Rating: 
Summary: Leave Whitewood Tonight!
Review: Centuries-old devil worshippers; shunned & ruined churches; ritual knife murders; billowing fog hugging the ground of a malevolent town where no daylight ever shines; evil neo-Gregorian chanting on the soundtrack.......hey, I almost forgot Christopher Lee! As a testament to HORROR HOTEL/CITY OF THE DEAD's enduring eerie power, Lee's eye-rolling broad strokes actually undermine the tension a bit - his villainy is too overt juxtaposed against the sibilant menace of castmates Patricia Jessel and Valentine Dyall, who expertly communicate the delicious anticipation of Satanists luring another unwitting sacrifice to her doom. By contrast, Lee's evil professor is smoldering with madness from his first moment onscreen, when the film would be better served by having him at least appear charming and affable . All is forgiven, however, once we get to the witches' village of Whitewood - the kind of town where the people you pass on a dark street turn, stand immobile and just STARE at you with conspiratorial smiles. As the foregoing might indicate, this low-budget, non-Hammer Brit horror provides a virtual clinic in shadow-dappled black and white cinematography by Desmond Dickinson, filling budget holes with a dank, foreboding expressiveness. Dread pervades the entire 76 minutes of this tightly-constructed and highly memorable shocker; why this isn't considered a classic by most critics and informed fans is a puzzler. If your awareness of British horror films begins and ends with Hammer, do yourself a big favor and get ahold of this movie.
Rating: 
Summary: CAMPY CHILLER
Review: Obviously filmed on a shoestring budget, this cheesy little flick nevertheless lingers in the mind - the atmosphere is creepy and there are good performances from both Christopher Lee and (especially) Patricia Jessel. A young girl named Nan Barlow is mesmorized by the subject of witchcraft, a course she is taking in college. Christopher Lee is her creepy teacher who has further designs for his pupil!.................The stage actress Patricia Jessel gives the most memorable performance in the whole film as the witch Elizabeth Selwyn who was burned to death in Whitewood, Massachusetts in the sixteen hundreds and yet runs the local inn as well! The film was obviously shot on a small budget but they succeeded in projecting a suitably eerie atmospheric feeling, and an otherworldly frisson quality lingers in the mind. Nan stops during her drive to Whitewood to do research on witchcraft and she meets Jethro! Her one friend is a mute girl named Lottie who is scolded by Miss Newliss (guess who?) for "bothering the guests" Corny but fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a strange movie
Review: City of the Dead/Horror Hotel involves a girl who is directed by her college professor, Christopher Lee, to investigate the city Whitewood as well as research it's occult history. Witches colide with "THE CROSS" as a battle emerges between the virtuous young woman and the city of the dead. One of the best!
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: After reading all of the positive reviews on this film,I decided to buy this movie,what a mistake! There was nothing scary at all about this movie,the film quality was bad and the audio was even worse.At least 10 different times during the movie,the sound would go off when somebody was in the middle of a sentence and you could'nt hear what they were saying.
Rating:
Summary: Room for One More?
Review: This great, over-looked cult movie should definitely be watched as a double-feature, with another British horror classic, "Curse of the Demon" as the second gem. Patricia Jessell is great as the witch burned at the stake, only to reappear in l960 to entice Venetia Stevenson (the blonde starlet who should have gone on to better things)to stay and be sacrificed. Wonderful musical score, knockout photography, where it's always dark, shadowy and the mist swirls relentlessly. A perfect example of what a group of masters can do on a low budget, with an outstanding cast who take their roles seriously. We can thank no-talent Roger Corman for his abysmal attempts at making fantasy and horror films, venerated even today by other no-talent idiots, to coarsen them into jokes, shoving gleaming little gems like "Horror Hotel" and "Curse of the Demon" into the background. This simply shows the differene between the British take on horror and America's.This is one hotel i will definitely be dropping in every month or so. Especially on frigid, misty nights.
Rating:
Summary: Cheesy but funny
Review: This is a great movie if you want to see the cheesy side of the Salem witch trials....predictible but would be fun to watch with a big grop of people to make fun of it...It's awesome
Rating:
Summary: An Atmospheric Sleeper
Review: Well made testament to the Brits talent for making atmospheric horror films. The makers of this film later went on to much more successs in the horror field with their company Amicus Productions, the major rival to Hammer Films during the 1960's. Based on most of the information I had read about "Horror Hotel", I was expecting a pretty good movie. But along with the Italian entry "Black Sunday", also released in 1960, this film remains the most atmospheric horror film I have ever seen. Why can't they make movies like this anymore?
Rating:
Summary: Horror Hotel - The "Witches"
Review: Horror Hotel, originally "The City of the Dead", previewed the year I was born. It has thrilled and frightened me for as on as I can remember. The openining music still scares me into hysterics. I've read many reviews only to see many get the names of the actors & characters wrong. This movie still puts me back in the mood for a good rainy Sunday afternoon, in bed, with the covers over my head! Angelica Huston would be great as Mrs. Newless/E. Selwyn. The rest of the cast is still in my imagination. Who could replace Christopher Lee? Hope it gets remade! The opening credits will be "key"! That scared the __it out of me!
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST OF THE WORST
Review: When I discovered that this classic movie was in DVD format, I immediately bought it. HORROR HOTEL is a gem in that "Bad Movie" genre. It makes anything directed by Ed Wood seem stale. And unlike the Ed Wood movies, HORROR HOTEL has the rare quality of never losing your interest. This is probably due to the fact that despite the delightfully bad production values, and the HORRIBLE dialogue, there is actually a story. In addition the acting is more "camp" than bad, thus making the characters more fun to watch. I have never shown this movie to anyone who was disappointed in it. This movie is best viewed in groups, otherwise the unintended humor is wasted. Make special note of the number of times the word "Whitewood" is uttered.
Rating:
Summary: Horror Hotel: A Cult Classic About a Classic Cult
Review: "Horror Hotel" (1960) is a heavily atmospheric, truly classic horror film. The film tells the story of Nan Barlow (Venetia Stevenson), a hapless college student who investigates the history of witchcraft in the small New England town of Whitewood. Nan's disappearance leads to the discovery of a witch cult led by Elizabeth Selwyn/Mrs. Newless (Patricia Jessel) and Alan Driscoll (Christopher Lee), Nan's professor. "Horror Hotel" is a gem of the Friday Night Horror Double Feature genre. Low-budget and black and white, with just enough requisite corny dialogue, the film is campy but creepy in portraying the haunted town and its frightening residents. The setting is deliciously gothic, down to the deserted and derelict cemetery and the darkling clapboard houses. The sun never rises in Whitewood and there is a constant ground mist. (The relatively poor condition of the non-restored VHS edition makes the film paradoxically even more enjoyable.) Venetia Stevenson is both beautiful and entertaining as Nan the ingenuous college student. Christopher Lee's acting is ferretlike and intense, and Patricia Jessel is wonderfully despicable. Nan's friends, played by Dennis Lotis (as Richard Barlow), Tom Naylor (as Bill Maitland), and Betta St. John (as Patricia Russell) seem appropriately foggy and in the dark about the witch cult. The film mixes and matches elements of Witchcraft, Satanism and Black Magic. It is definitely not at all documentary nor Politically Correct for Wiccans. "Horror Hotel" will never win any Oscars, but it is one of the best films of its type ever made. The producers of The Blair Witch Project could have learned a thing or two about Having The Shivers from "Horror Hotel."
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