morrison-dylan-fan Despite having heard about him for years,I for some reason have never got round to seeing a film from Michael Reeves. Whilst trying to find a Boris Karloff movie to watch for the October Challenge on IMDb's Horror board,I found out that the BBC were airing the title Karloff made with Reeves,which led to me conjuring up a spell.The plot:Studying hypnosis for years, Prof. Marcus Monserrat and his wife Estelle invent a machine which they believe will allow them to take control,and feel the experiences of a person under underlying hypnosis.Looking for a test case, Marcus goes to a disco and grabs the attention of Mike Roscoe.Going to the Monserrat's house, Roscoe is put under hypnosis.Quickly letting him leave,the Monserrat's are thrilled to find that they can feel everything he feels,as Roscoe opens up a vicious new sensation. View on the film:Splashing Roscoe's face with red and purple disco lights,co- writer/(along with Tom Baker and uncredited John Burke-who tried to sue for the credit) director Michael Reeves & cinematographer/future director Stanley Long set alight the raw violence from the decayed suburb with a quirky psychedelic atmosphere. Controlling Roscoe's every move,Reeves and Long dash into the blood shot eyes of the Monserrat as sparkling reds and greens rain down to Roscoe's murderous beat. Blacking out after each killing,Reeves wakes Roscoe up in a cruel Britain,trampled on with burning red blood and clamped,dusty holes which smash the false brightness from the disco lights.For Roscoe's first meeting with the Monserrat's,the writers mask the horror with a social drama bringing in man about town Roscoe and his cute bit of arm candy,with sweet elderly couple the Monserrat,whose wry smiles over introducing Roscoe to a new experience,give the kitchen sink scenes a wonderfully sour taste. Sending Roscoe out as the puppet of the Monserrat's,the writers struggle to keep all the strings together due to making Roscoe and everyone he meets paper thin characters,which along with draining the level of threat which should be on offer,also stops Roscoe from being an enticing possessed soul. Joined by a cute Susan George as "It Girl" Audrey Woods, Ian Ogilvy gives a very good performance as Roscoe,whose black slate of rage Ogilvy keeps twitching away under Roscoe's "happening" image. Holding hands with a cackling Catherine Lacey, Boris Karloff gives a wonderful performance as Marcus,thanks to Karloff softening Marcus's eyes,as Roscoe becomes the sorcerer's apprentice.

GL84 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.

minamurray Sorcerers, (1967) is overrated British horror movie directed and co-written by overrated Michael Reeves, director who died young. Old scientist (Boris Karloff) and his wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey) use device he has created to control young man (Ian Ogilvy) and enjoy life through him, but soon evil Estelle is forcing the poor young man to the path of crimes... or perhaps young man just explores his real desires of sexual violence? This is drab and dull movie, very cheap-looking, and it is possible to see slimy hypocrisy in the proceedings: Estelle's real crime is to be old and not sexually desirable in the sleazy pornographic world of leering young film-makers and squalid film critics.

phantlers This is a long way from 'Performance', even further than Lisson Grove (St. John's Wood) is from Powis Square (Notting Hill).Watching on BBC2 in 2008 one immediately supposes that the motive for th elderly couple will be to experience something erotic but it is very British, and very 1960's that the only seduction is that of the Professor's initially benign wife into avarice and violence. The film is misogynistic and of course sensational but the subtext that subversion of free will - and there are clear parallels and references to hallucinogens and other 'recreational' drugs - leads to suggestibility and is close to inviting mind control.The denouement is comical as the Police Inspector ushers the two protagonists back to the patrol car - superbly driven in the chase scene, its lumbering spin off the road is memorable - and instructs the driver to chauffeur them home. Case closed.