The Vulture is a British monster movie from the 1960s, so I was pre-disposed to adore it. Yet it moved so slowly, and made so little use of the monster, that all my potential goodwill evaporated by the time it was half over.
As a result of mad science, some kind of large bird is killing people. We don't necessarily expect graphic gore in a film from 1967, but we don't get hardly ANY. The attack scenes, when we get one (some deaths occur offscreen), are almost cursory in their briefness - some active shots with stiff fake bird claws in the foreground and a person screaming in the background.
The movie plods along like an especially slow police procedural, as the hero tries to figure out what the bird is, where it comes from. Of course the idea of it being a vulture with killer talons is absurd, because vultures have the weakest claws of all birds of prey. But I guess maybe the British don't have any vultures around (I live in Texas and see them all the time - they're not scary).
In any case the monster turns out to be a mad scientist who is committing the murders for the stupidest reason ever - to avenge an ancestor's death. I mean it's one thing to seek revenge because your wife (Dr. Phibes), or your kid (Friday the 13th), or your dog (Road Warrior) was killed, or because you were denied money (Devil Bat) or fame (Terror of Mechagodzilla). But because a remote ancestor died? Who wasn't even killed by the people YOU are killing? Seems a bit cerebral not to mention stupid to me.
Plus the monster is ludicrously lame when we finally get to see it, about 30 seconds from the movie. SPOILER ALERT!! It's pudgy old Broderick Crawford with bird legs. That's it. He's not even a were-vulture - he has bird legs all the time - a handicap that you think would be interesting to explore. How does he hide the fact that he can't wear shoes, and his knees work the wrong way? THAT movie might be cool.
Instead if you want to see a revenge horror movie, I recommend any of those I referenced a couple paragraphs up. All of them are more entertaining than The Vulture. Even The Devil Bat.
As a result of mad science, some kind of large bird is killing people. We don't necessarily expect graphic gore in a film from 1967, but we don't get hardly ANY. The attack scenes, when we get one (some deaths occur offscreen), are almost cursory in their briefness - some active shots with stiff fake bird claws in the foreground and a person screaming in the background.
The movie plods along like an especially slow police procedural, as the hero tries to figure out what the bird is, where it comes from. Of course the idea of it being a vulture with killer talons is absurd, because vultures have the weakest claws of all birds of prey. But I guess maybe the British don't have any vultures around (I live in Texas and see them all the time - they're not scary).
In any case the monster turns out to be a mad scientist who is committing the murders for the stupidest reason ever - to avenge an ancestor's death. I mean it's one thing to seek revenge because your wife (Dr. Phibes), or your kid (Friday the 13th), or your dog (Road Warrior) was killed, or because you were denied money (Devil Bat) or fame (Terror of Mechagodzilla). But because a remote ancestor died? Who wasn't even killed by the people YOU are killing? Seems a bit cerebral not to mention stupid to me.
Plus the monster is ludicrously lame when we finally get to see it, about 30 seconds from the movie. SPOILER ALERT!! It's pudgy old Broderick Crawford with bird legs. That's it. He's not even a were-vulture - he has bird legs all the time - a handicap that you think would be interesting to explore. How does he hide the fact that he can't wear shoes, and his knees work the wrong way? THAT movie might be cool.
Instead if you want to see a revenge horror movie, I recommend any of those I referenced a couple paragraphs up. All of them are more entertaining than The Vulture. Even The Devil Bat.