The casting is super: Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Michael Gough and Barbara Steele!! The atmosphere most of the time eerie & strange but some of it is rather over the top (the parties). It's something about this story that is lacking, rather dry - very drab. For me, this is not one of Tigon's better horror films. It is a watchable film just doesn't have what it takes to really bring me deeply into the story.It's your basic witch queen and devil worshiping cult type of film - it really needed something to make this film stand out more, I just don't know what. Maybe it was needing a bit more mysterious scenes or more bizarre characters? I like the film - but it's not a favorite.7/10

I'm neither old enough to have seen this sort of horror at the time (barely born, in fact) nor a real horror fan, but this came up late on BBC2.The opening scene is nicely weird enough, with various symbols of witchcraft, with various symbols in sorts of colourful panto vignettes and then soon settles into normal life, old cars, Britishness and all that.Looking for his disappeared brother, Robert Manning (a fairly ordinary, nice Mark Eden) drives off to this lodge, from where his brother's last letter was addressed from. On the way up, he is told that the village in question is holding an anniversary witchcraft celebration and finds cars of men chasing a girl running through the woods.Reaching the Lodge, the owner, one J D Morley (Peter Cushing, no less) naturally denies any knowledge but offers him a room for the night. As one (naturally) does, in a big, strange old house, where there was a party that involved painting young lady's breasts (and similar!), Manning accepts. A joke with one young seductress about 'the sort of old house from the movies, where Boris Karloff appears' is nicely tongue-in- cheek, as the other big star here, is indeed, Karloff himself.He plays a wheelchair-bound professor, who's hobby is collecting instruments of torture. And, of course there's a dodgy chauffeur who goes around shooting at things in the woods (including 'our' man) and who so happens to be mute and an even stranger caretaker. Them there's loads of kaleidoscopic hallucinatory nightmares, with electronically distorted sound FX that our Robert suffers, which are interesting, at least. Then he toddles off, sleepwalking down to the local graveyard.It's all hoary nonsense, of course, but whilst a bit dated, there's enough interesting characters played by interesting - and/or sexy people, if you get my drift, for the film to remain entertaining and enjoyable.I'd give the actual film 5/10 for its real merit and maybe 7 for the other, entertainment aspects, as I've outlined. I don't think many fans of this genre would be too disappointed either and for them it's definitely worth checking out.

I'm not looking for technical brilliance or award winning performances, just some fun entertainment to pass the evening.Of course, there is Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, along with Barbara Steele to provide some rather good acting in an otherwise low budget film.Like the hapless travelers in 2001 Maniacs, Robert (Mark Eden), looking for his brother, arrives at the time of the annual festival of a witch killed 200 years ago.Strange ceremonies and hypnotic trances cause us to wonder just what is going on. A simple revenge, or something more sinister? Virginia Wetherell provided nice eye candy in a film that was truly entertaining.

Boris Karloff was a wonderful actor and amazing guy--especially since he kept appearing in films well after death! If you check IMDb, you'll see three films that all came out AFTER he died in February, 1969. This film, while released in the UK in 1968 was released in the US in 1970--making it a fourth post-mortem film Karloff made! Much of the reason for this is that late in life the man made a ton of "guest appearances" in cheesy horror films, since he was a big name and apparently would work for little money. A few of these late appearances, like TARGETS, were exceptional films and many, like CHILDREN OF BLOOD, were cheap Mexican productions that should have embarrassed Karloff. I can only assume he really, really needed the money as he was confined to a wheelchair for many of these films--though he could walk about a bit if needed.CRIMSON ALTAR is a post-death film that falls between the bad ones and the exceptional ones. It has the benefit of good supporting acting from Christopher Lee but isn't as original or cool as TARGETS (a very under-appreciated classic) but is a genuinely chilling and interesting tale about witchcraft.The film begins with a witch trial back in the good old days. After the witch is roasted to a crackly perfection, the scene switches to the present time. A man is concerned because his brother was visiting a town (the same one that held this witch trial) and has disappeared, so he goes there in search of clues. And, naturally, given the cast, it isn't surprising when it turns out that there is a cult that worships this dead witch and they are responsible for the brother's disappearance.The film has many red herrings--false leads and twists. Many of them are very good, though the end almost seemed like it was concocted at the last minute. Still, there were enough chills and excitement to merit watching this film--particularly if you are a fan of Karloff or Lee.By the way, get a look at the guy with antlers and a leather thong, the goat-man as well as the sexy green witch! You just have to see them--trust me.