Happy Halloween. If yesterday’s Free Friday Fright: Pick Your Halloween Night was about choosing one film, today is about not choosing at all. Legend (Freeview 41) is spending Halloween afternoon and evening on five vintage horrors back to back: a haunted house, a heatwave, an island of bone-hungry blobs, a gorgon and a mummy. They’re odd, a bit wrong, very watchable, and there’s nothing to pay. All times are UK time, and remember the clocks went back last Sunday, so it gets dark early. That’s ideal.
12pm: House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Vincent Price plays Frederick Loren, a millionaire who rents a “haunted” mansion for his wife’s party and offers five strangers $10,000 each if they stay locked in until morning. Then the lights go out, the guns come out, and there’s a vat of acid in the cellar. Price is all silky menace, Carol Ohmart is a match for him as his wife, and Elisha Cook Jr. gets the best doom-laden lines. In cinemas, William Castle had a plastic skeleton flown over the audience on a wire at the big moment. You’ll have to do that bit yourself. Directed by William Castle. 75 minutes.
1:25pm: Night of the Big Heat (1967)
A freak heatwave hits a remote island off the English coast in the middle of December, and the villagers begin to sweat, snap and fall to pieces while something glowing gathers outside. Peter Cushing is the scientist who works out what is happening, Christopher Lee the brooding visitor who has his own ideas, and Patrick Allen the writer caught in the middle. It is a cosy, claustrophobic disaster film with a lovely sense of dread, and the cast play it dead straight. Directed by Terence Fisher. About 94 minutes.
3:10pm: Island of Terror (1966)
On a remote island off the Irish coast, a lab experiment goes wrong and the locals start turning up as boneless heaps. Peter Cushing and Edward Judd are the doctors called in from London, and the culprits turn out to be slow, slurping, shell-backed blobs that split in two after every meal. It’s a siege film with brilliant, cheap and utterly bonkers monsters, and Cushing plays it all completely straight, which makes it even better. Made by Planet Films rather than Hammer, but with a Hammer director. Directed by Terence Fisher. About 89 minutes.
4:50pm: The Gorgon (1964)
Proper Hammer now. In the village of Vandorf, people keep being found turned to stone, and nobody will talk about the ruined castle on the hill. Peter Cushing is the cagey local doctor, Christopher Lee the brusque professor who comes to find out the truth, and Barbara Shelley the assistant with blackouts on the nights of the full moon. Look out for Patrick Troughton as the police inspector. It’s slow, sad and beautiful, more fairy tale than shocker, with a gorgeous James Bernard score. Directed by Terence Fisher. 83 minutes.
6:25pm: The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964)
Fun fact: in October 1964 this went out in British cinemas on a double bill with The Gorgon, so Legend is putting the original pairing back together. Egypt, 1900. Archaeologists dig up the mummy of the prince Ra-Antef, and a brash American showman, played by Fred Clark, ships it to London to tour as a sideshow. You can guess how that goes. Terence Morgan is the smooth stranger who knows more than he lets on, and Hammer regular Michael Ripper turns up too. There’s no Cushing or Lee this time, but it’s a brisk, colourful monster romp and a nice way to end the afternoon. Directed by Michael Carreras. 80 minutes.
How to plan your Halloween
- 12pm: House on Haunted Hill. Lunch on your lap.
- 1:25pm: Night of the Big Heat. Open a window, if you dare.
- 3:10pm: Island of Terror. Close the curtains.
- 4:50pm: The Gorgon. Trick-or-treat peak, so keep the sweets by the sofa.
- 6:25pm: The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb. Tea on a tray.
- About 7:45pm: done, with the rest of the evening free.
If you want to keep going, Legend Xtra (Freeview 42) has Deep Rising (1998), a tongue-in-cheek sea monster film, at 10pm. It’s not vintage, but it’s very silly.
The late one: set the recorder
The Fall of the House of Usher (1950), Talking Pictures TV (Freeview 82), 2:45am in the early hours of Sunday 1 November. This is a very obscure, very British, low-budget take on Poe, with Kaye Tendeter as Roderick Usher and Gwen Watford as his sister. It’s creaky in the best way and a genuine rarity. Directed by Ivan Barnett. About 70 minutes.
A quick word on schedules
These times come from the Legend, Legend Xtra and Talking Pictures TV guides as checked in October. Channels do shuffle things around, especially at Halloween, so check the Legend guide (and Legend Xtra’s) on the day before you settle in. All five Legend films are on the free-to-air channel, so you need nothing more than a Freeview box or TV.
Over to you
Are you doing the full marathon, or just dipping in? And which monster wins: Vincent Price’s skeleton, the blobs, the gorgon or the mummy? Tell me in the comments.
Odd, a bit wrong, very watchable, nothing to pay. Happy Halloween.
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