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Doctor Terrible's House Of Horrible - Series 1 [DVD] [2001]
![Doctor Terrible's House Of Horrible - Series 1 [DVD] [2001]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S9KHFHN4L._SL160_.jpg)
Coogan also stars in each as six different characters. In "And Now the Fearing...", for example. he plays rat-faced, unpleasant millionaire Denham Denham; in "Frenzy of Tongs"--a mickey-take of the Fu Manchu films--he's the insufferably suave Nathan Blaze, a Jason King-a-like; in "Scream, Satan Scream", meanwhile, he superimposes a parody of Peter Sellers over a lampoon of the Vincent Price film Witchfinder General. Although most of these episodes are elaborate period pieces and genuine care has been made to render them as scary as possible, the real period detail has been in recreating the luridly quaint, over-acted, hammy feel of the 70s productions to which these episodes pay affectionate homage. Although hardly a perfect series, the camped-up daftness of the entire enterprise, a star-studded cast that includes Honor Blackman, John Thompson and Ronnie Ancona, some nice scripting and Coogan's versatility all make for a programme that's hard to dislike. On the DVD Dr Terrible's House of Horrible is quite generous in its extras. These include "An Appointment with Terrible", a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, much of which was shot in the studio hangars where the original Hammer horrors were made, dry audio commentary by cowriters Graham Duff and Henry Normal and director Matt Lipsey, and "Behind the Screams" a mock-70s film journal ("only 10p!") reflecting on the making of one of the episodes. --David Stubbs
RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £4.49 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Originally broadcast in 2001, Dr Terrible's House of Horrible is a six-part pastiche of 1970s Hammer Horror from Steve Coogan's Baby Cow production company. Each episode is topped and tailed by Coogan beneath a mass of prosthetics in a high-back leather chair as the avuncular, flatulent, faintly morally debauched Dr Terrible. "That was truly diabolical", he concludes of each show, a verdict with which one or two critics unkindly and unfairly concurred.
Amusing DVD
Review date: 2010-01-09 Rating: 6 out of 10
Currently watching the first episode of this set. Looks good, but the video quality of the opening episode is awful. Very grainy and seems to be like an NTSC conversion. The episode is fairly amusing the tribute to the movies they are spoofing is the name of the building the 3 are trapped in - Amicus House.
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Reviews
Freeze with unease around the knees ...
Review date: 2009-12-08 Rating: 10 out of 10
... And let the clammy hand of television paw at you unrelentingly as Steve Coogan and friends essay six note-perfect send-ups of the great old (well, old anyway) days of British horror movies.
Seems Steve Coogan and his fellow writers Graham Duff and Henry Normal must all have spent their formative years watching the best (and worst) of the Hammer and Amicus horror films of yesteryear, and all this studying has paid off. Each film spoof is fronted by Coogan under very heavy rubber disguise as the truly repulsive Dr. Terrible, and Coogan takes a leading role in each of the six introduced episodes. And while the individual stories can be a bit variable, they're all good and some of them are just superb.
My personal favourite is the vampire story, whose name I'll omit for fear of offending sensitive Amazon readers, which gives splendid roles to Ronni Ancona and Ben Miller as a rather rum Carpathian Countess and her remarkably rum factotum. The vampire saga also allows Honor Blackman a unique opportunity to blast everyone else off the screen by playing what is basically a lady Van Helsing in a leather dress. Another belter is `Scream, Satan, Scream', which casts Coogan as a grotty-minded 17th-century witchfinder with a slight hint of the Peter Sellers.
The extras are fine too - going quite a bit beyond the usual cast / crew self-congratulation - and often genuinely funny in their own right
Anyway, give 'Doctor Terrible ...' a go if spot-on film parody flicks your switch.
Parody of parodies is passable+
Review date: 2009-08-14 Rating: 8 out of 10
This homage to the Hammer movie genre of the 1960s and `70s is actually more of an homage to all the parodies, pastiches and p-takes that TV comedians have based on them over the last 40 years. Although rarely guilty of being directly derivative, `Dr Terrible's House of Horrible' covers ground already well-trodden by the likes of Blackadder, Ripping Yarns, Monty Python, Young Frankenstein, Carry Ons `Screaming' and `Dick', Mel Brooks' `Young Frankenstein', and even The Two Ronnies. Steve Coogan and his comedy cohorts are on top form, however, and production values are high (`Dr Terrible's House of Horrible' probably cost more to make than the original movies it spoofs); its flaws lie in the scripts which overly rely on gags based on overacted archness, imperilled, swooning heroines, and some smutty one-liners that would have caused Talbot Rothwell to blanche. And the overall script quality is inferior to the standard set by 'Coogan's Run' some years earlier.
