Theater of Blood 1973

After suffering humiliation at the hands of the Theatre Critics Guild during an awards ceremony, Shakespearean actor Edward Kendal Sheridan Lionheart is presumed to have taken his own life by leaping into the Thames. However, he survives and finds refuge among a group of vagrants. Two years later, on the Ides of March, Lionheart embarks on a twisted quest for vengeance against the critics who failed to recognize his brilliance, systematically eliminating them one by one with methods inspired by the murderous plots in the works of William Shakespeare he once performed.

Before each killing, Lionheart hauntingly recites the critic’s scathing review of his portrayal, setting the tone for his merciless acts. His first victim, George Maxwell, meets a grisly end at the hands of a mob of vagrants, mimicking the assassination of Julius Caesar in Julius Caesar. Next, Hector Snipe is gruesomely impaled with a spear, and his body is dragged to Maxwell’s funeral tied behind a horse—a gory reflection of Hector’s demise in Troilus and Cressida. The third victim, Horace Sprout, is decapitated in his sleep, echoing the fate of Cloten in Cymbeline.

As the slaughters continue, the fourth critic, Trevor Dickman, meets his punishment as his heart is cut out, reminiscent of Shylock’s actions in The Merchant of Venice, where the narrative twists to force Antonio to pay his debt with flesh. Oliver Larding, the fifth critic, finds himself drowned in a barrel of wine, paralleled to the tragic end of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, in Richard III.

In an unsettling turn during the reenactment of Romeo and Juliet, Lionheart cleverly lures Peregrine Devlin into a fencing gymnasium, severely wounding him but sparing his life for now. The next critic to fall is Solomon Psaltery, whose jealousy leads him to murder his wife Maisie, mirroring the treachery found in Othello. Although Psaltery remains alive, his heinous crime leads to his inevitable imprisonment. Miss Chloe Moon, the seventh critic, is electrocuted in a grim nod to the fate of Joan of Arc in Henry VI, Part 1. Finally, the flamboyant critic Meredith Merridew meets a grotesque end as he is force-fed pies made from his own toy poodles, choking to death just like Queen Tamora in Titus Andronicus.

In a shocking revelation, it’s unveiled that Lionheart has the help of his devoted daughter Edwina, who kidnaps Devlin, bringing him to the theatre. Here, Lionheart threatens to blind Devlin with heated daggers, akin to the fate awaiting Gloucester in King Lear. When Devlin refuses, the device intended for his torture malfunctions. As chaos ensues, one of the vagrants mistakenly kills Edwina, striking her fatally with the very award that symbolizes her father’s downfall, casting her in the tragic role of Cordelia.

In a heart-wrenching climax, Lionheart, consumed by grief, carries her lifeless body to the rooftop and delivers Lear’s poignant final monologue. Tragedy strikes as the roof collapses, engulfing him in flames and ultimately leading to his demise. Even in death, Devlin, the critic, cannot resist evaluating Lionheart’s performance, giving it a tempered but favorable review amidst the tragedy.