Cast:
William Prince (Rodney Barrett), Jim Backus (Police Chief Jim Tyloe), Christine White (Nancy Wetherby Tyloe), Jacqueline Scott (Polly Baron), Susan Morrow (Sylvia Stevenson), Jonathan Kidd (Ed Quigley), Philip Tonge (Jode Wetherby), Dorothy Morris (Alice Barrett), Howard Hoffman (Hummel), and Ellen Corby (Miss Kushins) Directed and Produced by William Castle (#369 - House on Haunted Hill (1959), #1071 - 13 Ghosts, #1418 - The Night Walker, #1703 - Undertow)
Review:
Admittedly, the gimmick used for the film is probably more interesting than the final result. If one remembers correctly, William Castle had a serviceable career in the eyes of B-movies and quickly made stuff. But he had a yearning for more, and it was the success of the 1955 French film Les Diaboliques (which had aa message at the end telling people not to spoil the ending they just saw to others that hadn't seen it yet) that inspired him to make his own shockers for the masses...complete with a campaign. Of course, Castle wasn't particularly new to doing campaigns. One time, in his days of theatre work, having gotten the chance to lease one out, he had to come up with a German play for his German-born actress to act in (ask yourself why that would be a rule for a theater guild in the 1930s), so he did that over a weekend. Then, he turned a telegram inviting his actress abroad into a chance to call his star "the girl who said no to Hitler"...and then secretly vandalized the theatre with swastikas. Anyway, Castle bought the rights to an obscure-ish novel in The Marble Forest (as written by a few writers of the "Mystery Writers of America", who used the psuedonym Theo Durran). He had Robb White (a partner in the production company with Castle) write a screenplay around it; Castle would utilize White (an adventure novelist and occasional film/TV writer) for four further features. Macabre was the first of what became seventeen films from 1958 to 1974 that had their tinges of horror to go with the occasional gimmick to promote it. An audience member was given a "$1,000 life insurance policy from Lloyd's of London" in case they died of fright from the film; Castle mortaged his house to do the film. Incidentally, a few months after the release of this film, The Screaming Skull (as distributed by American International) had an opening prologue that said the film was so frightening that it might kill its viewer (unlike Castle though, they didn't actually contact an insurance company or hire nurses for the premiere).
For all the nice things in general one can say about Castle as a filmmaker and in general when it comes to cheap little horror movies, this just isn't that good of an experience. It is a very average and very drawn-out movie for 72 minutes that honestly begs to be twenty minutes longer somehow. There actually are a few flashbacks in the film that try to string us along when it comes to the mystery of just why someone might want to mess with a guy by burying their daughter alive. The sordid stuff that comes (flings with women, people lurking around graveyards, phone calls of terror) is basically the stuff you might see in a crime drama or a soap opera, but the movie just isn't as compelling as one would wish it could be. One could've called it anything other than Macabre, because even though the definition involves "gruesome" things, it just ends up making one believe that the end result fits under "generic". Prince has a bit of punch when it comes to the unraveling of what one really is beyond first impressions, with that panic for the initial pursuit at least being handled with Scott for something worthwhile...for a time. The twist is just straight out of the soap playbook that basically throw the book back at the viewer, but with a lack of cast to begin with, the mystery of what lies beneath the box isn't exactly a hard one to stab a guess on. Backus sounds like he should have more to chew on beyond mild aggression that barely registers even after the story "turns" to flashback. One can see that slow step from making B-flair in say, noir trappings (but with a funny gimmick) to the eventual turn in curious horror (B-flair or not, you be the judge). In general, it is a perfectly mediocre movie, being more known for a gimmick than being good, but if you are curious for what lies beneath the works of William Castle in what he is best known for, go and lurk for oneself.
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
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