- Actors: Peter Cushing
- Directors: Freddie Francis
- Format: Colour, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language English
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Legend Films
- DVD Release Date: 3 Jun 2008
- Run Time: 83 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0016LFUVQ
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 19,760 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The Skull was made by Amicus who are probably best known for their series of anthology films such as Tales From The Crypt and The House That Dripped Blood and is at last available on dvd. Firstly, do not let the awful cover design put you off this dvd. Why the manufacturers didn't use the original poster art or a decent still from the film is beyond me. However this is only a minor gripe.
The plot is very simple - Christopher Maitland a collector of rare accult items played by Peter Cushing comes into possession of the skull of the Marquis de Sade (the infamous sadist). Fellow collector Matthew Phillips (Christopher Lee) warns him that the skull can cause horrible things to happen. Needless to say Maitland fails to take his advise and is plunged into a series of nightmarish events. Can he escape from the power of the skull ?
The film moves at a nice pace with good performances from Lee and especially Cushing who carries the last third of the film very well. The special effects are rather dated - you can see the wire holding the floating skull, still it does make a nice change to all the cgi effects we are subjected to nowdays. The print is sharp with good sound and is presented in the original 2.35 ratio. The extras are rather dissapointing. All you get is a trailer for the film. This is an American dvd and is region 1 coded so please make sure you dvd is compatable with region 1 dvds. All in all an excellent dvd and well worth picking up if you (like Me) enjoy classic British horror films.
The plot is very simple - Christopher Maitland a collector of rare accult items played by Peter Cushing comes into possession of the skull of the Marquis de Sade (the infamous sadist). Fellow collector Matthew Phillips (Christopher Lee) warns him that the skull can cause horrible things to happen. Needless to say Maitland fails to take his advise and is plunged into a series of nightmarish events. Can he escape from the power of the skull ?
The film moves at a nice pace with good performances from Lee and especially Cushing who carries the last third of the film very well. The special effects are rather dated - you can see the wire holding the floating skull, still it does make a nice change to all the cgi effects we are subjected to nowdays. The print is sharp with good sound and is presented in the original 2.35 ratio. The extras are rather dissapointing. All you get is a trailer for the film. This is an American dvd and is region 1 coded so please make sure you dvd is compatable with region 1 dvds. All in all an excellent dvd and well worth picking up if you (like Me) enjoy classic British horror films.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
For the life of me, I can never work out why 'the Skull' isn't better thought of across the horror world .
It's moody, it's got inclusively great performances and a kickin' soundtrack.
Cast-wise it's nigh on untouchable: Peter Cushing plays Maitland, a fool-hardy collector of occult 'curio's' who comes to own the possessed skull of the Marquis de Sade; Patrick Wymark is brilliantly squalid as the shady antiques dealer - Marco; Christopher Lee and Peter Woodthorpe make telling cameo-appearances and the deeply sexy (and good actress(!)) Jill Bennett plays Cushing's terrified wife, pushed to her limits by his obsession.
It's got Hammer-esque cemetery scenes, bulging-eyed insanity murders, a brilliantly trippy dream sequence where Cushing is forced to play Russian Roulette in a mad courthouse, and a devilish, grinning titular villain that floats around his front parlour very stylishly, even with a vicious letter-opener rammed in its eye.
There may be typically cryptic 60's drug metaphors abounding here (I can sense them but I'm damned if I can coherently uncover one for you), but that's not why 'the Skull' is so watch-able and entertaining.
It's a combination job, and with all its component parts firing so finely, it can't do much else but work beautifully.
It's an elegant film, totally out of sync with many of its rivals and peers of the brash, boundary-pushing 1960's.
Hopefully, this long overdue dvd release will redress the balance in 'the Skull's favour and bring it to a modern audience; its unavailability being the only reason I can see why it's not being hailed.
It's moody, it's got inclusively great performances and a kickin' soundtrack.
