Horror Hotel - 1961

A young coed (Nan Barlow) uses her winter vacation to research a paper on witchcraft in New England. Her professor recommends that she spend her time in a small village called Whitewood. He originally cam from that village so he also recommends she stay at the "Raven's Inn," run by a Mrs. Newlis. She gets to the village and notices some weird happenings, but things begin to happen in earnest when she finds herself "marked" for sacrifice by the undead coven of witches. It seems that the innkeeper is actually the undead spirit of Elizabeth Selwyn, and the "guests" at the inn are the other witches who have come to celebrate the sacrifice on Candalmas Eve. As one of them said when Nan walked away, "HE will be PLEASED."
 
On 3 March 1692, in Whitewood, Massachusetts, the witch Elizabeth Selwyn is sentenced to be burned at the stake, and her partner Jethrow Keane asks Lúcifer to save her. About three hundred years later, the college student Nan Barlow decides to spend her vacation in the town to research witchcraft. Her professor Alan Driscoll suggests Nan to lodge in the Ravens Inn, managed by Mrs. Newless. Once in the village, the naive Nan is advised by the local priest, Reverend Russell, to immediately leave the place, where devil has ruled over for three hundred years, but she decides to stay and find that she is in a coven of evil witches. Nan vanishes, and the granddaughter of Reverend Russell, Patricia Russell, pays a visit to Nan's skeptical brother, Richard Barlow, and her boyfriend Bill Maitland, and they decide to follow her steps. Once in New England, they realize that a group of immortal witches have to sacrifice two beautiful women per year, one on Candleman Eve on February 1st, and the other on the Witch Sabbath, to stay alive forever, and only the shadow of a cross would be able to destroy them.

A coven of witches burned at the stake somehow live on centuries later to conduct satanic rituals in the foggiest town in America.  Seriously, I’m not joking about the fog.  They must have cranked the fog machine to 11.  There’s so much fog, it actually seeps into people’s homes and cars.  It’s a touch over-dramatic.  In addition to the fog, the town has a problem with creepy vanishing hitchhikers.  I’m pretty sure the vanishing hitchhiker turns out to be one of the satanic cult members – in all honesty, he doesn’t really help attract fresh sacrifices for his coven, he more or less just creeps them right the fuck out.  To be honest, if a hitchhiker disappeared from my car while we were in mid-conversation, I’d put the car in reverse and drive away.  Period.
 
As I mentioned, the story-line pretty much revolves around a young college girl (kinda defiant) who heads to a former witch-burning location to research witchcraft (and probably to score brownie points with her professor – played by a young master of horror Christopher Lee!).  After coming to the town, she realizes how weird people are (and how they have a fog/vanishing hitchhiker problem) tries to investigate, than gets sacrificed by a satanic cult.  Her brother and her boyfriend discover she is missing and head to the town to investigate (along with the local bookstore owner who was one of the last people to see the girl alive).  It’s pretty much too late to save the sister/girlfriend, but they do manage to put a stop to the cult and save the cute brunette bookstore chick in the process.
 
The ending is probably the only highlight of the movie.  It’s a satanic showdown in the graveyard of an old church complete with the fog machine blasting at 12, eerie satanic chanting, and some super gothic landscaping.  This is probably a high point in the sub-genre of witch movies.

"City of the Dead" aka "Horror Hotel" was the first film made by Amicus Productions, one of Hammer's most successful rivals in the 60s and 70s. At the time of this film, however, the company was known as Vulcan Productions.

Cast:

Dennis Lotis - Richard Barlow
Christopher Lee - Prof. Alan Driscoll
Patricia Jessel - Elizabeth Selwyn / Mrs. Newless
Tom Naylor - Bill Maitland
Betta St. John - Patricia Russell
Venetia Stevenson - Nan Barlow
Valentine Dyall - Jethrow Keane
Ann Beach - Lottie
Norman Macowan - Reverend Russell
Fred Johnson - The Elder
James Dyrenforth - Garage attendant
Maxine Holden - Sue
William Abney - Policeman