare's example in making the bad guy the more interesting, complex character. The deliciously smug, superior performances of the critics almost makes you think they had it coming, and throws audience sympathies onto Lionheart. The movie also surprisingly includes a thoughtful consideration of the nature of theatre. Lionheart sees his murder spree as the greatest performance of his career and while disposing of his victims he adopts a variety of bizarre disguises from a gay hairdresser to a German masseuse and 70s swinger (all the while quoting Shakespeare) in an acting tour de force. And who can deny that Lionheart takes realism to a new level? Price is achingly sincere as the maligned thespian and as he started his career in such cinema classics as Laura, before getting stuck in shlock-horror hell he probably related to Lionheart's thwarted ambitions.

Theatre of Blood is not a movie without flaws, the script is overlong and repetitive towards the end exposing that this is basically a one joke movie. While too much screen time is given to the Ian Hendry's character, who's the nominal hero, even though he's just as irritating as the other Price-fodder critics. And typically for these kind of films, characters act in a way that’s totally unbelievable for no other reason than if they did
the sensible thing (ie. the police searching Lionheart’s old theatre for him) the story would be over in about 20 minutes.

Eventually Theatre of blood is more comedy horror than dramatic horror, something re-inforced by the presence of Milo O' Shea and Eric Sykes as the hapless coppers on Lionheart’s trail. Although the prolonged unpleasantness of the death scenes make the humour very, very dark indeed (the similar Dr Phibes managed the bad taste balancing act better). But like Phantom of the Opera and the more recent Hannibal, Theatre of Blood is Grand Guignol at its best. Despite its serious pretensions, the movie (like Lionheart and the theatre itself,) is best enjoyed if you leave disbelief at the door and embrace its glorious preposterousness .

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