ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Bezenby Yet another anthology film from the seventies! This one has Ralph Richardson and Peter Cushing in it, plus a rather young Joan Collins. Just like Vault of Horror, a random assortment of people find themselves trapped in a sinister location, only this time they've got the creepy Ralph Richardson holding them captive and making them flashback to their respective stories. Much Englishness ensues from a time seemingly where most men knocked back a brandy or sherry while read the FT in front of the fire.Joan finds herself trapped in her house at Christmas with the body of her husband, whom she's murdered, and an escaped lunatic dressed as Santa trying to get in. Another guy recalls what happened when he left his wife (er, this doesn't have too much substance to it). There's a 'monkey's paw' type tale with a gory ending, Peter Cushing (as a good guy) gets to become a zombie in one story and Patrick Magee simmers with rage as a blind guy going head to head with a military administrator which ends on a Saw-like note.At first I thought things were moving rather slow, but the stories get better as the film progresses, with people being chopped up while remaining alive, people having their hearts removed and Patrick Magee's excellent performance as the raging blind guy. It's no classic, but the acting talent on display is rather groovy, as well as the cheeseball ending speech, delivered indeed by a Knight of the Realm.Definitely worth a watch, but maybe next time it could be you (raises sinister eyebrow).

Prichards12345 Tales From The Crypt features a good cast, 5 quirky stories, only 3 of which work well but are briskly told, and excellent (as usual) direction from Freddie Francis. Producer Milton Subotsky gained the rights to produce an adaption of the E.C. comic from WIlliam B Gaines' stable. And they would follow this a year later with Vault Of Horror, which is also an enjoyable if far from perfect portmanteau movie.Best of this bunch for me are the stories featuring Joan Collins, Peter Cushing and Patrick Magee. Cushing in particular is movingly effective as Arthur Grimsdyke - it must be the only time in his career he played a dustman! The wonderfully sepulchral Magee lends his considerable acting chops to the final tale of the residents of a home for the blind turning on its parsimonious superintendent. Both these stories are agreeably nasty, and the theme is bad people getting their comeuppance in various equally nasty ways.Richard Greene's story is an acknowledged re-tread of The Monkey's Paw, but is too brief to be effective. And Ian Hendry's turn as a husband leaving his wife and kids for his mistress is rather poor, but doesn't really detract from the movie in general.Perhaps not quite as good as The House That Dripped Blood or From Beyond The Grave this is still a watchable and occasionally (suprising, considering Amicus usually shied away from such things) gruesome film, Well worth a blue-ray issuance!

glenn-aylett Five strangers are separated from their tour party while touring ancient catacombs. In attempt to find the others, they end up trapped in an eerie crypt where they meet the Cryptkeeper (Ralph Richardson), a sinister monk who shows them their grisly fortunes and then sends them to hell at the end for their evil deeds.Rather like From Beyond The Grave, another memorable portmanteau from the same era as Tales from the Crypt, this film is a portmanteau of five stories where the five main characters have committed crimes ranging from driving someone to suicide to murder. Joan Collins is top notch in And All Through The House as an evil housewife who murders her husband for his insurance policy and who in turn is murdered by an escaped murderer in a Santa suit. ( It is a bit odd watching this story in March and hearing Christmas music).However, the best story in the portmanteau has to be Blind Alleys, where a cruel ex army officer takes over a home for blind men, allows the men to freeze and almost starve, while he spends the funds on himself and his Alsatian guard dog. When an inmate dies due to the cold and malnourishment, the inmates turn on the superintendent and trap him in the cellar with his dog locked in a room next door. Eventually the superintendent is allowed out of his makeshift prison, but has to try and escape through a narrow passage lined with razor blades and after trying to get out, the prisoners switch the lights off and release the Alsatian on him, which tears him apart.Also good and made better by Peter Cushing is Poetic Justice, where Cushing plays an elderly binman who lives in a rundown house with his dogs and is popular with local children. Yet a snobbish neighbour played by Robin Phillips wants to drive him out and has his dogs confiscated by the police and also spreads a rumour that the old man is a child molester, which drives him to suicide. However, the old man comes back from the dead in the night a year after he dies and kills his snobbish neighbour by ripping out his heart, leaving a message stating that he had no heart.Reflection of Death is a decent cautionary tale about adultery, where Ian Hendry plays an adulterous husband who takes off in his Jaguar with his mistress and is involved in a car crash, but is ignored when he asks for help and leaves his girlfriend for dead. Later on it is revealed his girlfriend has been blinded in the accident and Hendry is visiting her from the dead as the story flashes back to the car crash. Not so good is Wish You Were Here. I found the story to be flimsy and with unnecessary gore at the end, as the whole film had managed with only a minimal amount of bloodshed. I'd advise people to skip this as it's weak and predictable, which drags down the rest of the film. On the whole, Tales on the Crypt is a decent British horror and it's nice to see Catweazle( Geoffrey Bayldon) in a cameo as the guide in the catacombs. Also using Bach's Toccata and Fugue as the introductory music is an excellent touch.

