User reviews

Jack Palance as an insane antiques dealer who worships an African deity in his basement and offers it human sacrifices? That's the kind of film that just can't lose! And it doesn't, although the copy I watched tries it's best with the worst sound ever, forcing me to up the volume on the DVD player to max and still struggle to hear some of the dialogue.

Now Jack can do these off-kilter roles in his sleep and this NOT being a spaghetti western, he's actually required to be there on screen for most of the film. It's a joy to see him in his Primark devil robes with his coven, worshipping this African statue while a chick dances nude and then cuts herself. It's all harmless fun until some ex-coven member turns up and accidentally impales herself on the statue's trident, and the subsequent windfall gets Jack all thinking that maybe he should be upping his game when it comes to demented statue worshipping.

In his non-insane life, Jack owns a shop with a weedy assistant who knows what he's up to but doesn't want to turn Jack in and lose his job (because he'd have his benefit cut when trying to claim Unemployment Benefit as technically he would have quit) so he just goes with the flow while Jack stuffs American tourist's heads into his Argos basement oven. By this point the cops are sniffing around and Jack isn't exactly putting them off the trail.

So just when you're thinking we're getting a stalk and slash film Craze takes a side road into an elaborate plot to bump off Jack's rich Aunt which involves getting Diana Dors drunk and him jumping out of a cupboard wearing a Poundland horror mask. Will Jack get away with his plan to continually offer sacrifices to his statue? Or will his assistant get fed up being paid minimum wage? Will David Warbreck do anything when he finally shows up near the end of the film? I ain't saying, but it's as daft as you would expect.

I seem to own rather a lot of Jack Palance films (Man in the Attic, It can Be Done Amigo, Brothers Blue, Portrait of a Hit-man, Welcome to Blood City etc) and he's a lot more animated than usual in this one. Not an essential film, but a good time waster thanks to the daft plot.

A nutty antiques dealer (Jack Palance) starts to sacrifice women in different scary methods ,as he executes them in honor to an African idol named Chuku , whom he believes will reward him with immense power . He's reluctantly helped by his young helper (Martin Potter) . Meanwhile , two Police Inspectors (Detective Constable Michael Jayston and Percy Herbert) start investigating the strange events and along the way , things go wrong .

Tongue-in-cheek and offbeat tale of a crazed antique dealer who slays a number of women , as he sacrifices in honor of an African God . The story is uneven paced , suffering from some weak incidents and of varying quality , packing nice as well as fleeble moments. The main amusement results to be to guess the kind of murder to carry out by the creepy killer , ranging from impalement , stabbing , burning , to scaring people to death with an ooga-booga fright mask . Here stands out Jack Palance playing as a demented art dealer & antique-shop owner who performs nightly rituals thinking of being rewarded with unimaginable wealth if he merely offers up human sacrifice , as Jack gives an overacting but attractive performance . He's well accompanied by a great support cast formed by a lot of familiar faces , giving brief but charming performances , such as : Martin Potter , Michael Jayston , Percy Herbert , Diana Dors , Julie Ege , Edith Evans , Trevor Howard , Hugh Griffith , David Warbeck , Suzy Kendall , Kathleen Byron , among others .

The picture was regular but professionally directed by Freddie Francis , as it has somes flaws , shortcomings and failures . Freddie studied engineering but changed his career direction when he developed an interest in photography and cinema. Became a clapper boy at Elstree Studios in 1935, eventually working his way up to camera assistant at Pinewood. Wartime service with the Army Kinematograph Unit, then became camera operator at London Films. Worked on several films for Powell & Pressburger and John Huston. Full lighting cameraman from 1956. A noted exponent of British 'New Wave' cinematography . Started to direct from 1962, particularly horror films for Hammer and Amicus. Accepted many assignments to make a name for himself, but regretted this later when he became somewhat typecast in the genre. However, he was a stylist who created superior visuals for several poorly written films. After reading a script, he would 'photograph the film in his mind'. One of his personal favorites among his work as a director was The Skull (1965) and he replaced Terence Fisher as director on Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968) . As this craftsman director made several horror fims, such as : Dark tower, The Doctor and the devil, The Ghoul, Craze, Legend of the werewolf , Tales that witness madness, The creeping flesh, Tales from the crypt , The vampire happening, Dracula has rising from the grave, They came from beyond space , Torture garden, The skull, Hysteria, The evil of Frankenstein, Day of the triffids, Nightmare, Brain, Paranoic, among others . Rating : 5.5/10 . The flick will appeal to Jack Palance fans.

