Yes, even before Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCO (1960)was this the first horror to kill of the lead actor halfway through the film?
shareYep. But PSYCHO pretty much gets the credit for being the first film to do that. Of course, Janet Leigh was a fairly big star which was not the case with the female in HORROR HOTEL.
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/writer
Um, thanks for spoiling it. Sheesh!
shareIn a play called "Julius Caesar," a writer named Shakespeare killed off his main character fairly early. I'd label this a spoiler, but I don't think you can spoil a 400-year old work.
shareThe City of the Dead was released three months after Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. There are similarities between the two films, but they're accidental.
Both have as protagonists attractive blonds who are unexpectedly killed off less than halfway through the film. Both have a sibling--in Psycho it's a sister, in City of the Dead a brother--who go looking for them. Both siblings are joined in the investigation by someone of the opposite sex--in Psycho it's the missing woman's lover, in City of the Dead it's a newfound friend. And both are joined by a third person who gets killed: the private investigator is stabbed to death in Psycho, the missing woman's boyfriend is stabbed in the back in City of the Dead.
... Justin
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Interesting. In the interview on the VCI DVD, director John Moxey claims that City of the Dead was made before Psycho.
Probably just a coincidence, then. Really cool film, this. And the heroine's demise after 37 minutes was a great shocker.
I shall add two more to the list. In Psycho, it was a motel; in this film there was an inn. Also, in both films there is a scene right at the end in which there is a chair and a character seated on it.
shareCall me crazy, but I like this film much better than Psycho. Other than Night of the Living Dead, it is my favorite black and white film ever. Don't get me wrong, Psycho is good too. But the creepy atmosphere this film has is like no other.
Death lives in the Vault of Horror!