Theatre Of Blood

THEATRE OF BLOOD (15)

D: Douglas Hickox

United Artists/Harbour/Cineman (John Kohn & Stanley Mann)

UK 1973

104 mins

Horror

W: Anthony Greville-Bell

DP: Wolfgang Suschitzky

Ed: Malcolm Cooke

Mus: Michael J. Lewis

Vincent Price (Edward Lionheart), Diana Rigg (Edwina Lionheart), Ian Hendry (Peregrine Devlin), Harry Andrews (Trevor Dickman), Robert Coote (Oliver Harding), Michael Hordern (George Maxwell)

Vincent Price practically chews up the scenery with his campiest and possibly career-best performance in this marvellously Machiavellian horror-thriller, in which he plays a theatrical actor who gets revenge on the critics who he deems to have ruined his career by not bestowing him with an illustrious award.

The revenge death scenes are rich in poetic irony and all have a reference to Shakespearean works, some a little more obvious than others.

Price is excellent, as is Diana Rigg as his equally crazed daughter, an aspiring actress in her own right.

It's as funny as it is terrifying, if you have a wicked sense of humour, that is.

7/10