In 1896, down in the
Victorian countryside, a rich merchant
is taken by coach to a remote inn, along
with a woman he has paid to come with him
and are greeted at the inn by a strange
old couple named Caroline (Judith
Anderson) and Lazar (Joseph Furst). While
in bed they appear to die horribly. It turns out
the coach driver is in cahoots with the
owners of the inn to kill and rob wealthy
travellers.
Later on many other residents stay at the
inn and end up disappearing as people
check in but don't check out as there are
deadly traps for anyone who resides
there.
A bounty hunter named Cal Kinkaid (Alex
Cord) goes to the inn and to discover it
and looks for clues there but yet he may
be the next deadly victim there as
Caroline and Lazar wants him dead as
well.
At first this film
seems like a western with some mystery in
it as it takes almost forever to get to
the horror in it and then the horror
sometimes gets interesting as we have
some dark moments.
This film didn't really go anywhere at
all as it was just someone looking for
some clues and then the film was almost
over when the horror started.
Still, it had some interesting moments.
It was kind of a western take on Psycho.
The cast seems to
perform quite well although many aren't
household names but why does that matter?
The best actor is Alex Cord as a
nasty bad ass and stern Sherrif who is
terrific at being intimidating and shows
great anger too. He played a great
western type of character.
Joseph
Furst is
perfect as an insane owner of the Inn who
shows great energy too.
John Meiller brought humor to his
role as a moonshiner who was another
performer who did well with his role and
had the perfect looks too.
Supporting actor Robert Quilter seemed
to do well as an insane one responsible
for alot of bad things going on and being
a target for the law.
Linda Broan exposes
her breasts in bed at the Inn as she
portrays a hooker.
Carla Hoogeveen and Diana
Dangerfield are two actresses as
well playing residents at a hotel room as
they are fully breasted too in bed or
taking a bath together.
There are some
bloodied corpses but that's it.
Terry Bourke's work
is a wee bit rusty but at the time it
probably seemed well done. He at first
made his direction to look like a western
film with all the settings involved like
in the opening with people in a rush
riding some horses carrying them in a
passenger carriage as well as the small
town and the going on's there.
He directed Alex Cord very well
with his nasty attitude towards many
suspects especially towards John
Meiller when he steps on his hand
forcing him to tell the truth about
someone he's after.
Bourke also shows a good fighting
sequence between Cord and Robert
Quilter in a river near a fall.
We see great camera shots on Quilter,
Meiller and Tony Bonner
with their shocked and frightened looks
when Cord is about to shoot Quilter's
chracter as it was in slow motion.
We also have a good shot on Judith
Anderson looking like she is
cradling a baby which is really a doll
and then nearly losing her mind when she
goes through a flashback memory as
there's a nice flashback scene involving
two children played by Terry Bourke
Jr. and Melissa Chappell being
terrorised and killed by a maniac. Anderson
shows great intensity when this happens.
There's also a great shot on Joseph
Furst when he is stabbing small
actor Phillip Avalon's character
and going crazier when he isn't dead yet
and then bringing down an axe as that
introduces the horror in this film.
Supporting actress Diana Dangerfield
does a great job in a bathtub with Carla
Hoogeveen when she gets physical and
aggressive towards her and Hoogeveen
showed nice frightened emotions towards
her.
The camera pans well on Cord when
he is looking around his hotel suite
looking for traps or deadly devices and
then sits in a chair with a shotgun
waiting for the maniacs to arrive in his
room while Anderson and Furst
are downstairs waiting for his death to
happen as the setting was perfect.
We see a great shot on Furst
about to enter the suite holding an axe
with a shadow reflection on him and then
there's a fairly descent battling scene.
Anderson reacts perfectly crying to
the others not to open a door to a room
which leaves the story mysterious.
Bob Young
definetely gives the film a nice western
sound to it with the harmonica playing
along with the accoustic guitar and
violin music but then has nice ghostly
sounds for the horror in the film too.
Cal
Kincaid: Oh and can you close the
door please I don't want Peaches here to
get cold
|
