CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTER 1968 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Rare and very well made British horror.

A man whose brother has disappeared starts a search and finds himself in an remote country house.

As he investigates further and further he slowly uncovers a witches curse and human sacrifices. Christopher Lee is Morley, a man with more than one secret to hide and Boris Karloff is Professor Marsh, an elderly man who collects instruments of torture.

Mark Eden is the man whose brother is gone and the lovely Virginia Wetherell is Eve, the niece of Morley. The highlight of the film is Barbara Steele in green body make-up as a witch named Lavinia.

The film opens with a bizarre sequence in which Steele and company or whipping a naked blonde on a table while trying to convince a man, who turns out to be the missing man in the film, to sign a book giving his soul to Satan.

This fim can sometimes be a little slow, but it is always intriguing and is a highly recommended piece of British horror. Steele makes this film worth watching and this is to take nothing away from Lee or Karloff. The print from Sinister is excellent and uncut.

The rest of the cast includes Michael Gough as a butler and Derek Tansley.