NEWS: THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD : SOUNDTRACK VINYL LP LIMITED RELEASE

NEWS: JUST LAST WEEK, 'Kritzerland' exclusively released something that would look and SOUND very nice in anyone's Amicus Films collection, the soundtrack vinyl LP to the 1971 portmanteau thriller / horror, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD . . and very nice it sounds too! I have never been a fan of most of the Amicus scores, but composer Michael Dress certainly offers more than what was often quite abstract and contemporary and personally the 'tunes' of Elisabeth Lutyens or the swings of Douglas Gamley in Amicus' The Beast Must Die', didn't do much for me.

HOWEVER, the score of THTDB has some gems. Not a lot is known about composer Michael Dress, but his very short filmography does include some very interesting films and scores, including Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx, which starred a very young Gene Wilder, and an interesting sci-fi film, The Mind of Mr. Soames, as well as A Touch of Love, starring Sandy Dennis.

FEATURE AND GALLERY ON CUSHING AND 'THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD' HERE!

DRESS CREATED a wonderfully atmospheric score – some of it lives in the world of Humphrey Searle’s The Haunting, but Dress’s music is his own and it really gives the stories in the film an interesting texture and feel. There’s a lot of percussion and weird effects, organ, a solo female voice floating in the air, harpsichord, vibes, strings – it’s all very hallucinogenic and off-kilter and really wonderful. This is the premiere release of The House that Dripped Blood. The transfers were made from the 35mm magnetic music-only mixing elements and the mono sound is crisp and clear and really excellent. You can find more details about this release later today at the PCAS website and a source were you can sample a few tracks. It's wonderful news that even though this is a very limited release, for those who appreciate and collect such rare items, this is now available to add to your collection Is there a AMICUS score you would love on CD???

MORE ON PETER CUSHING and AMICUS FILMS, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD HERE! 

 

TO PLACE YOUR ORDER for THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD soundtrack CD and to sample some TRACKS just CLICK HERE! 

#ONSETSATURDAY : THE BEAST MUST DIE : ANTON DIFFRING IN THE MAKE UP CHAIR!

#ONSETSATURDAY This week we visit that Amicus favourite, THE BEAST MUST DIE, with a rare shot of ANTON DIFFRING in the make up chair of Paul Rabiger. An interesting film in the Cushing portfolio, is a horror film, a thriller, a who done it??? The answer is probably, it's all three! With it's excellent 'WEREWOLF BREAK' a quite eclectic cast, headed by Peter Cushing, Charles Gray and werewolf hunter, Calvin Lockhart, who sounds like he's just popped over during a tea break from the Royal Shakespeare company's production of 'As You Like it'. It's not one of my favourites, and the music score I find so bad, I have been known to watch the entire film with the volume down. Amicus films, didn't have those memorable scores, like many of the Hammer films, and went down the route of employing Douglas Gamley (1924–1998) to score this one, and many of the portmanteau films. Just my opinion, but I am not a fan. 

Mind you, he's not quite as bad as Elisabeth Lutyens ...who scored Dr Terrors House of Horrors. Her avant-garde blackboard scrapings, set me on edge. Maybe, that was what they were meant to do??? What is YOUR favourite AMICUS film score??

MORE  on THE BEAST MUST DIE at our 

FEATURE and PHOTO GALLERY : HERE