A New High in Terror and Shock!
By 1970, the once golden age of Hollywood glamor and stardom was a tragic last hurrah represented by the decayed and deteriorated Hollywood Sign. In HOLLYWOOD HORROR HOUSE, we'll go below the sign, to a decaying hilltop mansion of a once great star, played by a once great star, Miriam Hopkins. The fabled Ms. Hopkins, toast of the town back in the thirties with box office hits like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and Becky Sharpe, was an A-list actress and Oscar nominee. Another Oscar winner (Best Supporting Actress 1936) Gale Sondergaard plays Miss Hopkins' loyal friend and housekeeper, who tries to save her friend from the handsome stranger, played by son of acting legend John Garfield. He may be the culprit littering the land around the Hollywood sign with hacked up body parts. This hellish time capsule showcasing late 60s/early 70s Hollywood, remains an early example of the slasher films which would follow in just a few years. See Miriam Hopkins trapped in a madhouse of hacked up blood-splattered bodies, tripped out drug sequences, murder by electric knives and a Hollywood Christmas Parade with a drunk out of control movie star as its Grand Marshall. HOLLYWOOD HORROR HOUSE is the last death rattle of the Horror Hag craze that began with Better Davis feeding dead rats to Joan Crawford in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. Just as Bette sang "I've written a letter to daddy' in that film, listen to Miriam sing the hell out of "Taking a chance on love." Witness that demented slice of cinema best described as a motel six version of PSYCHO...you have been warned!
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