Review of Horrors of the Black Museum

Some viewers seeing this movie decades after it was made may never have seen the thirteen minute prologue that was tacked on for American audiences. If at all possible, try to see this version. The lecture/demonstration on hypnosis by Dr. Emile Franchel is more entertaining than anything in the movie that follows it. Dr. Franchel does his best to convince the audience that anyone can fall under the spell of a hypnotist, especially those people who claim they can't be hypnotized. He experiments with making the audience feel cold, then hot, and to resist the overpowering urge to yawn when you see someone else yawning. The actual movie starring Michael Gough is likely to keep most viewers awake, even if the film is dated. The shocking violence that occurs at the beginning sets the tone for the rest of the picture. There are parts that seem unintentionally funny at times, but the overall impact is pretty disturbing. It has less to do with the murders and torture machines than the truly sick and twisted character of Edmond Bancroft, played by Gough. It's hard to define, but he brings this repulsive character to life almost too convincingly. You actually begin to believe that he is the monstrous character he's playing. The film isn't very remarkable, aside from Gough's performance, except as a peek beneath the surface of respectable English life in the Fifties.SPOILERS AHEAD: I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, or will agree with my theory, but I get a very strong and uncomfortable suggestion of an unhealthy homosexual relationship between Bancroft and the young man who assists him. The older man's possessive nature, his fury at finding the young man kissing his girlfriend right in the Black Museum that Bancroft has previously described as being their own private world, his raging denunciation after the young woman has left that women can't be trusted with secrets, and especially the scene where Bancroft acts fatherly in a creepy way. He tells his young assistant that it's really his own fault for not having given the lad his injections often enough, and proceeds to dose the passive youth with some kind of drug, telling him it's for his own good. There is something way beyond creepy in these sequences, though whether it was intentional or not, I couldn't say. This infamous cult film should be seen at least once, just out of curiosity, but be warned, it leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth.