Gripping story with well-crafted characters

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Most everyone here hit the nail on the head. This is an old movie, and old horror film with all its rudimentary effects and style. This includes good acting and other good things too!Personally, I am not fond of horror movies anymore, and really not fond of old horror movies anymore! I used to like them to some degree, but lost my taste for horror movies some years back, even new ones. That said, I do enjoy 3D films, especially ones that are done well. And this is one of the finest 3D films I have seen! I don't know how it was shot so well, but I would love to know, as this was done even better than most of the newer 3D movies I have seen. I would have liked more well done pop-out (not eye-crossing, blurry, cheesy effects), but in spite of the lack of this, the scenes have really good 3D effects as others have mentioned. The movie had very few "flat" shots, and most scenes had really nice 3D to them. So much so that this movie deserves to be in every 3D collection. If more modern 3D movies were shot more like this one is, 3D wouldn't be in the jeopardy it is. Having shot some amateur 3D video myself, I find the technical side of 3D to be very interesting, an art in itself. It is really too bad it is lacking in many of today's 3D movies. My rating is 4 for the story, a 3 for the "costume/effects", 6 for the acting and 7 for set design (which I believe affected the 3D in a positive way), and a 9 for the 3D. (It would have had a 10 from me, if good "in the living-room"/in front of the screen 3D effects had been shot.) I highly recommend it to those who appreciate good 3D. Just keep in mind, it IS an old horror type movie!

Not exactly a crime movie, although it seems to start off that way. It's more a horror outing, designed to show off some really startling 3-D effects. Actually, there are really three versions of the movie. The 3-D, the flat, and the flat with censor cuts including a severely truncated climax. Directed and designed by the fabulous William Cameron Menzies, it must be admitted straight off that the 3-D effects lose much of their impact in 2-D. In fact, in the censored flat version the horror element is pretty tame, but the plot of course seems even more wildly and ridiculously implausible. If this were not bad enough, the sets look quite ordinary and give the appearance of being constructed on an extremely limited budget. In 3-D, however, not only do the sets look grimly menacing but there are some quite ingenious tricks to startle us and keep our eyes glued to the screen. Also the photography now seems quite slick with some really effective atmospheric shots, e.g. the motionless silhouette of the late baronet slumped in a high-backed chair, and the tense climax with our super-attractive heroine lost in the maze. In fact, 3-D proves such a wonderful distraction that we don't notice the holes in the plot or any gaps in continuity.

You know, this is not a terrible movie. It's atmospheric and mysterious and the female lead plays her part well...she reminds me of Grace Kelly. Richard Carlson is always good. The conclusion is creative and imaginative, and unlike some viewers who reported on this movie, I actually liked the ending. Interesting notion. They could only do so much with the special effects back then, but I can look past that. One thing this movie has going for it that too few movies do these days is good-heartedness. There aren't any truly "bad guys." Everybody is acting primarily out of a desire to do good and to look out for the interests of others rather than themselves, and I was left with a feeling of goodwill rather than the typical sense of foreboding and doom that so often is the central theme of movies like this one right to the end. A waste of time? No, I wouldn't say so. I'd say it's worth a watch.

I've docked two stars from this film for what must surely be one of the silliest endings in horror movies - and that's saying something! This is up there with the climax of Night Monster for sheer cheek, but for around an hour this is an absorbing and atmospheric Gothic drama.Richard Carlson, always a welcome presence, plays the heir to a Scottish laird called away from his pre-nuptial holidays in the South of France by some strange emergency at his ancestral home - a rambling castle he hasn't visited in years. Promising to return to his fiancé as soon as he can, he then does a disappearing act, before writing a mysterious note telling his beau she's the next Jennifer Anniston! Naturally she doesn't take kindly to this, and with Aunt in tow (you can tell this was made in the pre-rock and roll era - the leads would be groovy teenagers if this had been made in 1958) she undertakes the trip to the castle, where the sinister servants and her one-time love are acting all mysterious....The Maze of the title is a part of the castle grounds, and seems to hold the key to the mystery. What are those strange slopping sounds heard in the night? Why must everyone be locked up in their rooms at a certain time each evening? The answer, when it comes, proves to be hilarious. MAJOR SPOILER HERE. Er, it turns out to be a 200 year-old frog, who happens to be one Sir Roger! A deformed ancestor who has an extended life, is very shy and retiring and yet cultured. (come off it, guys he's a frog!) The minute he's discovered Sir Rodg takes a great froggy leap through a window to his doom. You might say he croaked! Cue Carlson's laugh-out loud explanation for the mysterious events...All I can say is they must have some sizable insect life in the Scottish Highlands to keep Kermit, er, Sir Roger, well-fed. Okay, I fess up. It's a bloke in a frog suit....There's one great Lovecraftian shot of the frog fumbling about in the darkness which is genuinely creepy, though. And if you can get past The Muppet Show explanation you might like it.