The Gothique Film Society presents The Devil-Doll (1936) and Witchcraft (1964)

About The Gothique Film Society presents The Devil-Doll (1936) and Witchcraft (1964)

Founded in 1966, the Gothique Film Society specialises in double bills ‘for the connoisseur of the macabre’.

The Devil-Doll famously stars Lionel Barrymore as an unjustly imprisoned financier who breaks out of Devil’s Island after a 20 year incarceration in the company of a fellow prisoner who also just happens to be a scientist who has made a remarkable discovery: how to reduce humans to doll size! (It could happen!!) When the scientist dies, Barrymore decides to use the formula to take his revenge on the three former partners who framed him. So he masquerades as an old lady with an enterprising line in rather unusual dolls…

The sequences with the dolls are superbly staged and, although the rationale behind their creation – a world needing only a tenth of its current food supply – is rather shaky, we do get the scientist coming up with the wonderful, and classic, “You think I’m mad?” speech that we at the Gothique love to hear!

Witchcraft sees director Don Sharp, fresh from Hammer’s Kiss of the Vampire, once again in top form. In the present day, a bulldozer churns up a cemetery; the developer just happens to belong to a family that, back in the 17th century, persecuted and cheated the Whitlock family out of their property, and buried young Vanessa alive. She now returns, seeking revenge…

It’s good to see Lon Chaney Jr. as family patriarch Morgan Whitlock, though sad to think that his drinking was already causing problems, with Don Sharp recalling that he tried to wrap up Chaney’s scenes each morning because, after ‘lunch’, he became rather difficult. But the end result is a suspenseful and atmospheric thriller, moodily shot in black and white, and well worth viewing.

Doors open at 18.00 for a 19.00 start.

Refreshments will be available in the licensed cafe/bar.