Great Film overall

Don't Believe the Hype

Best movie of this year hands down!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Prof. Marcus Monserrat (Boris Karloff) has developed a technique to control the minds of people...and feel the sensations they're going through. His wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey) knows about it and is thrilled. They get a young man (Ian Ogilvy) under their control. Marcus wants to use his power for good...but Estelle has other ideas.Director/writer Michael Reeves did only a handful of films before his death from an accidental overdose. This isn't his best (that's "Witchfinder General) but not his worst (that's "She Beast"). It's somewhere in the middle. It's well-directed and has some great acting by Karloff, Ogilvy and especially Lacey (who really chews the scenery) but it's kind of slow-moving and top-billed Karloff is hardly in the movie. Also the gore and special effects are pretty laughable. Still it's an OK horror movie.

An elderly hypnotist (Boris Karloff) develops a new technique that allows him to not only control the mind of a person but also share their experiences. In an unintentionally hilarious scene, Karloff approaches a young man about participating in his experiment ("I can offer you an unusual evening..."). When the guy agrees, Karloff and his wife (Catherine Lacey) hook him up to their machine, put him under hypnosis, and start controlling his every move. Soon the wife starts enjoying the power she has over the young man a bit too much.Interesting and sometimes fun British thriller (not really a horror movie, despite its listing as such). It's slow-going but with some decent atmosphere and good performances. Catherine Lacey delightfully hams it up as the villain. Karloff is solid as always. Ian Ogilvy is fine as the man the old couple controls. Susan George has a small part as one of his girlfriends. It's a decent movie, especially for this point in Karloff's career. His fans will likely enjoy it more than most.

Perfecting a mind-control device, a doctor and his wife use it to live vicariously through a youth in mod London but when the results of the control bring about her dark side he attempts to regain control from her before it's too late.Overall there wasn't a whole lot to really like with this one. Among the biggest problems with this was the fact that hardly any kind of horror occurred during the first hour of this one, as this is taken up with the two going over the process for the experiment and how they're going to gather him as a subject before turning to the early parts of their control by letting him go about town meeting up with his friends. Since these are all innocent endeavors, from going out to the club and swimming and then later driving along the freeway on a motorcycle at top-speed, none of these scenes are all that frightening or even designed to be which in turn makes these scenes simply use watching people do bland, boring things since we can't undergo the experiences featured here and the end result is simply bland, boring and just not a horror film at all. Likewise, the fact that he's undergoing these kinds of scenes yet no one thinks anything is strange with his behavior is also pretty troublesome, as all of his mentions of blackouts and unaccounted behavior tend to ring pretty troubling alarms in his friends about his behavior yet nothing is done and everything continues on as normal. It's not until bodies start piling up that they start to think something may be wrong, and even then the situation isn't handled all that well as there's hardly anything done about this nor is there any carryover about his previous statements regarding his influences, in the end really tending to make this a pretty troublesome effort. When it does become a horror film, this one isn't bad as the stalking scenes are quite good with there being some tension in the wait for him to coil and snap, despite the kills themselves being pretty bland and thrill-less being forced to use obscured knifings or strangling to do this but in the end all is somewhat forgiven with a great action-packed car-chase through the streets of London that is quite fun and enjoyable whipping around at those speeds to make for quite a great time here in the final half. It's just that so much of what happened before wasn't that interesting.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence, Language, sexual content and heavy smoking.

Probably Boris Karloff's best late career film. Director Michael Reeves creates a real sense of dread as disgraced hypnotist Karloff and wife Catherine Lacey play mind control games with unsuspecting Ian Ogilvy. What starts out as pure science soon turns horrible as Lacey becomes overcome with greed and begins using Ogilivy to do her demented bidding...including murder. Reeves, who directed only three films before dying young, fills the film with a lot of odd touches --- note the name of Ogilvy's antique store! Stanley Long's cinematography captures the seedy side of swinging London. Karloff looks absolutely creepy in his old age and he's perfectly matched by Lacey. Susan George plays one of Ogilvy's unlucky gal pals.