Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

This is an interesting film, which may even have some basis in truth. Boris Karloff plays a Doctor who is determined to find a way to end the suffering of patients who have to undergo surgery without anaethestic. Unfortunately his first demonstration is unsuccessful and as a result he is only able to test the various gases he creates on himself and this has unforseen side effects.

There are good supporting roles from Christopher Lee and Francis Matthews, but it is Karloff who holds the film together. Its certainly worth seeing and even, as is likely, its a work of fiction its still entertaining enough in its own right.

I first was exposed to this movie as the second act on my local Friday night horror movie special when I was a kid. I didn't remember much of the plot or even the name of the movie (I probably was asleep for most of it), but the phrase, "Pain and the knife are inseparable!" stuck in my head.

I wanted to see this movie again after recently undergoing a minor surgical procedure with only a bit of pain (a botched IV insertion).

"Corridors of Blood" is an very good period tale that plays more like real medical history than a horror movie. There are no supernatural elements at all. The Dr. Bolton character (Boris Karloff) is based more than just loosely on the real-life Horace Wells, an American dentist associated with the discovery of anesthesia. There are many parallels between the two (faith in nitrous oxide as an anesthetic, a failed public demonstration with a robust male patient with nitrous oxide, addiction to the chemicals, throwing sulfuric acid on an antagonist, and a bad end).

It is sad to see Dr. Bolton, who means so well, slide into his downward spiral. That is the real horror in this movie.

The visuals are tame by modern standards, where we have "Hostel" and "Saw." The actual violence of a pre-anesthesia amputation is not shown - you just hear the screams of the patient.