A
young coed named Nan Barlow (Venetia
Stevenson) does a research for her paper
on witchcraft in New England as centuries
ago a woman named Elizabeth Selwyn
(Patricia Jessel) was burned at the stake
for being a witch and Elizabeth wants to
do some studies on her.
Her professor named Alan Driscoll
(Christopher Lee) tells her there;s a
village known as Whitewood where she can
spend her time finding out about Sewlyn
and there's a hotel there called the
Raven's Inn run by a Mrs. Newliss
While on the way she picks up a strange
man named Jethrow Keane (Valentine Dyall)
who is going there as well but suddenly
when she arrives he has suddenly
disappeared.
Also the locals stare at her mysteriously
and a blind reverend named Russell
(Norman Macowan) tries to ward her off
and tells her that there's danger from
where she is but she doesn't listen to
his warnings.
Suddenly while she stays at the hotel she
is marked for a sacrifice for a bunch of
undead witches and the innkeeper happens
to be Elizabeth herself who hasn't aged
at all since her sacrifice as her partner
that happened to be Jethrow asked Lucifer
to save her while she was burned at the
stake and her guests at the inn are her
other wtiches doing her evil deeds.
After Nan's disappearance, Russell's
granddaughter named Patricia (Betta St.
John) pays a visit to Nan's skeptical
brother Richard Barlow (Dennis Lotis) as
well as her boyfriend Bill Maitland (Tom
Naylor) as they decide to trace Nan down
to where she went but she realises that
she is in great danger as the witches
need to sacrifice another woman as well
on February the 1st for the Candleman
Eve.
This is one of the
most original horror films I've ever scne
and the best B&W film during that
decade if I do say so myself as it had
great setttings with mist rolling around
at the outdoors making the story
terrifically dark and gloomy.
The film still looks creepy and stands
out to this day!
Shock rocker King Diamond used alot of
clips from this movie for his video
"Sleepless Nights" which worked
wonderfully and the film is exciting each
minute too while watching it. Very
influential and inspiring too about
immortal witches with demonic powers.
The acting is
excellent for a film of it's time as it
still stands out to this day.
Christopher Lee portrayed a nice
evil professor in the film as he is the
key role to this story and doesn't let us
down with his performance.
Patricia Jessel was phenomenal with
her role as the witch in the film as well
as disguising herself as a hotel keeper
proving that she is versatile in her role
by being outrageously evil and silently
wicked at the same time.
Venetia Stevenson does fairly well
with her role as a researcher for the
legend of the sacrifice that took place
centuries ago and her role reminds me of
a pre Janet Leigh from her role
in Psycho.
Supporting actor Valentine Dyall had
a nice deep voice to his character as a
ghostly type making his part mysterious
for the plot.
Other supporting actor Norman Macowan
was so believeable as a spooked out old
blind reverend and is one of the best
actors in the film with his energetic
performance.
Ann Beach really strutted her stuff
well as a troubled mute employee at the
hotel showing nice reactions to the
terror surrounding her.
We show a perfect
beginning of actress Patricia Jessel
being sacrificed for witchcraft as it
looks very disturbing when she is burned
at the stake.
There is a good stern look on Christopher
Lee's face when he says his
lines about witchcraft not being
nonsense.
There's an excellent shot on supporting
actor Valentine Dyall in the
dark mist approaching Venetia
Stevenson in her car
A nice camera shot on Jessel
behind some shadows at the hotel walking
up to Stevenson with her serious
and wicked type actions towards her.
There's a perfect setting of the creepy
old hotel in the mist as well with Stevenson
walking around and the extra's just
staring at her which looks a little
spooky.
We see a great shot on Stevenson walking
down a cellar and then being grabbed by
cult members dragging her to be
sacrificed as she reacts greatly to this.
Jessel shows an excellent wicked
expression to her face while holding a
dagger and bringing it down.
Lee is good at acting intense when
he is about to sacrifice a dove while
holding a dagger in one hand.
Ann Beach shows terrific wide eyed
shocking reactions while being strangled
by Dyall.
There is a real effective moment with Tom
Naylor driving in his car and
suddenly there's an image before his eyes
with Jessel cackling on the
stake while being burned and then his car
swerving and crashing. He reacts well at
being in pain after his accident.
We have great setting of the cast members
as the cult members dressed in black in a
graveyard with tombstones walking towards
Dennis Lotis, Naylor
and Betta St. John when they try
to escape the hotel area and their hands
are reaching towards them.
We have a great shot at Jessel
throwing a dagger at Naylor's back.
We spot a great shot on Naylor
picking up a large cricifix from the
ground and clumsily walking towards the
everyone and the cult members are lit of
fire as they do react painfully well to
this.
Douglas Gamley
composes some perfect orchestration for
this film and has some chilling sounds
too for the scene's necessary for it too.
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