Crucible of Terror (1972)

Very slow, atmospheric, acting OK, Not recommended Most of the acting sucked. The painters acting was the best. He actually looks like Christopher Lee and is a better actor than Lee. Some killings were good, but the whole story was slow and needed a much better script. The cinematography was good, and the movie had atmosphere. It's a mystery but not enough clues given to solve this mess. The ending was spelled out, too contrived to wrap this thing up.Rating is a C- for effort, or 4 stars. I cannot recommend. But if you do watch, there are a few interesting scenes.

"Crucible of Terror" is potentially interesting but nevertheless poor 70's horror of which the weak storyline constantly bounces back and forth between two popular horror themes; namely the house-of-wax theme and the satanic-cult theme. Especially this last theme was used frequently during the early 70's, with other (and better) titles such as "The Blood on Satan's Claw" and "To The Devil a Daughter". The story of this fun turkey revolves on an art-gallery owner and his gorgeous girlfriend encountering a hugely eccentric sculptor and his messed up family. I'm not sure I understood all the bizarre family relations but I think the artist lives together with his demented wife as well as with his mistress. Meanwhile, he also successfully woos the wife of his alcoholic son... Then there's also this elderly guy living in the same house but I have absolutely no idea what his position is towards the rest of the family. Anyway, one of all these annoying people is a vicious murderer and, even though you absolutely can't see it coming, the revelation of his/her identity is utterly ludicrous! "Crucible of Blood" contains some enjoyable sequences, more particularly the gross murders, but overall it's boring and unoriginal low-budget trash. The female actresses are painfully untalented but look very ravishing and Mike Raven is completely miscast as the womanizing artist. He looks somewhat like a crossover between Christopher Lee and David Carradine but totally lacks the charisma of both. In fact, this "Crucible of Blood" would work a lot better as a British government film to promote the tourist opportunities of Cornwall, because the filming locations are really beautiful and well-illustrated by cinematographer Peter Newbrook. As a shocking horror film, however, it's not the least bit impressive.

~Spoiler~ Crucible of Terror...nice title. As soon as the film started, I was thinking to myself "I liked this movie better when it was called A Bucket of Blood." It does become its own film as it goes on, however, it might have been a better idea to just rip off Corman's masterpiece. It seems an artist (cult figure Mike Raven) likes to create sculptures from live women and it turns out that they sell rather well. So a gallery owner finds the home of the recluse sculptor and tries to proposition him to make more works of art. Once there, people start dropping off one at a time, the norm for the genre. What's not normal is the copious amounts of red herrings thrown into the mix. Is it the eccentric artist Victor, his jealous son (played by Ronald Lacey of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame), the crazy wife, or the knowledgeable assistant? You'll never guess, so don't bother. The ending was just so random, but after thinking about the previous murders and some bit of exposition, it did make some sense. Still, don't go out of your way to watch this one.

A cheaply made British film from the early 1970s is what CRUCIBLE OF TERROR is , but you`ll never believe how bad it is untill you actually watch it . The plot is just basically a whodunnit where it`s so obvious that you know straight from the first murder who`s behind the killings , except at the very end there`s a plot twist that will have you reeling and not in a good way either . It`s as though the producer realised how obvious the killer was that he instructed the screenwriter to forgo any credibility to make ( You`ll never guess who ) the murderer at the very last minute . The other thing that had me reeling was the performance of Mike Raven who struck me as a cross between Roger Delgado ( The original master from Doctor Who ) and Christopher Lee . It`s not too difficult to believe that Mr Raven disappeared from the acting world after making this crazy movie