jadflack-22130 Gimmick Master William Castle's first "Chiller" except it's not, it's really a mystery and not a very good one.This is very much a lesser Castle entry with no sympathetic characters and a short running time of 67 minutes on DVD, so there is no time to develop characters. The flashbacks just flesh out the running time and don't really add anything to the plot.The one of William Castle's "Chiller" films that somehow always eluded me in watching, now i've seen it i feel i needn't have bothered. Average and forgettable.

Coventry "Macabre" definitely wasn't the legendary director William Castle's most successful horror accomplishment, as this honor probably goes to either "House on Haunted Hill", "The Tingler" or "13 Ghosts". "Macabre" also wasn't Castle's coolest or most entertaining horror accomplishment, because according to yours truly that special title either goes to "Homicidal", "Mr. Sardonicus" or "Strait-Jacket". But one thing's for sure, namely that "Macabre" was Castle's very first horror flick AND the first time he tried out a nifty little gimmick, which would later become his trademark and his ultimate formula to fame & success. The gimmick here included that all spectators received a special type of insurance against "death by fright" and that a stern voice-over warns about the shocking impact of the film. It's all rather silly and cheesy by today's standards, but Castle's gimmicks quickly proved to be highly effective and he still remains one of the most imitated horror directors now, nearly forty years after his death. "Macabre" itself is extremely simplistic and low- budgeted, like all of William Castle's movies, but the plot is quite compelling and several sequences are drenched in an atmosphere that is … well … macabre! Small town doctor Rodney Barrett is confronted with the ultimate nightmare when he learns that his innocent 5-year- old daughter Marge has been kidnapped and lies buried alive somewhere with only five hours left to live. The doctor, along with his secretary and fragile old father-in-law, starts a frantic search for his little girl at the most obvious location – the local cemetery – but where to dig and who to trust? After all, the good doctor seemingly has quite a few enemies in town, including the rancorous Sheriff Tyloe, and (redundant) flashbacks show that he wasn't very kind to his deceased blind wife Alice. The race-against the clock aspect results in a handful of tense moments and most of all the scenes set at the fog-enshrouded graveyard at night are genuine horror highlights. The flashbacks and some of the plot- twists near the end are pretty dumb and merely raise the impression that William Castle only wanted to stretch the running time a bit, while other sequences (like for example the phone call from the kidnapper and nurse Polly's subsequent report to the doctor) are laughably inept. But who cares, as "Macabre" is a terrific piece of 50s horror and marked the start of the career of one of the most creative minds in cinema history.

MARIO GAUCI For whatever reason, "B" movie film-maker (of mainly epic, Western and noir fare) Castle changed pace here with a horror outing, whose box-office performance encouraged him to largely stick to this genre thereafter – aided, to a considerable degree, by the showman-like gimmicks which accompanied most of them (in this case, it was insurance against death-by-fright)! Anyway, being the first of its kind, one can perhaps excuse its essential naivete': for one thing, it is not the least bit scary, though the plot of a race-against-time to literally unearth a missing child seemed intriguing enough… The film – watched via a Czech TV screening sporting obtrusive subtitles in that language, not to mention an excessively hiss-laden soundtrack! – evokes the small-town atmosphere so redolent of its ilk, where skeletons in the closet abound (usually relating to an eminent family) and people bear a grudge (often of a romantic kind) which naturally spells disaster before long. So far, so good: only the narrative does not sufficiently engage the viewer – much less elicit sympathy for its myriad characters – throughout! Indeed, it is rendered even more awkward by being padded (despite being a mere 68 minutes in length!) with flashbacks that seem to make no real point other than to expose the sordid details of some of the main character's personal lives. Acting, too, leaves a lot to be desired – with perhaps the major culprits being the patriarch, always on the verge of expiring from a cardiac arrest, and the leading lady, who melodramatically faints while listening to a purportedly maniacal phone-call (only very briefly heard via a recording at the climax) and is then made to clumsily describe it to the hero! Indeed, the most notable – and effective – cast member is Jim Backus, who gets to physically assault the male protagonist following the death at childbirth of the latter's wife (a doctor, he had preferred spending time with his girlfriend rather than see to his marital and professional duties!) and the former's own ex-flame.In the end, the movie deserves its pride of place as a trend-setter (the villain's identity, at least, proves audacious if hardly sensible), which the director invariably improved upon in subsequent forays down the path of ghoulish chills – a number of which I will be checking out presently on the occasion of his centenary

LeonLouisRicci Odd and ordinary seems a contradiction but it could explain the feeling of this first William Castle "gimmick" movie.It is odd in plot and that is mostly because it is somewhat confusing, but is also odd because the audience spends the whole film with the idea that a little girl has been buried alive and only has a few hours to live. That is truly almost subliminal horror.The on screen shocks are few but effective and the atmosphere is low budget slick. The ordinary comes from the overall movie presentation of talky and uninteresting characters. It is historically a worthwhile effort just don't expect a horror movie and maybe it will play better. More of a thriller, it does have an ending that is both bizarre and once it is over you will find yourself going back over the movie in your head to try and put it all together. It's hardly worth the effort, but if this little sleeper can have the audience playing mental gymnastics it could be called successful and it was and it sent Castle on a long and winding road of better and more entertaining movies that became pop culture legends and baby boomer terror teething's.