Dimly lit B-movies from the early 1980s look way crappier now than I remember them looking in the early 1980s.
This could be because I’ve been spoiled by things like Blu-ray, HD, and 4K or because I was a child in the early 1980s I wasn’t paying attention to things like lighting in films.
Using a wide-angle lens to show an actor’s face close up works better in comedy than horror.
This technique has fallen out of favor in horror and is now mostly used in comedy, but I chuckled every time they did it in this film.
This was the only time Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and John Carradine were in a film together.
Now you know.
This was the last time Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were in a film together.
Learning this made me kind of sad.
There’s usually not enough screen time to make use of a great cast.
I’ve always wondered why films with a cast of several great actors are often bland. After watching House of the Long Shadows, I figured out that it is often due to a lack of screen time. I enjoyed the heavy hitters in this film, however, none of them had enough screen time to really sink their teeth into their characters.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
A good twist can make me appreciate a film a lot more than I had a few moments earlier.
Perhaps I should have seen the twist coming, but the film did a good job of throwing me off the scent. After the reveal, I wanted to rewatch the film from the beginning to watch for the clues.
Christopher Lee is still not to be trusted.
As I mentioned in a previous post, never trust Christopher Lee in a movie.
Half Gleason 