(There are Spoilers) Having been into the Black Arts all his adult life London antiques dealer Neal Mottram, Jack Palance, secretly has monthly, when there's a full moon, jam sessions with his coven of witches. These sessions are held in the basement of his antiques shop to bring him as well as his followers financial rewards in what ever business that their in.

Worshiping this African Idol named Chuku Mottram has to provide it with monthly human sacrifices to keep his luck going. That resulted in him getting out of debt and becoming independently wealthy with his shop used as a front for his murderous activities.

The local police are a bit suspicious of Mottram since he's suspected of being involved in two different murders of women who were known to him and ended up savagely mutilated, and in one case burned to a crisps, and found floating in the Thames River. With Chuku constantly needing new blood to be spilled to satisfy his gluttonous appetite Mottran comes up with a plan to do in his old and rich Aunt Louise, Edith Evens. Mottron orchestrates a night out and sleep in with an old flame of his the chubby and chunky Dolly Newman, Diana Dors, who runs a Bed & Breakfast in town and whom he hasn't seen in over three years.

Getting Dolly good and drunk on her favorite brew, Cherry Brandy,Mottran checks out of her place and travels 70 miles to Aunt Louies home. Hiding in the closet Mottran catches her by surprise wearing a Halloween mask scaring the sick old lady to death. For some strange reason Mottran later drives a wooden stake through the dead lady's heart, like she were a vampire, and then drives back to Dolly's. Mottran jumps into bed with her just as she wakes up, from the effects of all the booze she drank, making Dolly think that he spent the entire evening, and a good part of the morning, with her.

The police lead by this tough talking and no BS guy Det. Sgt. Wall,Michael Jayston, feel that it was Mottram who murdered Aunt Louise? How could that be! Didn't the coroner determine that Aunt Louise was already dead before the stake, the so-called murder weapon was used to sacrifice, not kill, her by the insane Mottram? With her death being the result of Mottran scaring her to death a fact that the police were totally unaware off!

The weak link in Mottram's chain of murders turned out to be his live-in protégée in his antique shop the naive and alcoholic prone Ronnie, Martin Potter. Ronnie when he finds out about his boss' dirty deeds comes apart and starts to hit the bar scene drinking himself almost to the point of passing out. At the the same time Ronnie gets up enough courage to smash to pieces Mottram's evil idol Chuku.

Being tailed by the police Ronnie leads them to Mottram's basement where Chuku is and where Mottram just came back after he offered another blood-sacrifice to Chuku, hooker masseuses and part-time dominatrix Sally,Suzy Kendall.

Wild final with Mottram going completely berserk as he tries to defend his Idol Chuku from Ronnie's drunken ax attacks. Beating him up and throwing Ronnie head-first through the store window with the police, headed by the rough and ready Det. Wall,coming on the scene to put the cuffs on the now crazed and hysterical Mottram. Mottram didn't go, or give up, willingly and it had to take a full load of lead from Det. Wall's revolver to finally put the homicidal madman down.

working from memory here so forgive the hazy details..... jack palance chews the scenery as an antique dealer who becomes convinced that by sacrificing women to an african idol in his cellar he will have good fortune bestowed upon him. cue lots of crazy 70's fashions,music,drugs references etc etc. the film follows jacks downward spiral as he tries to keep the idol satisfied. cleverly the film never makes it clear whether jacks good luck is coincidence or whether it really does bring good luck. this film is well worth picking up for entertainment value.

Antiques dealer, Neal Mottram (Jack Palance), discovers that an African idol, Chuku, which he keeps hidden in his cellar gives him money in return for human sacrifices and he commits a series of grisly murders as a result.

