This horror chiller starts with a great title sequence that features some Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein-inspired animation. Halfway through the credits, there is a freeze frame on a skull for what feels like an eternity. The music continues, but there are no titles flashing on the screen. This went on so long I thought my Roku crapped out on me. Just when I was about to get up to grab the remote, the skull’s head suddenly popped open, giving me a slight jolt. Kudos to the credits people who designed that effective bit.
A photographer (Jean-Pierre Aumont) comes to a small village to do a story on a reclusive blind sculptor named Franz (Boris Karloff). Little does he know his wife (Viveca Lindfors) has been using the bones of her murder victims as the armatures in his sculptures. Once Franz realizes his wife is a deranged murderess (and an adulterer too), he puts his foot down and tries to put a stop to her deadly game.
Cauldron of Blood kind of plays like a loose remake of A Bucket of Blood. Only this time the sculptor uses bones under his clay instead of whole bodies. (Who needs a bucket when you got a whole cauldron?) The idea of a blind sculptor is pretty funny, but they wisely don’t play it for laughs.
It’s not successful overall, but it’s quirky and watchable. Whenever things threaten to get too dull, something weird will happen to give you the confidence to continue to plow through. I think my favorite bit was the dream sequence that featured Nazi torture, kaleidoscopic effects, and a melting face. The odd freeze frames and random cutaways to lightning striking during the other horrific scenes makes me think this might have been cut to get its PG rating. Then again, there’s also a little bit of nudity in there too, so who knows?
This was one of Karloff’s final performances, as it was made shortly before the quartet of Mexican quickies that proved to be his swan song. Lindfors does most of the heavy lifting as the feeble Boris mostly sits around wearing oversized sunglasses. She’s pretty entertaining to watch though, so it’s a reasonable enough trade-off.
Sure, Cauldron of Blood drags, but then again so did every other fucking movie I watched this week. Despite that, it’s got personality, an offbeat vibe, and a pretty gnarly climax. There are worse Karloff quickies out there, that’s for sure.
AKA: Blind Man’s Bluff. AKA: Children of Blood. AKA: Death Comes for the Dark. AKA: The Corpse Collectors. AKA: The Shrinking Corpse.
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