Chamber of Horrors

source: Chamber of Horrors

Trailer—Chamber of Horrors

Chamber of Horrors

"Chamber of Horrors" is one those obscure movies, probably available only at Portland video/DVD store Movie Madness. It portrays serial killer Jason Cravette (Patrick O'Neal) on his way to jail when he has to cut off his hand to escape. So, he returns to Baltimore and resumes his murders. Yes, the plot is pretty routine, but this movie is unique. The star is Cesare Danova, better known as Mayor Carmine DePasto in "Animal House". Does that give the movie a feeling of silliness? Maybe, but the movie mostly feels very neat. Also, the judge is played by Vinton Hayworth, aka Gen. Schaeffer on "I Dream of Jeannie". So Bluto Blutarsky and Jeannie are linked by a hook-handed maniac! Go figure! But overall, this movie is a real treat. Fans of 1960s camp will surely love it. And it might just save your life one day... A murder mystery in Baltimore. I try to imagine if one or both of Baltimore's two famous sons (by whom I mean Barry Levinson and John Waters) had directed this movie. Hmmm...

One of those silly horror/comedy films from the sixties. It's fun but there is so much tongue in cheek that after a while the suspense goes away and it becomes dull. Cravette is a murderous psychopath who like young women, dead and alive. Wilfred Hyde-White is a writer of murder books who runs a wax museum, specializing in historical murders (and not so historical). It's OK but I just never got taken in by it.

I watched this film because it was a horror movie, in the same line as the original House of Wax. Adding to the intrigue was seeing a young Wayne Rogers perform, and seeing how Hollywood portrayed Baltimore in 1880. I have to admit, as a resident of Baltimore here in 2020, the city looked A LOT BETTER than it does now, and despite the lack of technology, was portrayed as A LOT SAFER than it is today. Well done flick for a B Movie. Too bad Baltimore went downhill so quickly after 1900.

Police inspectors in 1880s Baltimore seek the assistance of two "amateur" criminologists--who are about to open a wax museum devoted to history's most notorious murderers!--to track down an escaped killer who has a * for blondes. The maniac is eventually caught but escapes captivity, chopping off his own right hand in the process. Handsomely-produced and shot thriller from Warner Bros. was originally meant as the pilot for a proposed "House of Wax" TV series. The fright warning gimmicks at the beginning owe a small debt to William Castle, while the wax museum milieu owes a little extra to Vincent Price. The B-cast glides through it bemusedly, while the film's technical elements (from the costumes and music scoring to Richard Kline's cinematography) are top-notch. There's even a movie star cameo included for fun. ** from ****