Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Three happy tourists are sunning themselves in France : a young man called Gerald, his fiancee Kitty and Kitty's aunt. Although Gerald is a pretty easy-going and relaxed young man, he has Great Expectations, since his baronet uncle owns a whopping big castle in Scotland, complete with gardens and maze. Unexpectedly, he receives a telegram begging him to travel to Scotland as soon as possible. Obeying the summons, he interrupts his holiday. Kitty and her aunt impatiently await his news. They wait in vain...I like mazes and I like horror movies, so how could I resist watching "The maze" ? However, the movie left me with mixed feelings. In many aspects it's a well-made movie, with a slow-burning and atmospheric build-up which would grace any decent horror or thriller movie. Sadly for all concerned the central mystery, which also constituted the big reveal, was.. how to put it politely... silly. Almost everything or anything would have been more scary or more impressive : a circus poodle walking on a ball, a little boy dressed in a Thanksgiving costume, five Protestant elders discussing Predestination, a sketch of a dinosaur egg, a package of chips, a gospel choir rehearsing "Amazing Grace".It is possible that the late and great Lovecraft might have pulled this off, but "The maze" certainly didn't... 7 stars may be overly generous but I do like a nice maze.

With only two weeks to go before her wedding, a young woman finds herself in distress after her fiancé, a jovial Scotsman, travels to his ancestral estate in the Highlands after the death of a relative...and does not return. The woman's aunt receives a cryptic note weeks later saying the man is canceling the wedding plans, so the girl and her aunt take it upon themselves to travel to the spooky spread and confront him. Perplexing, methodically-paced and oddly entertaining yarn originally presented in 3-D, which explains the acrobatic act near the opening. It doesn't cover all its tracks by the final reel (such as why the Scotsman has supposedly aged 20 years in two months), but the production and set-designs are quite nifty for a B-movie. The cast is solid as well, though the picture could do with a little levity or personality. ** from ****

The Maze (1953)** (out of 4) When her fiancé Gerald (Richard Carlson) leaves before their wedding with no real answer, Kitty (Veronica Hurst) and her aunt (Katherine Emery) follow him to his family's estate in Scotland. Once there the women discover that Gerald has aged for some reason and soon they realize that there's even more family secrets. THE MAZE is a hard film to judge because it contains some very good stuff but the problem is that the story itself is just boring and really drawn out for no good reason. The film features some terrific performances as well as a haunting atmosphere and these here make it worth sitting through. Director William Cameron Menzies (INVADERS FROM MARS) does a wonderful job building up the creepy atmosphere of the old castle. From the opening shots of the fog thick outside to the staircase with all the spider webs. The director really makes one believe you're in this location and he also puts the maze (much like the one later seen in THE SHINING) to good use. He also handles the B&W cinematography very well as the film looks terrific and the use of shadows is well done. Carlson turns in a good performance in the lead and I though both Hurst and Emery were good. The supporting players are good as well so with all of this what's the problem? The screenplay is incredibly weak and it just doesn't go anywhere. Gerald asks the women to leave. They tell a lie to where they can stay an extra day. They discuss what could possibly be happened. These three steps repeat themselves over and over and it's just really boring. I won't give away the secret but when it's finally revealed you really can't help but laugh. The effect of this reveal is also rather laughable. The film was originally shot in 3-D but watching the standard version I really didn't see anything that would really jump out. THE MAZE is an interesting film with a lot going for it but sadly most of the good stuff was just wasted.

I've docked two stars from this film for what must surely be one of the silliest endings in horror movies - and that's saying something! This is up there with the climax of Night Monster for sheer cheek, but for around an hour this is an absorbing and atmospheric Gothic drama.Richard Carlson, always a welcome presence, plays the heir to a Scottish laird called away from his pre-nuptial holidays in the South of France by some strange emergency at his ancestral home - a rambling castle he hasn't visited in years. Promising to return to his fiancé as soon as he can, he then does a disappearing act, before writing a mysterious note telling his beau she's the next Jennifer Anniston! Naturally she doesn't take kindly to this, and with Aunt in tow (you can tell this was made in the pre-rock and roll era - the leads would be groovy teenagers if this had been made in 1958) she undertakes the trip to the castle, where the sinister servants and her one-time love are acting all mysterious....The Maze of the title is a part of the castle grounds, and seems to hold the key to the mystery. What are those strange slopping sounds heard in the night? Why must everyone be locked up in their rooms at a certain time each evening? The answer, when it comes, proves to be hilarious. MAJOR SPOILER HERE. Er, it turns out to be a 200 year-old frog, who happens to be one Sir Roger! A deformed ancestor who has an extended life, is very shy and retiring and yet cultured. (come off it, guys he's a frog!) The minute he's discovered Sir Rodg takes a great froggy leap through a window to his doom. You might say he croaked! Cue Carlson's laugh-out loud explanation for the mysterious events...All I can say is they must have some sizable insect life in the Scottish Highlands to keep Kermit, er, Sir Roger, well-fed. Okay, I fess up. It's a bloke in a frog suit....There's one great Lovecraftian shot of the frog fumbling about in the darkness which is genuinely creepy, though. And if you can get past The Muppet Show explanation you might like it.