After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor.
A dismal hocus-pocus which seems to confuse its actors as much as it fails to frighten its audience.
– ,
TIME Magazine,
19 Oct 2008
fresh:
Sumptuously subversive... one of the very best horror movies Universal ever made.
– Tony Rayns,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
rotten:
More foolish than horrible. The story and dialogue pile the agony on too thick to give the audience a reasonable scare.
– Andre Sennwald,
New York Times,
8 Aug 2006
fresh:
Ulmer never again had the budgetary resources granted him by Universal (at the time, Karloff and Lugosi were two of the studio's biggest stars), and he makes the most of them.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
26 Sep 2007
rotten:
Story is confused and confusing, and while with the aid of heavily-shadowed lighting and mausoleum-like architecture, a certain eeriness has been achieved, it's all a poor imitation of things seen before.