A thoroughly terrible British exploitation shocker from producer Herman Cohen - Remember Horrors Of The Black Museum, that film with the booby trapped binoculars? - well, he produced that too. This features a hilariously bad and over the top performance from Jack Palance who not only goes more over the top the more the thin plot winds down but, as one reviewer put it, utters his lines as though he had been tortured for half-an-hour beforehand. The shocks are often unintentionally funny rather than scary like when Palance jumps out of a closet wearing a skull mask and scaring his victim to death. Yes, lame isn't it? Oscar-winning lighting cameraman, Freddie Francis, became typecast and, somewhat reluctantly, as a director of horror films. Nonetheless, alongside Terence Fisher, he was one of the most influential figures of the 1960's British horror wave and he still made some excellent examples of the genre. Sadly, this isn't one of them and his disdain for the production is evident as he simply sets it up and grinds away. By the early 1970's, Francis was repeatedly being offered poor assignments and, after Craze, he went on to direct the disastrous rock horror musical, Son Of Dracula, with Ringo Starr and Harry Nilson. By the mid-seventies he had given up directing and returned to being a lighting cameraman with distinguished results. Even an excellent cast including Trevor Howard, Diana Dors, Edith Evans and Kathleen Byron are at a loss here.

Edith Evans was one of the greatest actresses of the last century.So why did she demean herself by appearing in this rubbish.It is a huge cringe worthy minute when she is scared by Jack Palance with a silly mask on.He really didn't need the mask.His face was enough to frighten anyone.His features were as mobile as Chuku.Probably the low point of everybody's career.

Jack Palance plays an antique dealer Neal Mottram,who worships creepy looking statue of African God Chuku.Chuku is supposed to bring wealth and good fortune,but it also demands human sacrifices.Neal starts killing sexy British ladies to satisfy Chuku."Craze" by Freddie Francis features an over-the-top performance of the great and sadly missed Jack Palance.There are some comedic moments as well as plenty of suspense.Sexy Suzy Kendall of "Torso" and "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" shines as a hooker/dominatrix."Craze" is based on Henry Seymour's book,but I found that Chuku was a creator deity of the Ibo people of Nigeria.Diana Dors is superb in a supporting role here and also in "Nothing But the Night",a horror film which was the only movie ever made by Christopher Lee's own production company.7 out of 10.

1973's "Craze" turned out to be a sad finale for producer Herman Cohen, who started out in Hollywood with genre efforts like "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla" and "Target Earth," turning to youth oriented fare such as "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" and "How to Make a Monster" before relocating to England and hooking up with Michael Gough for similar items like "Horrors of the Black Museum" and "Konga." Despite being based on an actual novel, Henry Seymour's "Infernal Idol," Cohen was content to simply rehash all his usual bromides from films past for a less than thrilling last hurrah: there's the older antagonist dominating a younger one as in "Teenage Werewolf" and "Black Museum," misogynist hatred of women found in "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein" and "Black Museum," the villain's activities only broken up by scenes of a useless police investigation as in "Blood of Dracula" or "Konga," reunited with worn out director Freddie Francis after 1970's disastrous "Trog," which hammered the final nail in Joan Crawford's coffin. Gough's atypical absence is hardly offset by a detached performance from Jack Palance as an antiques dealer who imagines riches in store for every human sacrifice to an African god called Chuku, selecting numerous females like young beauty Julie Ege or elderly aunt Edith Evans, the suspicious authorities always a step behind to allow for more mayhem. Brief turns from Trevor Howard and Hugh Griffith make for a surprisingly strong cast but the cliche ridden script effectively put a halt to the producer's career (Herman Cohen passed away in 2002).

Jack Palance plays an antique dealer who dabbles with murder & black magic in 1970's London. There's many familiar faces in the cast here. The film starts & ends, predictably, well but sadly the middle part goes a bit flat. The picture quality wasn't great on my DVD but I think they did the best they could with what print was available.

The B-Kult of blood-soaked Brit-horror begins in deadly earnest with maestro Freddie Francis's uncommonly unhinged occult nightmare 'CRAZE'!!!! As only once in a mind-corrupting, soul-savaging, blood red moon did ol' Blighty dare shiver up such a perfectly deformed, blissfully benighted, death dealing, sin-drenched shocker with the Boggle-eyed bellicosity of 'Craze'!!! Screamingly Sinister!!! Exquisitely eerie!!! Majestically mad!!! Axe-weildingly wicked!!! And that's just Jack Palance's delectably demonic performance!