That said, it's enjoyable and fun viewing, and episodes like `Scream Satan Scream', in which Coogan plays serial lecher Captain Tobias Slater `witch locator', come close to classic status. And host Dr Terrible himself - Coogan superb under flawlessly realistic prosthetic make-up - is truly diabolical.
Great idea... but it's just not that funny
Review date: 2008-12-31 Rating: 4 out of 10
I'd love to have given this series a great revue... but unfortunately it just doesn't warrant one. It's basically a great high concept, but one that misfires pretty completely - it just ain't that funny! As an example one episode ends with a hilarious one liner from Dr Horrible, but to get to that point you've had to endure 28 minutes of fairly tedious cod Hammer horror that'll leave you bored riged by the end. Alan Partridge it ain't. They probably had great fun making it, but it's not much fun watching it.
Not a Classic - But Not "Truly Diabolical"
Review date: 2008-09-14 Rating: 8 out of 10
Horror movies fulfill an important role in many adolescent kids' lives as they are obsessed with sexuality and death. So why not write a spoof series that give tribute to Hammer, Amicus and Tigon films?
The problem is that really this another attempt at "Coogan's Run": an unpredictable and uneven anthology comedy series. Just like " ...Run" Coogan plays multiple roles and, inevitably, the quality of the episodes varies.
One constant high point is Coogan's eponymous narrator.He is crude, cruel, snobbish and perverted;he also has his bad points. Actually his kinky and surreal monologues are often the best part of the shows.
The opening "Fearing" episode is a patchy spoof of Amicus anthology horror films and a little too arch for its own good. The coffee table story is especially a little too knowing for its own good with its heavy-handed swipes at reactionary misogyny in British 70's horror.It has to be said that Julia Davis is ,as ever, great at playing the archetypal sex-obsessed lover of feminist pyschobabble and I suppose it does hit the target by pointing out the cruel and crude justice of the morality tales in these movies.
"Tongs" is much better even though I can't ever claim to seen a "Fu-Manchu" style horror movie. Gatiss is great and clearly revels in his role. Bizarrely this is really a clearer, and therefore better, spoof of the "Doctor Who" classic adventure "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". So not really a horror movie spoof per se.
"Curse of The Blood of The Lizard of Doom" is simply poor: an unfunny pantomime with some truly wretched Scottish accents.
"Lesbian Vampire Lovers of Lust" is an accurate and affectionate parody of Hammer's late '60s/ 70's habit of using vampire movies as trojan horses to put out lesbian softcore pornography, witness the Ingrid Pitt "classics" "The Vampire Lovers" or "Countess Dracula." Roni Ancona is a treat as the seductive sapphic sucker and Ben Miller is terrific as the campest er... tool of a vampire you'll ever see. Double entendres are scattered through the dialogue and this cleverly exposes the cowardly and cynical use of sexuality in the Hammer canon.
"Voodoo Feet of Death" is a very poor episode with very little laughs at all.
The series ends on a high note - "Scream Satan Scream!" is a great take on the classic "The Witchfinder General". Coogan is a knockout in his mock Peter Sellers acting style and potrays the pompous puritan as a holy hypocrite.Just like the fourth episode this attacks the wretched and squalid sexual hypocriscy of horror flicks as they are fascinated yet disgusted by women's sexuality.
The extras are okay; some great commentaries and a passable "behind the scenes" documentary.
Overall, a good stab at horror-comedy but not as good as the "League of Gentlemen" Christmas special.I suppose it is guilty of overrelying on the strength of Coogan's input and that's why we have on 75% of a good series as the "Lizard" and "Feet" episodes lack the narrative thrust of a passionate and rounded main character.
In conclusion, terribly funny at times but also horribly inconsistent.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Steve Coogan
Honor Blackman
John Thomson
Julia Davis
Creators:
Steve Coogan (Primary Contributor)
Julia Davis (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503121020
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2003-08-04
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 180 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001-11-12
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: English (Original Language)