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).

Blu-ray Verdict: Corman’s Gothic, spooky side is on display in The Terror (1963), 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.

The story itself is a typical early 60’s gothic horror tale about a ghostly woman, an old recluse in a castle and dark secrets from the past. It was pretty good considering its fast production, with Karloff delivering his usual quality and Nicholson showing hints of his future screen charisma.

Meanwhile, Corman’s more whimsical side is on display in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). 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.

In its silliness, it’s fun pretty much the whole way through. Interspersed among the ok performances is actually a pretty good one by Mel Welles as Gravis Mushnick, a flower shop owner whose store is on skid row, so he doesn’t make much money. When his employee Seymour (Jonathon Haze) develops a new plant, it’s a chance for Gravis to make money by getting people into the store to see the new plant and hoping to get them to buy flowers while they’re there.

Unfortunately, the new plant is a man-eater, and Seymour ends up having to find its food for it. There’s a bit of a spoof of the TV show Dragnet going on, revolving around a couple of local cops assigned to find the people who’ve gone missing (after being fed to the plant.) There’s even a very early role for Jack Nicholson as a guy who loves having pain inflicted on him by dentists!

Bonus Features:
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

THE TERROR - Official Trailer

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