Surprisingly incoherent and boring

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Deserting from the Army, an officer heads to an old castle for sanctuary but when he begins to see a ghostly figure of a woman running around the grounds and eventually stumbles upon a dreaded curse placed upon the family he must get away before he succumbs to it as well.This one was a decent if mildly flawed effort. One of it's more positive efforts is the rather enjoyable amount of grandiose Gothic atmosphere featured throughout here. From the start where it shows him approaching the castle in the distance that distracts him enough to be knocked into the sea and swept under the crashing waves, this one really goes for that imagery which is nicely carried into this one. That includes plenty of fun times featured at the castle where once again this one utilizes the large, over-the-top space filled with endless corridors, long stairways and hidden passageways that lets the opulent look of it all get featured so that the later action scenes have a great base being in a creepy location. These scenes give this one a lot of fun as he searches for a way to get outside to catch up to a ghostly figure wandering through the cemetery, the scene of the numerous birds attacking in the middle of the woods as well as the absolutely glorious finale which is pure old-school Gothic flair. From the scenes in the cemetery realizing the ghosts' true intentions with all sorts of fun brawls, ghostly action and a rather fine series of revelations that are somewhat shocking and surprising, this has plenty of grand Gothic spectacle which really works to end this on a high note. These here give this one a lot to like as there really isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. One of the few problems is that the film has a really jerky pace that is quite distracting. At times, it moves along rather nicely, especially in the opening where we get to the castle at a reasonable time and don't really have a lot of interference to get there, but once at the castle, it takes forever for something to happen. This has several times where the hero goes off on what seems like minutes at a time to investigate strange noises or visions he gets, only for them to eventually be dismissed by some natural force. Oftentimes, the searches do nothing but eat up time as nothing comes of them. It's a little distracting after the third or fourth time he leaves his room to go after something, and then find nothing in the ensuing search. Another problem is the quite laughable and seemingly ridiculous motive for the villain. There's no way to take what's going on seriously, and this makes no sense at all, being something that sounds like it could've been the first thought when deciding on what to do but then be discarded when a better one comes along. To have this as the final measure of revenge is so hard to stomach that the film suffers from it. Beyond these, though, the film isn't that bad.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

This is, at times, a decent effort to tell a story. But when budgets get into the mix, things fall apart. I believe this was Nicholson's first film. Roger Corman is the director and how the two hooked up, I don't know. What I do know is that there are so many plots and subplots and errant visuals that half the time we don't know what is going on. I decided years ago that I would watch Karloff and Nicholson do their individual things and not worry about being fulfilled cinematically. They are both classic muggers for the camera. This is a ghost/witch story with people dying and the wrong people accused of killing them and a crazy castle. On and on and on. The film, which is normal length, seems about five hours long.

Jack Nicholson plays Andre Duvalier, a young officer in Napoleons' army in the early 19th century. Separated from his regiment, he chances to encounter a very beautiful but mysterious young woman, Helene (Sandra Knight, a.k.a. the real-life Mrs. Nicholson at the time). He becomes determined to find out this womans' story, and journeys to the nearby castle of the elderly Baron Von Leppe (Boris Karloff). Andre persists in his inquiries, receiving exposition from the Baron, his devoted butler Stefan (Dick Miller), and local witch Katrina (Dorothy Neumann).Considering the history of "The Terror", it's more entertaining than it may have had any right to be. Corman firmly establishes a solid Gothic atmosphere. "The Terror" may *not* be on the level of his highly regarded Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, but it's not bad at all either. He completed principal photography in just a few days, in his usual economic style, using the sets from "The Raven" while they were being torn down! Cormans' young associates, including Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, and Francis Ford Coppola (even Nicholson directed a few scenes) spent the next several months doing the second unit work. Overall they achieve a pretty good unity of vision. The screenplay, credited to Hill and actor Leo Gordon, is a little convoluted but is generally amusing, with doses of romance and tragedy. The cinematography by John M. Nickolaus Jr. and an uncredited Floyd Crosby is excellent, as is the music by the ever reliable Ronald Stein. The actors are all quite enjoyable to watch, especially Karloff, and Nicholson holds his own quite well opposite his veteran co-star. Corman stock company player Jonathan Haze plays the supporting role of Gustaf.A drive-in favourite, late show perennial, and frequent inclusion on public domain movie collections, "The Terror" is decent entertainment for old school horror fans.Six out of 10.

This is basically a silly, unrealistic, and muddled story, that leaves several questions unanswered. There are also several plot holes. For example: if the Baron is the old woman's son, how come that she never recognized him during all the years in the same village..? After all, a mother knows her son even if he changes his clothes and hair-style... Also, it was odd that they looked about the same age. And what become of the real Baron's body..? And what about the baby..? My own guess, which I think would have worked in reality, was that the Baroness had had a child in secret. And after the Baron (or Eric) was murdered, Eric (or the Baron) kept the child, a girl, locked up in the mansion - and she turned out exactly like her mother. And this young woman was in fact, what everybody believed was her mother's ghost. That had been a much better mystery I think! :-)The technical effects are very clumsy and bad compared to today's movies, but of course this was 1963, so THAT is a thing you have to accept.Anyway, if you are in the right mood, for example at a horror movie night around Halloween, this movie could well set the right atmosphere for the rest of the evening. If you forget about reason, and give yourself up to imagination. Because it has all the right scenery, interiors, exteriors, and props for an old-fashioned Gothic horror story. I felt that it had the atmosphere of Poe, BEFORE I read that the production was in reality strongly involved with the production of movies out of Poe stories. So that was well done! :-) Boris Karloff, of course, is unsurpassed in the kind of role he is playing, and it was also fun to see a young Jack Nicholson - before he was typecast as a grumpy middle-aged man.