I only recently discovered the Pure Terror DVD set. It’s a 50 movie pack for sale at Amazon (at the time of this writing) for $14.49. You probably don’t need to be told this, but 50 movies for $14.49 means that the movies are probably public domain B-movies that people aren’t especially interested in, but that being said, if you have a taste for cheesy or schlocky films, you might find this to be a good value. Heck, even if you only watch each movie on here once, you’re only paying 29 cents per movie. You’ll have a hard time finding a Netflix plan that will beat that price on a per movie basis, but then again, some of the movies you’ll find on Netflix will almost assuredly be of higher quality than the movies in the Pure Terror: 50 Movie Pack.

I have only seen one movie out of the set so far, but I’m working my way through all 50 of these movies along with some friends of mine over at my favorite horror forum. You can follow our weekly discussions of Pure Terror there.

The movie I saw was called Crucible of Horror, which starred Michael Gough. Younger movie fans will likely remember him as Alfred in the earlier set of Batman movies, before Nolan took over the franchise. But back in the way, Michael Gough was a staple in many horror movies, and his performance in Crucible of Horror is only one of many notable horror performances. Perhaps his most notable horror movie role was in the first Dracula movie from Hammer Studios.

Crucible of Terror is a far cry from a good movie, but it’s not as awful as you might think, either. Of course, the quality of the transfer is pretty poor, but heck, what can you expect for less than 30 cents? The acting in the movie is pretty standard B-Movie stuff, although Gough occasionally shines. He’s never actually interesting, though–no amount of good acting can overcome a screenplay this lame.

That being said, this movie isn’t boring, and it held my attention the entire time. It seemed to want to have a Hitchcock kind of vibe, and it pretty much failed on every level to achieve that. Then again, when you’re aiming for Hitchcock, unless you ARE Hitchcock, you’re almost certain to fall short. And the movie was actually complex enough that there is something to discuss thematically. In other words, it’s open to some degree of interpretation.

Anyway, there are other 50 movie horror DVD packs, but this is the one I’m watching these days.