Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7098 in VHS
• Released on: 1998-09-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Color, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Customer Reviews

Excellent old horror story retold with Vincent Price
Vincent Price plays Simon Cordier, who is haunted by a malicious spirit. No one can see this invisible spirit, and it acts only when Cordier is alone.

When Maupassant wrote the original story, he was going insane, dying of syphillis. No one really knows if he was simply writing a story, or writing what he thought was happening to him...

one of vincent's gems
Vincent Price was really amazing. He could be a villain. He could do comedy. He could do camp and he could do serious. He also showed a talent for playing a sympathetic victim. Judge Simon Cordier has been possessed by a horla, a kind of evil spirit and it makes him do terrible things. Simon is a moderate, kind, sensitive and artistic man and seeing the horla destroy both his life and reputation is really touching. His love for the doomed Odette wins the audiences heart and when the horla goes after her it's a shock. There's not a whole lot of gore in this movie. A family of adults and teens could watch it without any embarrasment but it has genuine chilling power.

Underrated Horror of the Horla
This is an interesting story of a worldly pernicious spirit called the Horla. The Horla uses mortal men as hosts to commit acts of mayhem and murder. Based on the story "La Horla" by Guy de Maupassant Vincent Price plays magistrate Simon Cordier who becomes enchanted by the evil specter. Price is excellent as a man who is poised in his official capacity, shows almost juvenile affection for Odette (Nancy Kovack) an artist's model he falls in love with and gains sympathy as he gradually loses all dignity under the spell of the Horla. The pace of this film is slow and methodical but it is the performance of Price and his predicament that keeps it interesting. The direction by Reginald LeBorg is rather pedestrian but the art designs by Daniel Haller and colorful cinematography by Ellis W. Carter are very good.