鬼屋之影

     A quick glimpse at the cast for this film would make any horror fan giddy with glee       The actual movie doesn't live up to those high expectations, but it's far from being all bad       Desi Arnaz Jr       (!) plays an author who makes a crazy $20,000 bet with his publisher that he could write a great novel in only 24 hours       To do so, the publisher gives him the keys to an old abandoned house where he won't be disturbed       Not true       Once he gets there he is interrupted by a multitude of guests including a family which consists of John Carradine, Sheila Keith, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price       They are gathered there in a twisted family reunion to release their brother from the room he's been imprisoned in for forty years       Even Christopher Lee drops by as Corrigan, the man who has just purchased the house       Soon, they realize that the caged brother is loose and out for revenge      　　What a great plotline and what a dream cast! This movie should have been a hell of a lot better       It's hard to pinpoint the exact problems with the film, but I would venture to say that the lack of lighting was a major fault       Sure the house has no electricity but I think they took the title of the movie a little too literally       Scenes after scenes are barely visible and the actors' faces are undecipherable       Only the moments in the main dinning hall are well lit       Also, the great actors are given very little to do       Cushing gets a few chuckles as the scared brother but Price, Lee and especially Carradine are somewhat wasted here       Well, at least Price gets the best line of the film `Please don't interrupt me while I am soliloquizing      ' And on the plus side, the story has enough twists and turns throughout to keep one`s interest and the ending, while a bit of a cop-out, manages to surprise