Theatre of Blood (1973)

Autumn has finally arrived and Halloween month is right around the corner. In my book there's no better way to celebrate the season than by watching a bunch horror movies. When it comes to horror actors Vincent Price is among the all time greates and I was so happy to finally watch 'Theatre of Blood' from 1973.

Vincent Price plays an devoted stage actor named Lionheart. He refuses to play in anything other than Shakespeare, and is considered somewhat of a joke among the critics. After not receiving a prestigious award he gets devastated and jumps in the river, and is presumed dead. Two years later someone starts killing members of the Critic's Guild. All the murders are ispired by deaths in Shakespeare plays. Lionheart is back to have his revenge.

'Theatre of Blood' is not a straight up horror movie. It's sort of a mixture between horror and comedy. It has some really dark and disturbing moments but can suddenly be extremely funny and even kinda campy. An example is when Lionheart has a sword fight with one of the critics and he suddenly makes a somersault for no apparent reason. After that both Lionheart and his adversary goes on to jumping on trampolines where they continue the sword fight. Good stuff!

It should come as no surprise that Vincent Price completely steals the show. Most of the critics are portrayed as a buch of boring and pretentious wankers, and despite him being the villain you'll find yourself cheering for Lionheart all the way.
In a way Lionheart also proofs himself being right all along about his brilliance as an actor. He takes on a number of disguises and plays out roles right in front of  the critics without them realizing it's already too late. Some of the disguises are so freakin hilarious. My favourite is the one where he takes the role of a flamboyant, gay hair dresser with a sweet afro. He's totally pulling it off and I just lost it in that scene. I simply love that Vincent Price gets so much to work with. He's amazing in this movie and through the character Lionheart, he truly proves his own genious as an actor.

The movie is a love letter not only to the horror genre, but also the works of Shakespeare. It has some great scenes where Lionheart does monologues from the classic plays and it really made me want to get more into Shakespeare.

All in all 'Theatre of Blood' is a fantastic movie. It has a great combination of horror and comedy with the brilliant Vincent Price at his finest. I'm already looking forward to watching it again, but the season has just yet started and will hopefully have more horror classics up its sleeves.