The Haunted Palace 3.5/5

The Haunted Palace

Rather fine, and I think a little forgotten, Roger Corman movie with Vincent Price. The film looks really crisp and lush, and Corman knew how to stretch the dollars to keep the film looking classy, but kept it cheap by running the smoke machines for every single exterior shot. Price isn’t too hammy here, and gives a fine performance. What is funny is that Corman is trying to sell this as being an Edgar Allen Poe-based movie when it’s clearly an H.P.Lovecraft story. There’s mentions of the elder gods, Yog-Sothoth, and some very fine imagery going on here, with a story of a wizard burned for mating young girls with beasts from the other dimensions, cursing the whole village to horrible mutations, and then resurrected into his own ancestor. Enjoyable shennanegins.