For the longest time I had been passing this by on my Netflix queue, for some reason swearing it was called the Black Sheep. I guess I was always distracted by the disfigured face on the box art and my mind just went to what I knew. (And this is no joke. I've scrolled past it hundreds of times, wondering why a mid-nineties Chris Farley movie would steal the title. I've yet to see the killer Sheep flick from New Zealand.) But finally I bit, looking for something a little older that wouldn't seem to terrible to my non-horror watching wife should she walk in the room. But when I saw the amazing cast (starring Basil Rathbone, and featuring Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr., John Carradine, and Tor Johnson) I was pretty stoked. And it's solid - surprisingly scary/troubling for a mid-50s film, even to these jaded 2015 eyes. Almost certainly better than a "Black Sheep" would have been, at least.
It starts off in 1872 with Dr. (not chef) Gordon Ramsay (Herbert Rudley), on the eve of his hanging for a murder he did not commit. His old instructor in medical school, Sir Joel Cadman (Basil Rathbone), stops by and sneaks in a "sedative" for Ramsay to take before the execution. He takes it the next morning, and dies before he can be executed. Or does he? The drug is Cadman's "Black Sleep" - it gives the user all outward appearances of being dead, but they can be revived if an antidote is given in the next 12 hours. Cadman has arranged to take Ramsay's body for a proper burial, but in fact takes his "dead" body back to his lab where he brings him back to life. Ramsay is very grateful, but it turns out Cadman has ulterior motive - he wants Ramsay to assist him in his medical research on the brain. He warns Ramsay that his experiments are a bit unorthodox, but Ramsay obliges, thankful to be alive and working with a brilliant doctor. But the research may be a *bit* more unorthodox than Ramsay was expecting. And a bit more illegal - really, you should probably be wary of any research that requires you to go through a secret passageway to get started. I won't go into it anymore, but it gets a little nasty.
The Black Sleep has a lot going for it:
- A nice, creepy atmosphere, courtesy of Cadman's castle that serves as a home as well as a laboratory.
- A bit of moral ambiguity in the main story - are the experiments ethical?
- A decently paced tale - things escalate at a steady pace until a pretty intense ending.
- A little faux-monster action - as much as Tor Johnson counts as a monster, anyways.
- Some enjoyable pseudoscience and some decent surgical special effects.
I wouldn't say there is something for everybody. There isn't any humor or romance to speak of, which is a nice change of pace, actually. But the film touches on a lot of different horror sub-genres throughout its runtime.
The lead performances are pretty solid. Rudley is a really good leading man - he's never too corny about it, but he plays Ramsay with just enough innocence and empathy. And Basil Rathbone is a treat as Cadman - he's snooty and acts very righteous about his experiments - you can tell he's concerned about not only advancing his career, but also fixing the mistakes he's already made. And there's something about his accent that is just cool - I could listen to him talk for hours. Also, I was really a big fan of Akim Tamiroff, who plays "Odo - the Gypsy." He plays the body snatching tattoo artist that works for Cadman. He's got this lilt in his delivery, and really character acts the hell out of the role. He makes a big impression for the little screen time that he gets.
And while it's always nice to see the BIG NAMES in horror (Lugosi, Chaney Jr., Carradine, Tor Johnson - a personal favorite of mine), their roles are pretty underwhelming. Lugosi is the mute butler, Chaney is a brute who can only be controlled by Cadman's assistant, and Tor Johnson just does his Tor Johnson thing for a few minutes in the final act. I was hoping they'd get a chance to shine individually, but the gimmick in The Black Sleep seems to be that they are in the movie, period.
But luckily, the main story comes through and delivers. The Black Sleep aims to be less of a fun thrill ride (like many of its contemporaries) and instead aims for the disturbing/unsettling, and I'd say it succeeds.
I would recommend this film.
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