"Im Banne des Unheimlichen" or "The Zombie Walks" or "The hand of Power" is a German color movie from 1968, so not too long anymore until this film has its 50th birthday. If you read the name of the director Alfred Vohrer, the name of writer Ladislas Fodor and the name of lead actor Joachim Fuchsberger, you will realize immediately that this is another West German movie adaptation of the Edgar Wallace crime novels. This trio worked on many of these. There is one unusual thing about this one here and that is the title. Usually, it includes the name of the main antagonist, mostly a non-human creature (that is in fact a human dressing up), so this film also could have been called "The Laughing Corpse", but it is not. The rest of it is the usual though. It runs for under 90 minutes, there are several unrealistic plot twists, unsuccessful attempts at humor (especially at the very ending for example the sound effect when she injects herself the deadly poison) and of course many characters with whom you can never be sure who's the good guy and who is the bad guy. And the women are also always the same in these films in the way they were written, which is pretty tough as they are really just vehicles to the story or to make the police detective look good. No strong characters here in terms of females. As a whole, I thought this was a pretty mediocre watch, like basically almost all the other Wallace films. Kinda disappointing looking at how America and the UK dished out one good Bond film after the other during that era. I give "Im Banne des Unheimlichen" a thumbs-down.

Basically all of these German movies based on the Edgar Wallace novels are being pretty silly and even bad ones but thing about them it that they are being so (delibertatly) silly that it actually does work out as great entertainment.The psychedelic '60's was nearing its end, so so was this movie series, featuring the Inspektor Higgins characters. And I'm also glad because of that, since there is no way really that this type of movie would had worked out in any other decade than the '60's. It's perfectly silly and laid back all, as if it simply doesn't seem to worry about the fact that it's being a pretty silly and bad movie.Germans are not exactly know for their great humor but there are of course some exception here and there. And this movie does really feature some amusing comedy, that is being quite cheap and predictable but it works out thanks to its fine timing and the handling by its actors. The actors all play their roles as straight as possible, which is often something that can strengthen a movie its comedy actually.As for the movie and story itself; it really is being a very typical crime/mystery movie, in which a murdered needs to be literally unmasked. There is really nothing specular or special about any of it and some moment really don't make that much sense but at least it has a pretty cool killer; a person in a skeleton costume that kills people with his poisonous ring. But really, it just isn't the story that makes this movie such an effective and fun one to watch; it simply is its '60's atmosphere and tone throughout the movie, combined with fine humor and plenty of deliberately silly moments.Simply effective as some great entertainment.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

You can say what you want about crime writer Edgar Wallace, but one thing you can never fault is his imagination - and here, once again, director Alfred Vohrer has created a brilliantly entertaining film from one of Wallace's over the top novels. This film features all the things that make the Krimi genre great; from the refined atmosphere all the way down to the bizarre plot line. The film's most striking element is undoubtedly the murderer, who wears a skeleton costume and a bowler hat; echoing the lead character in Umberto Lenzi's cool comic book crime flick Kriminal. The plot focuses on the death of a man named Sir Oliver. There is a disruption at his funeral when there are reports of the corpse laughing; and soon after his brother Sir Cecil (apparently quite a noble family) begins to believe that Sir Oliver has come back from the dead and it's not long before several people are being picked off by a skeleton costume-wearing killer with a bizarre murder weapon! Naturally, Scotland Yard looks into the deaths...The thing I like most about this genre is the style, and director Alfred Vohrer has once again ensured that his film is memorable. The atmosphere on display in this film is simply stunning; the vibrant colour scheme is striking while the lighting is very well used. The plotting, as ever, is slightly confusing; although there is not as many subplots in this film as there have been in other Edgar Wallace outings. The killer is a real masterpiece creation; the suit does look slightly silly, but the way that the killer silently creeps around and the way that the mouth moves on the costume are really great. The murder weapon is another original idea; instead of using a gun or a knife like other murderers, this one uses a ring with a scorpion's tail that delivers the victim with a dose of deadly (and undetectable!) poison. The film plods along nicely for most of its running time and we eventually boil down to the ending; which is completely confusing to say the least. Still, while this is not the best of the genre; it's still a very effective little film and I'm sure Krimi fans will enjoy it!

As far as bad movies goes, this one is a gem. Everything, from the killer's skull mask to the cheesy melodrama effects, makes it extremely funny. One extraordinary line shows a mechanism triggering the door to a secret passage opened by. a penny bank! Some wacko characters shows the filmmakers didn't take themselves very seriously. The final explanation doesn't explain anything. But this is a murder mystery far over the edge, on the tradition of "Doctor X".