The film opens with what appears to be a 17th Century New England scene. Women in bonnets in big black hats are gathered around a dirty, disheveled woman being tied to a stake. She is identified as Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel) who has been convicted of witchcraft. The angry villagers shout, “Burn, witch, burn†as the stake is lit.
Suddenly the scene changes to America circa 1960 and Christopher Lee is a professor lecturing a class and repeating, “Burn, witch, burn.†A bemused student (Richard Barlow played y Dennis Lotis) breaks the tension by joking in period slang, “Dig that crazy beat.â€ÂÂ
Lee’s character, Professor Alan Driscoll, appears to take a more than academic interest in his subject, regarding the magical powers of witchcraft as a true possibility. Nan Barlow (Venetia Stephenson) is intrigued and wants to investigate further for a paper. Driscoll directs her to the village of Whitewood which burned Elizabeth Selwyn some 300 hundred years ago and a hotel called the Raven’s Inn. It is run by Mrs. Newless who is played by Patricia Jessel in a double role. There things really get spooky.
Horror Hotel is an eerie and tightly directed movie that borrows from Hitchcock’s Psycho to superb effect. There are clichés in the movie such as the small town that seems perpetually laden with fog but they are used so effectively that they do not detract from the movie. Performances are universally excellent with Patricia Jessel outstanding in both her roles as she plays Mrs. Newless with a creepy, dignified, almost majestic confidence. Christopher Lee conveys his usual sense of menace in an unusually small role. Bass-voiced Valentine Dyall is another who sends shivers up the spine in Horror Hotel.
Venetia Stephenson is sympathetic as the earnest, studious, and somewhat naïve Nan Barlow while Betta St. John does well in the similar role of another visitor to the mysterious Whitewood, Patricia Russell. Norman Macowan is convincing as the frightened blind pastor of an empty church. Ann Beach turns in a noteworthy and nuanced performance in the role of the mute, concerned servant Lottie.
Horror Hotel lives up to its title.
