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Horror Hotel (1960)

Reviewed by Carl
Posted on June 17, 2005 
Filed Under Black and white, Creepy stuff, The Occult

Horror Hotel-or ‘The City of the Dead’ to give it it’s U.S. video title-is a superb occult thriller which overcomes a clearly limited budget and some occasionally hit-and-miss acting and delivers a real classic.

A beautiful young woman (Venetia Stevenson) with an academic passion for witchcraft is encouraged by her course tutor, Professor Driscoll (Christopher Lee), to visit the small New England town of Whitewood and research its history of witch-burning. All is not well though, for 400 years previous a particularly nasty witch (Patricia Jessel) managed to curse the town just before she was turned to ashes and she and her army of loyal followers now terrorise the few remaining inhabitants. Naturally this web of sorcery is concentrated on the hotel-The Raven’s Inn-which Driscoll recommended to our intrepid student and when she disappears her brother and boyfriend make haste to the town and discover its dark secret….

The atmospherics on this film are stunning, from the well-placed opening scenes depicting the hysteria that surrounded 17th century witch-scares right through to the debilitating eeriness of modern day Whitewood. Though the continuation of actors as the same characters is an obvious indicator of the eternal presence of evil in the town, Horror Hotel never relies on this overt symbolism to tell the story for it and instead heaps upon us a slow and steady accretion of discomfort. Even when it becomes clear what is happening and going to happen (Stevenson doesn’t give the most subtle of performances) we are still shocked with the provocative and dramatic ending. The small budget meant that director John Moxey had to shroud the set in fog to disguise it’s tiny size but this adds wonderfully to the claustrophobic sense of terror the student must be feeling once she arrives in Whitewood.

In many ways Horror Hotel resembles The Wicker Man, most especially in harnessing the notion of a tragically unavoidable fate yet still managing to leave the viewer with just enough room to hope for a happier ending. Christopher Lee puts in a star turn here (very ably supported by Jessel, Tom Naylor and Dennis Lotis) which more than compensates for the wooden efforts of Stevenson in the lead role.

Horror Hotel is a real gem. Atmospheric, engaging and still scary after over 40 years; it puts few steps wrong and, if nothing else, reminds us why Christopher Lee can be forgiven for camping it up in the new Star Wars films.

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