VCI Entertainment has a “Restored Uncut Special Edition” Blu-ray ready for shipment on Dec. 12 of director Arthur Crabtree’s 1959 horror gem that urged audiences to kindly wait in the lobby during the opening sequences if they were susceptible to being hypnotized!!
Of course we are taking about Horrors of the Black Museum, and anyone foolish enough to follow that advice would have missed the bizarre murder of Gail (Dorinda Stevens). It was quite a shocking opening … package arrives, she opens it, binoculars enclosed, she takes a look-see through them, adjusts the focus and two spikes pierce her eyeballs and impale her brain. DEAD!
As it turns out, poor Gail is not the first mysterious murder of a young woman in the London area. Two others have also died horribly in recent weeks … the murders remain unsolved.
No worries, Scotland Yard Inspector Graham (played by Geoffrey Keen … recurring role as “Minister of Defense” in six 007 films, beginning with The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 and finishing up with The Living Daylights ten years later) and Police Inspector Lodge (John Warwick) are on the case. Enter Edmond Bancroft (played by Michael Gough, perhaps best known as Alfred in Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin), a “crime journalist” and author of mystery books, who examines the deadly binoculars and all but accuses the police of being incompetent.
As events unfold we begin to suspect that Bancroft knows a whole lot more about the murders than he lets on, especially when his assistant, Joan (June Cunningham) has her head separated from her body — in bed — by a makeshift guillotine!!
Horrors of the Black Museum is a wonderful horror entry cloaked as a crime mystery. More victims will also meet grisly ends before the “incompetent” authorities solve the case … solve the mystery of the “Black Museum.”
Bonus features include two commentary options. The first is a newly prepared commentary with film historian Robert Kelly, and the second is an archival commentary with writer and producer Herman Cohen.
Other bonus nuggets include the aforementioned opening with “psychologist” Emile Franchel, a video tribute to Herman Cohen (producer/writer of I was a Teenage Werewolf, I was a Teenage Frankenstein and How to Make a Monster) and vintage featurette with Herman Cohen.
A DVD purchasing option will also be available on Dec. 12.