Cast-wise it's nigh on untouchable: Peter Cushing plays Maitland, a fool-hardy collector of occult 'curio's' who comes to own the possessed skull of the Marquis de Sade; Patrick Wymark is brilliantly squalid as the shady antiques dealer - Marco; Christopher Lee and Peter Woodthorpe make telling cameo-appearances and the deeply sexy (and good actress(!)) Jill Bennett plays Cushing's terrified wife, pushed to her limits by his obsession.
It's got Hammer-esque cemetery scenes, bulging-eyed insanity murders, a brilliantly trippy dream sequence where Cushing is forced to play Russian Roulette in a mad courthouse, and a devilish, grinning titular villain that floats around his front parlour very stylishly, even with a vicious letter-opener rammed in its eye.
There may be typically cryptic 60's drug metaphors abounding here (I can sense them but I'm damned if I can coherently uncover one for you), but that's not why 'the Skull' is so watch-able and entertaining.
It's a combination job, and with all its component parts firing so finely, it can't do much else but work beautifully.
It's an elegant film, totally out of sync with many of its rivals and peers of the brash, boundary-pushing 1960's.
Hopefully, this long overdue dvd release will redress the balance in 'the Skull's favour and bring it to a modern audience; its unavailability being the only reason I can see why it's not being hailed.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Yes "The Skull" is on dvd, after a long, long expectation.
All the bad guys, selling here and there, a dreadful and also nasty copy
full screen, 4/3, Pan & Scan, with only a third ? (more or less) image still visible, made from a vhs out of ages, can throw the object through the window pane.
The Legend Films dvd is enhanced for the 16/9, it' s not even written on the back cover, and it' s effectively for the first time, a splendid 2.35
image, in the full respect of the original Techniscope.
Doesn' t matter really if the movie is this, or that, or short, or long,
and the wire when the skull moves, (I never saw the wire as far as I' m
concerned), we do not care.
The Skull is and always will be a terrifying nightmare,a story about the
desire, and why it kills you one way or another.
This movie is "untouchable".
It' s true the cover of the dvd is stupid, and rather repulsive.
The original french poster (1m20 x 1m60) the larger blue one whith the gun
against Cushing face, was a "classic" with a doesn' t date style.
All the bad guys, selling here and there, a dreadful and also nasty copy
full screen, 4/3, Pan & Scan, with only a third ? (more or less) image still visible, made from a vhs out of ages, can throw the object through the window pane.
The Legend Films dvd is enhanced for the 16/9, it' s not even written on the back cover, and it' s effectively for the first time, a splendid 2.35
image, in the full respect of the original Techniscope.
Doesn' t matter really if the movie is this, or that, or short, or long,
and the wire when the skull moves, (I never saw the wire as far as I' m
concerned), we do not care.
The Skull is and always will be a terrifying nightmare,a story about the
desire, and why it kills you one way or another.
This movie is "untouchable".
It' s true the cover of the dvd is stupid, and rather repulsive.
The original french poster (1m20 x 1m60) the larger blue one whith the gun
against Cushing face, was a "classic" with a doesn' t date style.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amicus at their best
I will start with some advice about the disc because i have made this mistake.This copy of the skull is region code 1 and that means it will only play on dvd players in the us and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by PD
The Skull (1965) DVD
This is an excellent copy of a classic 1960s Peter Cushing horror thriller.
You need a multiregion DVD Player to view it here, as it is a Region 1 American import, but... Read more
You need a multiregion DVD Player to view it here, as it is a Region 1 American import, but... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Zeno
Skull Horror Days
"The Skull" is a cool 1960s horror film with an excellent pedigree. It was adapted from a short story, "The Skull Of The Marquis De Sade" by Robert Bloch, produced by the Amicus... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jeremy W. Newbould
Entertaining oddity from Amicus
If you (like me ) love the Hammer and Amicus movies from this era Im sure you will find much to enjoy in The Skull . Read more
Published on 29 April 2010 by christopher paul king
A gem of a horror film.
This long overdue DVD release of 'The Skull' may be short on extras, but if you enjoy classic 60's horror films this is a must! Read more
Published on 22 Sep 2008 by K. W. Wardle
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