BA_Harrison Five strangers lose their way while on a tour of a catacomb and find themselves in the company of a strange crypt keeper (Sir Ralph Richardson) who predicts each person's future… or so they think.The five stories are as follows: And All Through The House: Joan Collins plays murderous wife Joanne Clayton, who bashes her husband's head in with a fire poker on Christmas Eve, but gets her just desserts when an escaped homicidal maniac dressed as Santa pays her home a visit. Easily my favourite of the five (and not just because Joan is smokin' hot in this!), the first story offers genuine atmosphere and scares with a really neat twist (admittedly, Joanne misses a trick by not calling the cops and blaming her husband's death on the lunatic in the Santa suit, but she's acting under a lot of pressure). My only real complaint is this one is over all too soon.Reflection of Death: Carl Maitland (Ian Hendry) leaves his wife and family to start a new life with his sexy young mistress Susan Blake (Carry On babe). While asleep in the passenger seat, he wakes from a terrible nightmare shortly before the car careers off the road, in what proves to be a dream-within-a-dream style story. A decent central performance by Hendry and a cool POV sequence makes this one fun despite the well-worn circular nature of its narrative (which dates way back to 1945 when it was used in the classic anthology Dead of Night).Poetic Justice: I first saw tale three as a child, when I sneakily caught part of the film on TV; it gave me nightmares! Peter Cushing plays kindly old man Arthur Grimsdyke who is hounded so badly by his neighbour that he commits suicide (the final straw being a pile of hate-mail delivered on Valentine's Day). One year later, Arthur crawls from his grave to exact revenge. The memorable mouldy reanimated corpse and a classic EC-style payoff makes this one a winner.Wish You Were Here: Enid (Barbara Murray), the wife of bankrupt businessman Ralph Jason (Richard Greene), realises that her Chinese jade statue has the power to grant 3 wishes, but finds that being precise with her words is of the utmost importance. OK, so this is basically a derivative of the classic 'Monkey's Paw' tale, but the ways in which the final wish backfires is so wonderfully twisted that one can't help but have fun with it (I particularly enjoyed the shot of glistening intestines and severed hand—pretty gory stuff for an Amicus film).Blind Alleys: Unfortunately, the last story is also the weakest… Major William Rogers (Nigel Patrick), callous superintendent at a home for the blind who probably wishes he had been a bit kinder when he is forced to take a walk down a narrow corridor lined with razor blades where an even nastier surprise awaits him at the end. This one takes way too long to get going and, just as it looks as though one's patience will be rewarded, it robs the viewer of Roger's grisly demise, making it a bit of disappointment.Fortunately, with four of its five tales of the macabre being above average (or better), this 1972 Amicus production—based on publisher William Gaines' infamous horror comics of the '50s—should prove to be a ghoulish treat for fans of the anthology format.