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Curse of The Crimson Altar, as it's known in the UK, is very loosely based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft - The Dreams In The Witch House. But it's a pretty poor movie overall and the winter night shooting could only have contributed to Boris Karloff's worsening emphysema - in fact he caught pneumonia while filming. Christopher Lee actually looks as if he WANTS to catch pneumonia, and Barbara Steele, in her only British horror movie, is totally wasted.Curse concerns Mark Eden's search for his missing brother, and Eden's zero charisma performance is what helps sink the movie from the beginning. Years later he was to end up as Rita Fairclough's murderous partner in Coronation Street, memorably expiring under a Blackpool Tram! If only that had happened here.Eden's character Robert Manning soon makes his way to Greymarsh Village, where he encounters Christopher Lee's Squire Morley, who seems remarkably liberal to let a wild party take place in his mansion while he quietly reads upstairs! Cue scenes of people painting each other...After Virginia Wetherall's character utters she's expecting Boris Karloff to show up - he promptly does! So we're soon introduced to Boris and his collection of torture implements. Karloff may have been in poor health but he still outshines everyone else. He is, of course, just a red herring. Along the way we've been watching She Hulk and her portly assistant in an antlers and leather thong combo prepare for some diabolical rite. Lovecraft's original tale concerned a trans-dimensional witch and her monstrous human-faced rat familiar Brown Jenkin. Yep, superior for me to She Hulk and Antler Man, any day.For the 876th time in horror films, the mansion grows up in flames at the end. And for the first time in horror films Christopher Lee turns into a woman - the witch Lavinia, who has apparently been possessing him. Bet Lee was chuffed with that...

Tigon, the off-off-off Broadway of British horror produced a smattering of mostly so-so horror films during the late 60's and early 70's (the exceptional "Witchfinder General" not included) and this production's delicious horror iconous cast including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Michael Gough and Barbara Steele, is its best attribute. The tone taken is on the silly side for the most part, but the decent Gothic atmosphere and stellar cast begs for something more sinister. Horror aficionados will not want to miss this, for the great cast, and there are certainly far worse horror movies out there, but this will most likely be of little interest to non genre fans.

Robert Manning (Mark Eden) searches for his vanished brother in a rural English village, where he is entangled in the legend of Lavinia (Barbara Steele), a witch killed 300 years ago. Lavinia's heir, J. D. Morley (Christopher Lee), wants revenge on anyone related to her killers, such as Robert. Robert romances Morley's niece, Eve, and is aided by occult expert Prof. Marsh (Boris Karloff), but it is up to him to repel Morley's evil designs.Boris Karloff became ill with pneumonia while shooting this project in the freezing rain. It was his last British feature, begun January 22 1968, and he would recover enough to shoot four Mexican features in May 1968, his final screen work. Barbara Steele is always a treat, and she is especially interesting with green skin and a large, feathery hat (if you can call that a hat).Loosely based off of H. P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House", how does it stack up to the Stuart Gordon version forty years later? Honestly, you cannot even compare them. If there is a connection, it is very limited. There is a witch, there are dreams, but the two films are worlds apart.Howard Maxford calls the film "dated and somewhat slow", having "a better cast than it deserves". How a film that runs only 87 minutes can be slow is a legitimate question. Ivan Butler also feels the film falls short, saying the "promise of a combination of Lee, Karloff and Barbara Steele is not fulfilled". These are fair assessments.I recommend the film for the cast and the awesome organ track that opens the film. Beyond that, it is hit and miss and you could skip it.

This movie was one of the very last accomplishments of the legendary Boris Karloff (not quite sure if those Mexican junk movies were shot before this one but they definitely remained shelved until after his death) and reportedly he got really ill shortly after – or even during – the shooting of "Curse of the Crimson Altar". If this is a true fact, it definitely gives the film some sort of sour aftertaste. With a career like his, Boris Karloff should have enjoyed a well-deserved retirement instead of catching pneumonia on draughty film sets at the age of 82. On the other hand, of course, "Curse of the Crimson Altar" wouldn't have been half as good if it weren't for him. It already isn't much of a highlight in the genre, but Karloff's presence (along with three others horror veterans) provides an extra dimension of horror greatness.This is one of the Tigon Production Company's more mediocre efforts – completely incomparable to "The Witchfinder General" and "Blood on Satan's Claw" – but still a remotely entertaining Brit-horror flick containing all the traditional ingredients, such as witchery, torture devices, old mansions with secret passageways, ritual sacrifices and psychedelic hallucination sequences. The plot revolves on an antique dealer (and ladies' man!) who heads out to the countryside in search for his mysteriously vanished brother. He arrives in a remote little town during the annual memorial of the legendary witch Lavinia Morley's burning. Mr. Manning is exaggeratedly welcomed at first, but he gradually senses something strange and sinister has happened to his brother in the mansion he's staying. When he then begins to suffer from vivid nightmares involving Lavinia herself, he realizes his name is historically linked to the witch and that he's been put under a sardonic curse.Apart from the cast, "Curse of the Crimson Altar" benefices the most from its occasionally very moody atmosphere, the eerie scenery and the impressively staged witchery sequences. Even though these scenes might appear a little silly overall (what with the bodybuilders wearing leather S&M outfits), but they're still definitely a joy to watch when you're a fan of old-fashioned Gothic horror. Barbara Steele is underused and extremely typecast as the malignant Lavinia, but what the heck, even with her face painted green and ridiculously over-sized goat horns on her head, she still remains a luscious beauty. Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee (in their second teaming after "Corridors of Blood") are wonderful together, but the still heavily underrated Michael Gough shines as the weird and mentally unstable Elder. Unfortunately, however, the shoddy script contains too many holes and improbabilities, and director Vernon Sewell lacks the talent and horror knowledge to cover these up.One last and perhaps interesting little trivia detail; although entirely devoid of humor otherwise, "Curse of the Crimson Altar" features one intentionally wit and unsubtle inside joke. Whilst talking about the old and secluded mansion, the main character mentions something in the lines of "I expect Boris Karloff to walk in at any moment" and – in fact – he does only a couple of minutes later. He rolls in, to be exact, since he plays a wheelchair bound character.