Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray Movie Review

"No woman can hold her tongue. They're a suspicious, unreliable breed!"

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown December 14, 2023

I keep using the word "fun" in reviews this week. Simply put, it's been a good time. I have to say, though, I have yet to have a better time with a catalog film in recent memory than Horrors of the Black Museum, a once controversial 1959 genre flick that I literally hadn't heard of until perusing the titles I was assigned to cover in December. At first I cringed. "What in Klu Klux Kraziness am I about to review? Horrors of the Black Museum? Good God, how tricky is this one going to be to write?" Thankfully, to my great, great relief, this wasn't the next Birth of a Nation, nor a film I would wish had remained securely locked in the past. Director Arthur Crabtree and co-writer Herman Cohen's vintage serial-killer slasher is as cheesy and as hilarious in its deadly seriousness as you could hope for. It was even considered a dangerous film in the late '50s. Slapped with an X-Certificate overseas and featuring (for the era) a nightmarish string of vicious murders -- one of which still managed to give me all the goosebumps; not sure I'll use a pair of binoculars ever again -- Horrors of the Black Museum is a delightful slice of silver age frights and devious devilry. Besides, how often to you get to watch the actor who would one day play fandom's favorite Alfred Pennyworth (from the Burton and Schumacher Batman films) hack, stab and decapitate his way across an otherwise peaceful city to the horror of censors and religious values groups the world over?

"It actually puts you in the picture! Can you stand it? SEE the vat of death! FEEL the icy hands! SEE the fantastic binocular murder! FEEL the tightening noose! In HypnoVista... it's Horrors of the Black Museum!"

Official Synopsis: London is fear struck and Scotland Yard is baffled by a series of strange murders that have plagued the city. Stories of the atrocities, penned by crime journalists including Edmond Bancroft (a young Michael Gough who played Alfred Pennyworth in the Tim Burton 'Batman' movies), come to their own conclusions missed by "The Yard". That's because Edmond, in order to generate material for his articles, is behind the horrible crimes, along with his assistant, Rick (Graham Curnow), who also helps him run a private "Black Museum" filled with murder and torture devices. Directed by Arthur Crabtree and written by Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel, the 1959 horror film also stars June Cunningham, Shirley Anne Field, Geoffrey Keen, Gerald Andersen, John Warwick, Beatrice Varley, Austin Trevor, Dorinda Stevens and Sydney Bromley.

The aforementioned binoculars kill? It opens the film. Cue more effective shudders and shivers than most horror flicks garner today. It's not a particularly graphic visual at all -- bright, syrupy, cherry red blood is the gore du jour in Horrors of the Black Museum and it's kept to a quaintly tasteful minimum by today's standards -- but the thought of it... that one will come back every time I see a pair of binoculars. Other kills aren't nearly as gruesome (the post-murder skinless skeleton is adorable), although I can only imagine the wide eyes and shielded faces of '50s moviegoers, not to mention the angry complaint letters, that greeted the film when it debuted in theaters. For its time, Horrors of the Black Museum is a nasty, sadistic bit of '50s exploitation that joins the likes of Peeping Tom (1960) as horror pics well ahead of their time. It's proto-Saw; an early evolutionary step that basks in the same revelry of violence, death and mutilation that modern horror has taken to its logical, albeit often unimaginative, gore-ific extreme. Bed-mounted guillotines, ice tongs, daggers and, I kid you not, a vat of acid. How much fun were the filmmakers having, cause I sure was while watching. More to the point, how many people engaged in that fun only to be misunderstood and derided by those who were still decades away from seeing bloodier horror take its place as a legitimate genre.

The kills may have been challenging for moviegoers in 1959 -- downright savage even, going substantially further than standard '50s sci-fi/horror fare -- but the acting remains pure, melodramatic Hammer-inspired camp. There's a joy to watching "dramatic" performances of eons past that now seem to all but celebrate overacting. Watch as famed actors in their prime gnaw on every word as if there's a chunk of gristle in each mouthful, spitting out sentences as if every frightened and frightful character's declaration is a dying one. I've never been fond of the style, nor am I now, but paired with the quaint mid-century scares, I think I'm starting to get the appeal. I found myself grinning, not watching the movie as intended originally, but watching with a sort of awe and appreciation Black Museum's charms that other horror contemporaries haven't inspired (minus select gems like, again, Peeping Tom). As a film, it's hardly timeless. You wouldn't mistake it for anything released recently unless a pair of rigged binoculars, well, ahem. But there's something to studying the building blocks of the things you love; the early beasties crawling out of the primordial genre ooze, slinking up the beach toward the likes of its future successors: Halloween, Scream, Saw and their ilk, along with "more respectable" off-genre standouts a la Blood Simple, The Silence of the Lambs and Nightcrawler.

Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Previous VCI Blu-ray releases haven't... been received well. And for good reason. However, it seems VCI is listening, even if the 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation of Horrors of the Black Museum and its source, a master created using a "new 4K scan of the original 35mm film elements", appears to come courtesy of Studio Canal rather than being an in-house production. I don't really care. All I care about is that the transfer is a departure from some of VCI's lesser restoration efforts and represents a welcome step up. Grain is intact and fairly consistent. There are moments when it spikes and gets a tad chunky and distracting, but these moments always appear to trace back to the source. Likewise, some shots are quite soft, something easily overlooked considering its 1959 low-budget origins. Detail on the whole, though, is impressive. Edges are clean and natural, fine textures are refined when the elements allow, and shadow delineation is notable. Moreover, colors are bright and vivid, bolstered by vibrant contrast leveling, deep black levels (that rarely blot out what lurks within) and convincing skintones. On occasion green and/or yellow tinting settles over the image (see screenshots 8, 19, 29, 34 and 37), robbing the palette of its more lifelike qualities. There are also a very small handful of shots that just look plain bad (see screenshot 32). Does any of it spoil the entire presentation? Goodness no. This isn't a perfect presentation, nor one that's been given the princely treatment of your average Criterion release. But the image pops, the remaster is more than competent, and print damage, wear and tear, specks, scratches and the like are virtually absent. I doubt we'll ever see a release of Horrors of the Black Museum that fares substantially better than this one.

Reviewer's note: there is one other issue I have with VCI's remastered presentation: there are a small number of scenes that appear, to my eye, to be oh so slightly stretched, as if the aspect ratio is off (see screenshots 8, 32 and 37). I suspect this is simply a product of the original photography, cameras, lens, etc. That's why I'm adding it as a note rather than factoring it into my video score or review. That said, if anyone else notices this mild aspect ratio oddity (again, maybe it's just me) and can point me in the right direction, I'll be happy to update the review accordingly.

Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

VCI has only included one audio option with the Blu-ray release of Horrors of the Black Museum: an LPCM 2.0 mix. There's not a ton to say on this one, and even less to criticize. This is largely a solid uncompressed audio offering that is faithful to the film's original sound design. Voices are clean and intelligible, effects are very much thin and canned (par for the '50s course), and only minor dips in clarity and fidelity are present. These, however, are seemingly unrepairable and inseparable from the now seventy-year-old elements, at least without higher end restorative equipment and AI trickery that will no doubt be available to restoration technicians in the near future. Bottom line? Horrors of the Black Museum sounds about as good as it feasibly could.

Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• New Audio Commentary - Noted film historian and artist Robert Kelly offers a retrospective view of Horrors of the Black Museum, its influence and legacy, details on everything from casting to performances to the careers of the actors in the film, and much more. This is a comprehensive and engaging commentary, even if it can be a bit dry now and again.

• Archival Audio Commentary - Writer/producer Herman Cohen passed away in 2002 but not before recording this solid commentary that allows the screenwriter to expound on the genesis of the idea behind the film, the challenges of dealing in then boundary-pushing horror, developing character "voices", and more.

• Tribute to Producer Herman Cohen (HD/SD, 20 minutes) - A nice mini-doc that digs into the films and career of Cohen, the story of how he came to Hollywood and began his work as a screenwriter, his move to producing, and his interest in developing movies that, at the time, were aimed primarily at teenagers searching for something different to watch.

• Two Archival Phone Interviews (HD/SD, 14 minutes) - Two phone interviews are included: the first with Cohen and the second with star Michael Gough. VCI made efforts to clean up sound distortion but it's still present (as is a quick apology from the BD producers noting the difficulty of perfectly restoring the recordings).

• 2018 Interview with Shirley Anne Field (SD, 22 minutes) - Actress Shirley Anne Field, who at the time of this writing passed away two days ago, sits down to discuss her career, her foray into acting, her work with Gough, and more.

• Original US Hypno-Vista Opening (SD, 12 minutes) - The film's original theatrical opening hasn't been restored or remastered but it's still a blast. Featuring psychologist and hypnotist Emile Franche, along with a warning to leave the theater if you've been hypnotized before.

• Original US Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3 minutes) - A fun little trailer.

• Original European Theatrical Trailer (HD, 3 minutes) - The "X-Certificate" warnings!

• Photo Gallery (HD, 4 minutes) - Marketing photographs, posters, lobby cards and more.

• 2-Sided Blu-ray Case CoverWrap - Reversible coverart features the film's original theatrical art and, on the flip-side, a new image with graphic design by Robert Kelly.

Horrors of the Black Museum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A strong video presentation, solid LPCM mix and generous selection of special features (including some newly produced extras) makes the Blu-ray release of Horrors of the Black Museum an easy one to recommend to anyone who enjoys early '50s and '60s horror. Better still, it's the type of early horror that was determined to push boundaries, challenge audiences and usher in a more modern spin on the classic creature feature, murder mystery and hokey frightfest.