... and a second opinion by Dale Pierce ...
When one reads a title such as
Ring of Terror, I think sports horror come to mind. Terror within a
bullfighting ring like in my Play me The Song of Death or within a wrestling
ring like in They’re Tearing Down Joe Finn’s Arena, from my own books?
Okay, if I do not toot my own horn, how about horror in a boxing ring as
in The Ring With The Red Velvet Ropes which appeared in a short story and
a Twilight Zone short? Or even the ringing of a telephone as in
Sorry,
Wrong Number or Don’t Answer the Phone. Or better still, like
When A
Stranger Calls!
The key point is one expects some frightening content.
With a cast that is far too elderly, leaving supposed
“students” to resemble
teachers in age instead, the story takes ploy and it is fairly lame.
In viewing, one can hardly get over this horrible miscasting and
buy into the plot from the very start, making the whole venture worthless.
There is, in fairness to the film, a fine musical score. Most
everything else stops there.
The plot could have worked with a better cast and with some jazzing
up. Instead we have what could have made a decent short story or one of
three tales had someone made a movie like say, Creepshow, Tales
that
Witness Madness, The House
that Dripped Blood or Twilight Zone - The Movie.
The plot is too short to be
drafted out into a feature film, but dragged it is.
The story deals with a particularly unconvincing college student
who again is far too old for
the part and fraternity initiations, again with actors far too old for
their roles. Said
“student” suffers a
set of neurotic dreams that indicate a fear of dead bodies, though there
is no logical reason for the same and on the surface he seems quite
unaffected by autopsies and the like.
By the time the reason for his fear is explained, no one watching
really cares.
It seems when he was a boy, his grandfather’s coffin was left in
the house for a wake and he was terrified by the sight. His mother told
him if h e did not stop making such a fuss his grandfather was going to
rise from the grave and punish him, which led to his first nightmare and
the many more to follow.
With this in mind the formula for disaster is set.
As an initiation, prospective students into a
fraternal order are sent on ludicrous assignments, like one guy who
is supposed to collect a penny from everyone living on a long street and a
fat guy who is supposed to go without food except bread and water. Our
“hero” is sent to a graveyard and told to break into a tomb, for the
other students have found out about his fear.
In the process and in predictable form where you know something is
going to go wrong, our man gets trapped in the mausoleum and dies of
fright.
That’s it! I am not kidding you! That is it!
The premise was handled much better and in much shorter form in an
old Twilight Zone episode
The Grave with
Lee Marvin’s gunfighter being dared to go up to a cemetery where an
outlaw has been ambushed and stick his knife into the grave site to prove
he was there. (He ends up
jabbing the knife into his coat tale and as he leaves thinks the dead man
has reached up and grabbed him, where he then dies from fright).
A dull and unconvincing film that could have had some moments with
simple common sense, this movie still crops up on television now and again. It may also be seen on old
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 repeats and
on DVD in one of their box sets. Having the cast of MST 3000 savage this
film with their usual wisecracks and catcalls make it watchable for
laughs.
Ring of Terror is such an ominous title, but as with many films, an
interesting title does not a great film make.
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Ring of Terror at adultvideouniverse.com
