Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)

Despite having fallen into relative obscurity for many years, with no TV screenings and little information about it available in reference books, Horrors of the Black Museum enjoyed something of a renaissance and critical reappraisal in the wake of its home video release in the 1990s.  Consequently, quite a lot has been written about, so I don't intend to offer any lengthy appraisal of the film, but rather note a couple of aspects that struck me while watching it on Talking Pictures TV at Halloween.  One of the film's most notable pints is that, in contrast to Hammer's contemporary horror films, whose success Horrors was made to cash in on, it eschews their period settings and supernatural elements in favour of a contemporary milieu and a focus upon human sadism.  The murders depicted are, indeed, extremely sadistic, most infamously the binoculars which fire spring loaded spikes into a victim's eyes no sooner than the film has started. 

But the film isn't satisfied merely with presenting such sadism as being simply the result of a madman's own relish for inflicting and savouring such horrendous pain and death upon his fellow man.  It also seeks to explore how such atrocities are presented to an eager public as entertainment, who happily wait reports of the next atrocity while simultaneously affecting to be appalled by them.  Not only is the role of the press as hypocritical purveyor of sadistic pleasure highlighted - Michael Gough's crazed killer is also a respected crime writer responsible for a string of best-selling and sensational true crime books also also has a widely read newspaper column - but the film looks to indict the British public directly.  It is hugely significant that the climax is set in a funfair, with Gough's assistant - who he has hypnotised into carrying out many of the murders - scaling a Ferris wheel before leaping to his death.  He is is clearly presented as being just another garish spectacle for the entertainment of the fair goers - once he is dead, the gathered crowd immediately lose interest in what has just happened and quickly turn back to the other rides and sideshows in search of alterntive entertainment, as if nothing had happened.  (You would have thought that the police would have closed the fair and sealed it off as a crime scene). 

Much has also been made of the film's misogyny: all but one of the victim's are female.  Alongside this, there is an incredibly homoerotic undertow running through the film.  I say undertow, but while watching it again on Talking Pictures TV, I was surprised, bearing in mind the movie's age and the amount of censorship it suffered with regard to the violence of the murders, just how brazenly the homoerotic nature the relationship between Gough and his assistant is presented.  It all comes to a head when the assistant stars romancing a girl and, worse still, allows her into Gough's private 'Black Museum'.  Gough's fury at this 'betrayal', his obvious jealousy over the girl and his admonishments concerning the evils are women are anything but subtle.  Even less subtle are his references to the museum being their 'special place', let alone his passionate lecturing of his assistant on how their futures are inextricably linked and how he is destined to take over Gough's work.  Their final confrontation at the funfair also comes over as something of a lover's tiff.   Like I said, hardly subtle.

So, there you have it: a few thoughts on Horrors of the Black Museum, a still intriguing and occasionally disturbing horror film, which probably stands as the best of producer Herman Cohen's British produced movies.