Just watched BUCKET OF BLOOD again (what a great little film!) and was reminded by my faltering brain that there existed a HG Lewis movie called COLOR ME BLOOD RED (right?) that I've never seen with almost the same plot. Then I realized that the "crazed artist/sculptor" idea pops up a lot in old radio shows and, I'm sure, 30's and 40's thrillers. So, what are some of your favorites? No writers or mad musicians (another whole sub-sub-genre), pah-leeeze ...we favor only the fine arts in these respectable soirées!

How 'bout perfumers?

Get out of my mind - first the biopic thing, now this?

There was an episode of the 90s TALES FROM THE CRYPT called "Easel Kill Ya" that had Tim Roth as an artist who is driven to murder to maintain his output. Also, didn't THE VAULT OF HORROR from the 70s have an artist who drew people's deaths? And, sadly, the BUCKET OF BLOOD remake.

As an inverse to your question, there is also Richard Stanley's HARDWARE where the lead female creates a sculpture that comes to life and kills people.

Yes, Tom Baker is an artist who discovers he can kill by painting portraits of his intended victims.

Not my favorite, but: the various incarnations of OPERATION TITIAN.

Don't forget Canada's contribution: PLAYGIRL KILLER, which has similarities to BLOOD BATH and COLOR ME BLOOD RED.

I got to watch BUCKET OF BLOOD once in an auditorium full of art students at The San Francisco Art Institute, which is in North Beach not far from City Lights Books. The crowd was well aware of the school's bohemian beatnik past, and the film was a huge hit, getting gales of laughter at all the right moments. They particularly liked the "I thought you put money down?" "Well I do.... but 50 THOU???" exchange toward the end.

Rondo Hatton does the bidding of insane artist Martin Kosleck in HOUSE OF HORRORS, which contains this wonderful exchange in which Kosleck tricks Hatton into admitting a murder he's just read about in the newspaper:

Kosleck: "I have often wondered what would make a man want to snap a woman's spine."
Hatton: "She screamed."

They don't write 'em like that any more!

Maybe Universal will slip this into the next classic horror collection!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038621/

There is also the low budget SCREAM BLOODY MURDER, in which a deranged artist turns his victims into misshapen "works of art"; the "Creeping Hand" episode of DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (the hand belongs to an artist whose work was denounced by critic Christopher Lee); and, if I remember correctly, THE HEADLESS EYES.

One of my absolute faves is Michael Curtiz's Mystery of the Wax Museum. This is heresy, but I enjoy it much more than his later Casablanca. It's gorgeous to look at, no music bed... and then there's Fay Wray as the spunky reporter.

Sigh.

Or as I know her, Glenda Farrell.

In Robert Siodmak's PHANTOM LADY, based on the Cornell Woolrich novel, Frachot Tone imbues the role of murdeous schizophrenic sculptor, Jack Marlow, with an intensity and madness that greatly adds to the film's impact. It's my fave Franchot Tone performance. If I remember correctly, Marlow has an obsession with hands and there is a sculpture of a huge hand prominently displayed at his apartment, which makes sense since he strangles his victims.

Leaving the plastic arts, Laird Cregar gives a brilliant performance as George Harvey Bone, the murderous composer in HANGOVER SQUARE.

Whoops... you're right. Guess I'll have to go back and refresh my memory. Maybe a double bill with Doctor X.

The movie you're referring to is SCREAM BABY SCREAM (also released as NIGHTMARE HOUSE). SCREAM BLOODY MURDER is the one about the kid who kills his dad with the tractor and mangles his hand.

TOURIST TRAP has a crazed wax artist who kills for his "art".

How 'bout PEEPING TOM?

Or Sergio Bergonzelli's BLOOD DELIRIUM, with John Phillip Law and Gordon Mitchell, starring Law as a mad painter who has his butler kill women for him and then uses their blood for his art.

Who says good help is hard to find?

My only beef with MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is that Fay, though second-billed, is barely in the picture. What a waste.

There is also Claude Rains as Erique Claudin in the 1943 remake of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and William Finley as Winslow Leach in PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE.

I've always found the "I must paint with blood" genre pretty funny. Blood clots and turns brown. Yuck.

I wonder if we should consider Leatherface's family as contenders, since, Gein-like, they decorate their abode with both animal and hiuman remains? Or would that come under the "Killer as Interior Decorator" thread? :)

The Driller Killer

If we consider consider designers of Haute Couture to be artists, then we need to include John Harrington in Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON.

"My name is John Harrington. I'm 30 years old. I'm a paranoiac. Paranoiac. An enchanting word, so civilized, full of possibilities. The truth is, I am completely mad. The realization which annoys me at first, but is now amusing to me. Quite amusing. Nobody suspects I am a madman. A dangerous murderer. Not Mildred, my wife. Nor the employees of my fashion center. Nor of course my customers."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064904/quotes

We also need to include Contessa Christina Como who runs Christiana's Haute Couture in Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE.