I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The acting in this movie was soooooooo bad that the only thing I could think of to compare was 'Plan 9 from Outer Space'. Jim Backus was the one notable exception.

Dr .Rodney Barrett (William Prince) is a small town doctor. Nobody likes him because they blame him in the deaths of two sisters. He also has an adorable little girl of his own. One day he returns home to find his child is missing. then his friend gets a phone call telling her that the child has been kidnapped and buried alive. The doctor has four hours to find her before she dies.Ideal set-up for a great horror film fails. The acting is terrible, the pace lethargic and the countless flashbacks add nothing to the story. I had figured out halfway through who had done it but didn't know the reason why. This was in the famous movie where viewers were given an insurance policy assuring them that their relatives would receive money if they died of fright. The only thing that anyone would die from would be boredom! Skip it.

"Macabre" definitely wasn't the legendary director William Castle's most successful horror accomplishment, as this honor probably goes to either "House on Haunted Hill", "The Tingler" or "13 Ghosts". "Macabre" also wasn't Castle's coolest or most entertaining horror accomplishment, because according to yours truly that special title either goes to "Homicidal", "Mr. Sardonicus" or "Strait-Jacket". But one thing's for sure, namely that "Macabre" was Castle's very first horror flick AND the first time he tried out a nifty little gimmick, which would later become his trademark and his ultimate formula to fame & success. The gimmick here included that all spectators received a special type of insurance against "death by fright" and that a stern voice-over warns about the shocking impact of the film. It's all rather silly and cheesy by today's standards, but Castle's gimmicks quickly proved to be highly effective and he still remains one of the most imitated horror directors now, nearly forty years after his death. "Macabre" itself is extremely simplistic and low- budgeted, like all of William Castle's movies, but the plot is quite compelling and several sequences are drenched in an atmosphere that is … well … macabre! Small town doctor Rodney Barrett is confronted with the ultimate nightmare when he learns that his innocent 5-year- old daughter Marge has been kidnapped and lies buried alive somewhere with only five hours left to live. The doctor, along with his secretary and fragile old father-in-law, starts a frantic search for his little girl at the most obvious location – the local cemetery – but where to dig and who to trust? After all, the good doctor seemingly has quite a few enemies in town, including the rancorous Sheriff Tyloe, and (redundant) flashbacks show that he wasn't very kind to his deceased blind wife Alice. The race-against the clock aspect results in a handful of tense moments and most of all the scenes set at the fog-enshrouded graveyard at night are genuine horror highlights. The flashbacks and some of the plot- twists near the end are pretty dumb and merely raise the impression that William Castle only wanted to stretch the running time a bit, while other sequences (like for example the phone call from the kidnapper and nurse Polly's subsequent report to the doctor) are laughably inept. But who cares, as "Macabre" is a terrific piece of 50s horror and marked the start of the career of one of the most creative minds in cinema history.

Macabre (1958) ** (out of 4)This was Castle's first gimmick film as his now legendary ads started here as he offered up $1,000.00 life insurance policies for anyone who watched this film just in case they died of fright. Most people today only remember Castle for his gimmicks and his horror films but this was actually the forty-first film in his career and it certainly took him on a different path. The story is pretty simple as a doctor is told that his daughter has been buried alive and he has just five hours to try and locate her. Many people have called this a horror film but that's certainly not the case because there's only one horror element and it appears on the screen for a matter of seconds. The film is pretty much a mystery/thriller and apparently it was shot in a week, which probably meant very little time was actually spent on the story. MACABRE has a pretty interesting story but nothing is done with it and in the end there's simply not enough suspense to keep the film moving even with a short 68-minute running time. The biggest problem is clearly the screenplay because we simply don't get enough information for us to follow the mystery going on. We know the daughter has been kidnapped and we know she's buried somewhere. We're given a few folks that are possible suspects but instead of giving us clues to try and figure out the mystery, instead the screenplay just gives us boring flashbacks that really don't do anything for the actual mystery. These flashback sequences are all rather boring and actually seem out of place. When the big twist at the end happens then you realize that these flashbacks really weren't needed at all. I'll admit that when the twist did come I didn't see it coming so that was a plus that the film had going for it. However, once the movie is over and you go back and think about it the twist is actually a cheat but we can overlook this. Prince gives a decent, laid-back performance and I enjoyed him as well as Jim Backus. Christine White, on the other hand, came across so incredibly dumb and annoying that I really didn't enjoy any moment she was on screen and sadly that was quite a bit. There's a scene early on where the assistant gets the phone call about the daughter and passes out. When she comes to she must tell it to the doctor and the way this scene is played out just comes across very annoying and melodramatic. MACABRE has one very good sequence and that's when the doctor and assistant are in a whole at the cemetery and someone else enters the picture. This sequence manages to contain some suspense but the rest of the film just falls flat and it's easy to see why the insurance company didn't have to pay any money out.