THEATER OF BLOOD
A joy and delight. Price at his absolute best.
Rarely has my big goofy grin been as big and goofy as when I sat down and watched Vincent Price in Theater of Blood.
He's wonderful in this one. He plays a presumed-dead stage actor who decides to take his revenge against the critics who panned him - Shakespeare-style!
Now, the first half of the murders were from plays that aren't amongst the fifteen or so I've read. So while they were fun to watch, they just didn't pack the punch of the latter ones, and weren't quite as satisfying. I look forward to viewing this film again when I've read a little more from the Bard.
The plot seems to be a clear influence on Seven, and probably a few other films as well (killer takes out his very specific victims in ways tailored to those victims in order to make some sort of point about something).
When Price reads excerpts of the "evil" critics' reviews, one can't help but smile - both for the content of the reviews, and what kind of doom they spell for their writers. The review for Price's performance in Titus Andronicus (filming now or soon starring Anthony Hopkins...bring your barf bag, because this one's icky) is worth the view alone just for one line. If you've seen the movie, you know what line I'm talking about.
My biggest problem involved Diana Rigg as Price's daughter. She doesn't really appear to serve any function other than to provide a "you're supposed to gasp but you're a total twit if you didn't see it coming" revelation-moment at the conclusion of the film.
I was a little surprised that no killing from Macbeth was used, it being possibly the most gruesome of Shakespeare's plays. But, come to think of it, the grue there was rather, uh, plain. (My own wish - that Price actually carried out Henry V's threat that caused a French castle to surrender...it was a nasty, nasty threat)
Definitely a must-see for horror fans, Shakespeare fans, fans of hammy acting, fans of cruel film reviews...shit, just go see it.