twist of fait accomplis

City of the Dead, 1960 (aka Horror Hotel) [ ADD ]
Director: John Moxey
Availability: Medium (on DVD from VCI)

If you can get past the corny opening moments, City of the Dead is an unheralded classic about witchcraft and the occult. A young student travels to a creepy New England town to do research and gets caught up in the town's history and weird goings-on. The town has a wacky cast of characters, from the accomodating, but sinister, inkeeper to the clueless bookstore owner (where do her customers come from, anyway?) to the random people in the street that stop and stare. The use of heavy fog and dim lighting adds to the atmosphere of a possessed New England village, long haunted by its evil past.

There's lots to like here. The movie is relatively tame (and short), but it's one of those that sticks with you for a while afterwards. Hard to believe the director went on to create shows like Matlock and Magnum, P.I..