Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

kevinsinnot Very atmospheric although the acting is a little wooden. Some basic historical research would have helped to make it a little more realistic. Those accused of witchcraft were not burned at the stake in North American colonies. They were usually hanged or drowned.

Tweekums Student Nan Barlow is fascinated by the lectures given by Professor Alan Driscoll on the subject of witchcraft in seventeenth century New England and tells him of her intention to spend a fortnight investigating the subject in the area. He suggests that she goes to the town of Whitewood in Massachusetts and stay at the Raven's Nest Hotel. She heads there and finds a particularly spooky town with constant swirling mists and strange locals. She explores and is warned to leave by the vicar. After that she goes to a shop run by the vicar's granddaughter, Patricia, and borrows a book. It tells of witchcraft and devil worship in the area… particularly of interest is the story of Elizabeth Selwyn who was burnt in the site of the hotel in 1692. Talk of what happens next would spoil one's enjoyment of the film!This may be a low budget film from almost sixty years ago but it is still surprisingly creepy. It contains some good twists; including one genuinely shocking one. The town is very atmospheric… a fair portion of the budget must have gone on all the dry ice used to make the fog! There are some scary moments and a few violent moments… they may be tame by the standards of modern horror but are still effective. The cast is solid; Christopher Lee puts in an impressive performance as Professor Driscoll. The other, less well known cast members are good too; most notably Venetia Stevenson as Nan; Dennis Lotis, as her brother Richard and Betta St. John as Patricia. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of classic horror.

Bezenby This one has similarities to Psycho as the heroine of the piece is killed about halfway through the film at a remote hotel, but this is a way different film about witches, devil worship, and not trusting Christopher Lee.You see, at the start of the film we get a quick intro of a witch called Elizabeth Selwyn being burned at the stake while her partner in crime Jethro watches. Turns out though she really is a witch and starts laughing! Fast forward to the end of the fifties, and student Nan Barlow is all hooked on the history of witches by her teacher Christopher Lee, who suggests that if she's so interested in witch burnings, she should head for the New England town of whitewood and check out the history there.This she does, much to the protests of her boyfriend and her teacher brother. Heading to Whitewood, she discovers that the place has a really bad fog problem like some late eighties Italian film director has been let loose on the place, the locals are creepy bastards who love staring at her, and the landlady of the local hotel is a dead ringer for Elizabeth Selwyn! Don't worry though, her name is Mrs Newless, although it's not established if her first name is Htebazile.After meeting a grand total of two friendly people in town (the blind priest and his granddaughter), Nan's in serious trouble from devil worshipper and disappears. It's up to her brother and boyfriend to get to the bottom of what's going before someone else is sacrificed for Satan.Very atmospheric, not to mention foggy, with a lot of visual references to fire, great use of shadow with even a noirish quality to it all, Horror Hotel may not be the most eventful film but certainly has a certain vibe to it all. Loads of echoes of this in future films like Messiah Of Evil and The Devil's Rain. Nice to see Christopher Lee being part of a group of bad guys rather than the main bad guy - it also reminded me a bit of Carnival of Souls too

TheRedDeath30 This was the first movie made by Amicus Productions, who would go on to be Hammer's chief rival in the world of British horror. With such a stellar start as this, it's no wonder they quickly gained a following among the horror masses. The movie revolves around a New England town that burns a witch at the stake, but not before she has a chance to curse the town and all its' inhabitants for all time. Fast forward to present day and young, pretty college student Nan is studying witchcraft. Her professor sends her to this same town to help gather material for her term paper and, naturally, she finds that black magic still runs amok in this foggy little town.There is certainly a lot to enjoy in this movie. I have a special fondness for the satanic/witch cult movies that seemed so prevalent in the 60s and 70s and this movie is full of hooded villains doing the dark lord's bidding. Whether or not they are alive or dead is a mystery I shall leave you to find out on your own. The setting of the film is magnificent. They must have rented every fog machine in England to give this a classic Universal look, full of shadows and mist. There's almost a sense that the town exists in a world of its' own, as in several instances in the film, as travelers approach the town, the ghostly fog seems to signal their arrival in the mystical borders. The town looks great, like something lost in time, full of cobwebs, old cemeteries and a rundown church. The director does an excellent job of using the setting and a lot of chiarascuro (light and shade) to create an unsettling feeling in the movie, where you know that no one is ever quite safe.It's not without a few drawbacks, though. While the look of the movie holds up really well, there are some early 60s style marks that set it firmly in its' place. The acting is never subtle and there are a few scenes particularly (the cemetery climax for instance) where the overacting is fairly noticeable. Nan, our main heroine, seems to be far too naive about the situation she's just entrenched herself in as she cheerfully studies the town's history amidst ominous warnings. We get the obligatory scene that seemed so common in horror and sci-fi of this era where the filmmaker assumes we are idiots with no knowledge and rather than let this background info unfold organically, we are treated to a scholarly debate between two educated men who argue the reason-ability of these beliefs in a thinly veiled effort to teach us what we need to know in their dialog. In this case, a conversation between Christopher Lee and Nan's brother at the beginning of the film. Having watched a LOT of old horror, I can't tell you how many times I've seen this exact thing play out in films from BLACK LAGOON to MOLE PEOPLE. While we're discussing similarities, there are some striking similarities to a pair of movies released just a year before this. There is some tonality in common with Mario Bava's BLACK Sunday as both films revolve around a condemned witch wreaking havoc in modern times. There is also a lot of stylistic comparison to PSYCHO. In both films a young blonde goes to a small town hotel and suffers an untimely fate. In both films, we get a switch of protagonist as our first heroine (who we think will be the main character) suffers a cruel fate and another heroine steps in to solve the murder. I think these are coincidental though as all 3 of these movies would have been in production are roughly the same time.All in all, while not one of the best movies of the 60s that I have seen, this is certainly worth the viewing.