Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)

Producer Herman Cohen's contribution to Anglo-Amalgamated's trio of 'Sadean' releases of 1959 (the others being Michael Powell's PEEPING TOM and Sidney Hayers' CIRCUS OF HORRORS) gets a UK Blu-ray release from Studio Canal.

A girl unwraps a parcel, puts the binoculars she finds inside to her eyes, adjusts the focus and two spikes shoot into her eye sockets. It's just the latest in a series of gruesome killings in which Scotland Yard are baffled, which is good for us the audience as it means we get to see more of them, including a decapitation by guillotine and death by huge ice tongs.

But who's responsible for this? Well it becomes very obvious early on so it's not a spoiler to say that it's mad best-selling writer Michael Gough, who lives in the kind of a lovely house that comes with an immense secret torture dungeon basement complete with always-bubbling acid vat. 

Director Arthur Crabtree was never one of the 'UK greats' and HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM isn't even his personal best (that's probably FIEND WITHOUT A FACE) but even the static camera setups and long takes can't take detract from the fact that this is an entertaining and extremely lurid pulp thriller, with Gough going so over the top you almost expect lasers to shoot from his eyes towards the end. 

Extras on Studio Canal's Blu-ray includes the 11 minute 'Hypnovista' introduction tacked onto the front of the US version, in which a 'psychologist and hypnotist' takes you through a number of scenarios, many of which have nothing to do with hypnosis at all, but then neither does the film. It begins with him yawning and suggesting you are now going to do the same. You certainly might be by the end of this but not for the reasons he states. 

There'a a new commentary track from Kim Newman and Stephen Jones which is as entertaining and fact-filled (and opinionated!) as always, and an interview with Kim Newman about the film that lasts 21 minutes. I agree with him that out of all the movies released in this period HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM would have been the SAW of its day. You also a lobby cards gallery and trailer, and the DVD & Blu-ray comes with four art cards. 

HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM is out on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download from Studio Canal on Monday 15th January 2024