The 1970s truly were the lust golden rage of heroically hateful, head-spinning horror! 'Craze' (1974) is a blissfully bonkers British horror film by greatly beloved Hammer Films icon, Freddie Francis. Not only is the provocatively lurid title wholly accurate, as this hysterically hateful, hauntingly horrible, hoodoo-voodoo, evilly haemoglobin harvesting, satanic shocker contains one of the all-time, 'turn it up to 11', phantasmagorically perverse, bug-eyed horror performances with the terminally twisted, furniture-munching, maniacally messianic turn by hyperbolic 'Hawk The Slayer' villain, Jack Palance! 'Craze' is the most far-out, fear-drenched, ferociously-flipped out, sordidly sacrificing, horror happening!!! This satanically sinister 70s shindig will scare all you groovy ghoulies stoned-dead!

I must say I'm very surprised, even quite shocked, to see all the negative ratings and read the downright harsh reviews on "Craze". Sure, it's far from original and probably not even all that memorable, but one simply has to admit it provides tremendous 70s horror entertainment thanks to its schlocky plot, Grand Guignol make-up effects and the fabulously over-the-top performance by the great Jack Palance! Honestly, if you love the horror genre, I cannot believe, nor accept, that you won't enjoy "Craze". Good old Jack depicts financially struggling antique dealer Neil Mottram, living in the heart of London. He organizes ritual sacrifice games in his basement to honor the God ChuKu, which is a hideous African statue with huge eyes and razor-sharp fingers. Neil already was loony, but he gets dangerously disturbed when he learns the tacky sacrifices weren't sufficient. In return for dead female sacrifices, ChuKu offers wealth and luxury. So, predictably, Neil gets hooked on the thrill of both money and committing murder, and roams around London to scout for potential new victims. As soon as the police begins to suspect him, Palance's murder schemes turn into meticulously prepared plans, and I thought this was great. The whole set-up to get rid of his rich aunt, for instance, with waterproof nightly alibis and even his own car sabotaged, is very ingenious and fascinating to observe. The kills are deliciously gruesome, nasty and perverse. Poor ladies get impaled, stabbed, viciously strangled or even stuffed in the incinerator. "Craze" clearly isn't director Freddie Francis best work, but his weak direction is widely compensated by the unhinged Jack Palance and the numerous guest appearances from great starts in minor roles.

I hardly recognized Freddie Francis in this movie, not in terms of directing, with exciting camera angles and moves, but because of a so lousy script where poor Jack Palance does his best to save the whole. Freddie Francis gave us worst, with the awful - or funny, that depends of your taste and opinion - TROG, where it was Joan Crawford instead of Jack Palance as the lead. But I am sure that many viewers will appreciate this film, that looks like a TV movie for me. Freddie Francis was more inspired during the sixties, let's admit it. Remember his first part of career, but maybe was it because of a budget matter, not talent.

I have this film on the "Slasher Cinema" box-set with some other films. I found it extremely hard to watch and had to turn off after a while. That's because the sound is too hard to hear clearly, and the picture is very murky. The film also seemed very boring during the 'talky' bits so I thought I'd fast-forward through a lot of them. From what I can gather, Craze seemed to be about the crazy antiques dealer who prays to an African statue and sacrifices people to it. The statue itself looked very weird and creepy and I liked it when the camera zoomed up towards its eyes.

However, I cannot really recommend this film at all, unless you can find a copy with decent sound quality. A tolerance for early 70's films will also help.

This British exploitation movie is an occult horror about a man who lives a double life as a respected antique dealer by day and as a homicidal worshipper of a demonic god by night. As such he sacrifices a series of women to an idol of his deity, the African god Chuku, which he keeps in his cellar.

