Vincent Price lends his always welcome presence to this routine ghost-possession story. It's adapted from two stories by Maupassant 'The Horla' and 'Diary of a Madman' that are somewhat mashed together. Not a bad mashing, but still this is well-worn territory. It certainly looks good and has a rousing romantic-horror score by Richard LaSalle that helps immeasurably, but it's flatly directed and features a terrible performance by Chris Warfield as the unjustly accused painter in love with pretty Nancy Kovack. The Horla is voiced by Joseph Ruskin with the declarative timbre of a radio announcer, sounding less the slithery voice of evil you'd expect or desire and more the voice of advertising, or even the doom-laden boom of the "Control Voice" from 'The Outer Limits.' And the green light-band on the eyes is a cheap effect, but even it would be acceptable if the desires of the Horla were a little more interesting than breaking up Price's relationship just to prove the woman is greedy (one would expect the mis-use of Price's position as magistrate would be the real interest of the Horla). But overall the film is competently made and does have the shock effect of the ultimate disposition of Kovack's head. Otherwise it's not bloody or clumsily handled. Certainly not a bad film to spend time with, especially for devotees of pre-Seventies horror films.
Review of Diary of a Madman
