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Excellent adaptation.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A troupe of young actors specialize in gory Grand Guignol plays at the Theatre of Death in Paris, France. Said plays are directed by the cruel, exacting and domineering Philippe Darvas (the great Christopher Lee in peak haughty'n'nasty form). Meanwhile, a series of brutal killings occur throughout the city. Is it Darvas or someone else who's the culprit? Director Samuel Gallu relates the engrossing story at a brisk pace, does an expert job of creating an eerie, misty atmosphere, and stages the murder set pieces with a reasonable amount of skill and style (there's some really nifty use of dissolves and freeze frames). Moreover, the cast all give solid and impressive performances: Julian Glover as dashing, humane coroner Charles Marquis, Lelia Goldoni as fragile, troubled, seasoned actress Dani Gireaux, Jenny Till as sweet eager ingénue Nicole Chapelle, Ivor Dean as the shrewd Inspector Micheaud, Joseph Furst as helpful psychiatrist Karl Schiller, and Evelyn Laye as classy theater owner Madame Angelique. Gilbert Taylor's polished, agile widescreen cinematography, the flavorsome period Paris setting, Elisabeth Lutyens' robust, shuddery score, and the rousing, startling conclusion are all likewise up to speed. An enjoyable film.

Theatre of Death isn't a particularly bad film, but it's a disappointing one as it really could have been a lot better. The film plays out something like a British version of the popular Italian 'Giallo' subgenre, and features Christopher Lee as the head of a Parisian theatre. The film makes this theatre its central location, and it provides a good place for a macabre tale like this to take place. Two years earlier, Mario Bava showed how a colourful location could benefit a movie about various people being killed with Blood and Black Lace, and it would seem that director Samuel Gallu realised how this could be used as the theatre at the centre of the tale utilises a bright colour scheme, similar to the one in Blood and Black Lace. The theatre at the centre of the film specialises in horror productions, and this is taken to a new extreme when performers at the theatre begin turning up dead. We focus on a police inspector who is tied to the murders through his attraction to one of the performance artists, and he soon realises that there could be a link between the murders and the theatre.For a plot like this to engage the audience, it needs both thrills and intrigue, and while this film has both; it doesn't utilise either to a satisfying degree, and this makes the resulting movie rather cold and difficult to engage with. The acting is above average for this sort of film, however, and lesser known members of the cast manage to stand out despite Christopher Lee's massive star profile. The film seems to have taken influence from the prolific Italians on the actress front, as Theatre of Death features some beautiful women, which bodes well with the grandiose central location. Christopher Lee doesn't deliver his best performance in this film, and really never breaks a sweat in the lead role, but it's always a pleasure to see him. The mystery is never too interesting, and the short running time never really does it justice. Full credit goes to the film for the ending, however, as the film comes good by the time of the climax, even though the mystery could have gone on a little longer, had it built up more tension. Overall, this is a decent enough movie; I wouldn't recommend going into it with high expectations, but Theatre of Death is worth seeing for fans of this sort of film.

Very much in the Hammer studios vein, with sumptuous sets, and glorious, gory Technicolor, this is a competent chiller. A mix of detective story and vampiric horror, it has a neat twist, and a mundane cast, with Christopher Lee hamming it up as usual. Certainly one to watch on a late night, but no classic.

The plot centers around the cast of a Grand Guginol theatre group.Guginol refers to bloody & horrific explotative plays.The troupe is lead by the cold & cruel Darvas.(Darvas is wonderfully played by Christopher Lee).Darvas thinks nothing of ridiculing & humiliating his cast to get exactly what he wants. Seemingly he has no soul and no regard for human emotions other than acting them out.A series of vampiric murders is tied in with the theatre group.Is Darvas more than just a Svengali? Is he a vampire? Without giving too much away cannibalism is the driving force behind the murders.Who is the killer stalking the cast?This clocks in at above average. There are plenty of red herrings but the cast plays it gamely.Everyone has secrets to hide,some more terrible than others. The ending is a bit of a twist.You could do worse than to watch this one.