Overview: Haunted castles and bloodthirsty plants are on display when two Roger Corman classics are presented together. The two sides of Roger Corman are represented with The Terror (1963) and The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).

Corman’s Gothic, spooky side is on display in The Terror, an atmospheric horror tale of a French soldier whose encounter with a ghostly woman leads him to a mysterious castle full of dark secrets. The pairing of a youthful Jack Nicholson as the soldier and veteran Boris Karloff as the castle’s owner make The Terror a memorable example of Corman’s mid-sixties Goth period.

Though Corman is credited as director, several others took a turn behind the camera, including Nicholson himself, Monte Hellman, and Francis Ford Coppola.

Meanwhile, Corman’s more whimsical side is on display in The Little Shop of Horrors. This legendary cult film features a bumbling florist’s assistant who creates a giant plant that happens to crave human blood.

The usual Corman stock company is on hand, including Jonathan Haze and Dick Miller, plus a cameo by Nicholson as a dental patient with a high threshold for pain.

Blu-ray Verdict: What a gem! Whichever way you slice your cinematic history-telling, this film truly is! Legend has it that Roger Corman filmed The Terror over a frantic four-day period. The truth is rather more interesting, as it undoubtedly contributed to the film’s remarkable, incomparable, mesmerizing texture.

Furthermore, after production wrapped on The Raven, Corman had Karloff, Nicholson, and the Raven’s sets for four remaining days, so he hurriedly shot what he could before the walls came down and his stars departed.

He then dispatched various acolytes, including Francis Coppola, Dennis Jakoub, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill, and Nicholson himself to produce enough footage to make The Terror into a complete feature. The result is a unique, fascinating, intensely visual and cinematic experiment that makes Corman’s previous Poe adaptations look overly literary, plot-laden, and dialog-bound!

The Terror may not be very logical, and its story will not withstand much scrutiny, but the film succeeds as a feverish nightmare of obsession and mad love.

The photography, especially of the Big Sur locations, and of the fog bound studio cemetery sets, has an intense eerie romantic beauty, and Ronald Stein’s remarkable score underscores The Terror’s uncanny equation of desire and death. Is it cheap? Yes. Are there mistakes and screw ups? Sure. Does the continuity falter? Absolutely.

But none of this truly matters for The Terror is extraordinary in its palpable dream-like intensity. Oh, and by the way, an elderly, sick, practically crippled Boris Karloff, who could have easily tossed this off as an imposition, is simply terrific as always and a wonder to behold.

Bonus Materials:
Hollywood Intruders: The Filmgroup Story: Part Two - an original Ballyhoo Motion Pictures Production
Full length commentary for The Terror by C. Courtney Joyner and Dr. Steve Haberman
Full length commentary for Little Shop of Horrors by Justin Humphreys and Special Guest
Full color inserted booklet with original essays
Featurette by Howard S. Berger provides a fresh look at The Terror