First up, the copy that seems to be available via public domain for this suffers from truly atrocious sound quality. It's well-nigh impossible to hear all the lines of dialogue and the sound in general fades in and out at will. This does compromise the enjoyment level of watching this somewhat, although it does have to be admitted that the events that unfold before us on screen are luckily self-explanatory enough to allow the viewer to know what's going on even without acceptable audio. And what's going on is fairly standard stuff on the whole. The film mainly benefits from star actor Jack Palance fairly chewing up the scenery in a commendably committed performance. He gives it his all, despite the overall shortcomings of the film as a whole – good on you Jack. In truth, this one sports a pretty good cast on the whole with several names fans of genre cinema will recognise, including the star of a couple of giallo classics, Suzy Kendall, pitching up late on as one of Palance's victims and Diana Dors appearing earlier as one of his old flames. The director here is genre specialist Freddie Francis, who made several horror flicks throughout the 70's and 80's but who would eventually go on to become probably more famous as an award winning cinematographer on all manner of great films, including some by the likes of Martin Scorsese and David Lynch. Truthfully, Craze is pretty far from being his finest hour. I would probably have a marginally better opinion of it if I had seen it with even half-decent audio but even taking that into account, this is hardly essential stuff.

Slowly limping along, this movie is best used as a tranquilizer. The African god Chuku, fervently worshiped by a scene-chewing Jack Palance, apparently talks his victims to death. Some people get killed while Palance smokes cigars. The plot doesn't just have holes, it tears at the very fabric of space and time until "Craze" finally comes to an entirely predictable end. If you can keep from nodding off while watching this, you're a more determined viewer than I.

I saw this on "Shilling Shockers" with host Penny Dreadful. If you find yourself with insomnia then watch this movie and you will sleep. If it doesn't work for you... consult your physician.

In Craze, Jack Palance gets it on with Swedish horror babe Julie Ege, which just goes to show that there's no such thing as 'out of your league'. He also scores with Diana Dors, although that's a tad more believable, the actress having smashed more than a few trays of Krispy Kremes since her '50s blonde bombshell days.

Palance is definitely enjoying himself in this darkly humorous offering from Hammer director Freddie Francis: not only does he get to play the lothario, but his character, Neal Mottram, is also the head of a coven who sacrifices women to African god Chuku in exchange for wealth, all the while maintaining the respectable facade of a London antiques dealer. He kills a woman who wants to take his treasured idol; he picks up a swinging traveller (Ege) who he also kills (by shoving her head in a furnace); he carries out an elaborate plan to murder his rich Aunt Louise (Edith Evans); and he throttles call girl/masseuse Sally (Suzy Kendall). Mottram is reluctantly aided in his nefarious work by his nervous shop assistant Ronnie (Martin Potter).

Meanwhile, Detective Constable Russet (Percy Herbert) and Detective Wilson (David Warbeck) keep a close eye on Mottram, convinced that he is responsible for the murders, even though he has seemingly water-tight alibis.

A product of the swinging early-'70s, the film features plenty of nudity, some light drug use (Palance sharing a joint with Ege), and scenes set in groovy London night-spots, plus quite a bit of mean-spirited violence. Francis's direction is workmanlike - nothing too showy - but it suffices, the director happy to let his star steal the limelight - and boy, does he ever! Palance's character is sleazy, scheming, cold-hearted, and, in the film's finalé, totally off his rocker. It's a performance to rival Peter Cushing in Corruption (1968) and Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood (1973). In other words, check it out!

This is a film I acquired in the Drive-in 50-pack collection. For me, this is one of the better flicks in the film pack. It's not a superb but it's a little better than Z-grade.

Jack Palance plays Neal Mottram. Neal is a man that is an art & antique dealer by day, by night he worships African God Chuku and feels compelled to make human sacrifices to the deity nightly.

There is nudity and violence which is expected in these types of films - it does fall in the category of a horror slasher. This is not the worlds greatest slasher film but is better than some of the other Z & B grade slasher flicks from the 70s.

6/10

Jack Palance ridiculously plays a "ladies man" at the ripe old age of 55. That anyone cast this geezer as a Lothario was beyond me. Most of his conquests makes sense - as they're bored housewife types and an escort, but his first date is a stunning model type in her mid-to-late 20s, and later a detective casts doubt on Jack's romantic interest in a 30 year old landlady and I'm just thinking "he's a geezer, he's nearly 60, is everyone peeing themselves with laughter after the director yells cut?"

If you can get past all of that silliness in the late year of 1974 (this isn't some bizarre Old Hollywood mismatch between teenaged Audrey Hepburn and a man who looks like her step-father) the plot of the film is surprisingly entertaining.