As I continue working my way through several old style horror films of the 1950s and 60s, I just have to weigh in on this double feature which I found to be among the best of the many retro horror twofers that are out there on the market. I somehow managed to miss both of these on their initial releases and never saw them on TV so they were brand new to me. Most of the previous reviews focus on THE SHUTTERED ROOM which got far more exposure and certainly boasts the stronger cast as well as the H.P. Lovecraft name (even though August Derleth wrote most of it).
Very little Lovecraft/Derleth is left and what you essentially have is a tense little thriller that seems like a dry run for STRAW DOGS (1971) without all the ultra-violence. The real stars of the movie are not the performers (although Oliver Reed and Flora Robson know what to do with the material) but rather Ken Hodges striking cinematography and Basil Kirchin’s modern jazz score which combine to make the picture a tense viewing experience until the ending which is singularly disappointing. The Norfolk (U.K.) locations, especially the abandoned lighthouse and old mill, are also very effective.
While THE SHUTTERED ROOM is clearly the better movie, I enjoyed IT a lot more because, as one U.K. website said, the film is absolutely “barking mad”. What starts off as a deliberate PSYCHO ripoff evolves into a kooky film experience with Roddy MacDowell playing the script for all the dark humor he can get out of it. His Arthur Pimm is such a polite madman that he becomes a parody of every proper upright Englishman. He is actually fun to watch even more so after he really starts to lose it.
Grafting PSYCHO onto THE GOLEM story deserves credit for chutzpah if nothing else. As for the statue itself, the real Golem was made out of clay not stone, was far from indestructible, and didn’t resemble a petrified tree with a conehead. Details…IT was originally made back to back with a creepy Dana Andrews vehicle about resurrecting Nazis called THE FROZEN DEAD which was made for an outfit called Gold Star Productions. Both were written and directed by Herbert J. Leder and would have made an ideal double feature. THE SHUTTERED ROOM could have been coupled with another WB/Seven Arts feature THE ANNIVERSARY with Bette Davis or just released on its own.
The Capsule Critic 