Chamber of Horrors

11/9/2025

**_Victorian horror revolving around a wax museum in Baltimore_** This was originally intended to be a pilot for a proposed TV series with the proprietors of the museum (Cesare Danova and Wilfrid Hyde-White) acting as amateur sleuths who assist the police with horrific cases. It was decided to release it theatrically because it was ostensibly too intense for television at the time. The gimmick of a “Fear Flasher” and corresponding “Horror Horn” were added to increase the runtime, along with a cameo by Tony Curtis. It comes in the tradition of Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which started the genre in 1841 and influenced Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, amongst others. The best film version of "Rue Morgue" is arguably the 1986 one with George C. Scott, Val Kilmer and Rebec

5/9/2026

This is clearly part two or three of five The movie feels like it is supposed to be mid-narrative from the start, with established characters that had arcs before this movie, and continue to have them afterwards. In that sense this feels like it is part two or three of a five-part movie series. The movie itself is great, a period piece, and while the "alarm" is sensationalist fluff for the era, and an artifact of its time, it is a bit of fun. The story, direction, casting and visualization is on point here. Well worth a watch.