The Vault of Horror

Another melange based on William H Gaines tales fron E. C.. comic books , produced by Amicus: Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky. A classic terror movie formed by five segments well realized and magnificently played . Vintage horror film financed by Amicus with a Great British Cast and formed by several episodes full of creepy events , chills, thrills , gore and guts. It stars with five strangers at an eerie and sisister room .Later on , there they tell how each of the strangers will die . As they explain fantastic visions about their nightmares . It deals with 5 segments with five protagonists : Real-life brother and sister, Daniel Massey-Anne Massey, Curd Jurgens, Michael Craig, Terry Thomas, Tom Baker get in a lift that transports them to a non exit lounge in the basement of a skyscraper. There they confide their recurring nightmares. Each segment has at least 1 killing. It is formed by 5 stories :Midnight mess with Daniel Massey, Anne Massey. The neat job with Terry Thomas, Glynis Johns. Bargain in death with Michael Craig, Edward Judd. This trick will kill you, with Curd Jurgens, Dawn Addams, Jasmine Hilton . And Drawn and quartered with Tom Baker, Demholm Elliott .The rest of the cast is no less impressive, though delivering brief but enjoyable interpretations. And now ...who is next....

Amicus sixth portmanteau movie that simply slaps down its thrilling and terrifying tales, butressing with dreary slabs of plot and chatter, concluding into eerie results. As at a rare room join five strange people who star 5 segments , all of them are filled with mystery , suspense , terror , grisly killings , twisted events and horrible happenings . The British star-studded results to be pretty good with a plethora of notorious actors . Well made terror antology film, and in some places was released as Tales of Crypt II, being compellingly filmed by the gore-minded lad Roy Ward Baker. The better episodes involve the suburban wife Glynis Johns driven to killing and her house-proud husband Terry Thomas constantly nagging about the housekeeping, resulting in an impeccably tidy disposal of a corpse. As well as the surprising story of a rope with a mind of its own starred by Curd Jurgens, Dawn Addams, including nice special effects. . Each story harbours an ingeniously creepy and ghoulish conceit and at the end each tale takes place a grand guignol climax. The great cast is pretty good, giving nice performances , though Edward Judd, Demholm Elliott, Anna Massey have a few lines.. Most stories previously appeared in American comic books as Tales of Crypt from EC comics as well as in The haunt of fear. Colorful , adequate cinematograhy , shot at Shepperton studios . It was compellingly accompanied by a thrilling and suspenseful musical score .

The motion picture was professionally directed by the British horrormeister Roy Ward Baker, though another terror specialist director, Freddie Francis, was the original choice to shot. Here Baker emphasising the frightening, dramatic and suspenseful possibilities. Roy directed a great number of films. Deemed to be a terror expert, as proved in The monster club, Mask of death, And now the screaming starts, The legend of the 7 gold vampires, Asylum, Dr Jekill and his sister Hyde, The scars of Dracula, The vampire lovers, The anniversary. Roy Baker also directed some Hollywood fims such as Inferno, House in the square, A night to remember, Don't bother to knock, and Night with sleep. Rating : acceptable and passable. 6/10. Worthwhile watching.

Since I first saw photos of it when I was a little kid, I wanted to see this early 1970s horror movie from the same British who brought us TALES OF THE CRYPT. When I was like 7 or 8 years old, I was a little chilled by the photo of the man hanging upside-down and a vampire has connected a tap-fawcet to the unfortunate bloke's neck! Sadly, this scene happens in VAULT OF HORROR (1973) exactly as it did in magazine oldies like FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and THE MONSTER TIMES: It's a still shot! That's right, a single photo of the fanged villain and his victim! It's done this way for dramatic effect and seems to work, but I had already seen the exact same thing in printed form!

However, this is not to say I was disapointed. This series of stories is very interesting, with intriguing characters throughout. The ending is predictable to anybody who's already seen TALES OF THE CRYPT, but there's a nifty gore seen earlier in the film where a guy's hands get chopped off. As is often the case with British horror, the emphasis is more on drama than sheer terror-- but it's all pretty entertaining.

A great anthology film in the Amicus tradition. Five men find themselves going down an elevator into a huge room(looking like a giant boardroom) where they seem to be expected. Each one has a fear that continually seems to plague him and they relate their fears to each other. The opening lacks the production values and Sir Ralph Richardson of its predecessor Tales From the Crypt as the crypt-keeper sorely, but the stories are all well-done with finesse from cast, crew, and the very able direction of an underappreciated Roy Ward Baker. The first story is about vampires in a small English town, and it is a very tasty vignette. The second story, starring Glynis Johns and Terry-Thomas(both funny beyond belief), is the comedic relief of the film about a man who is too neat who needs to have that point hammered into his head by his wife. For him it is definitely a jarring experience. The third story is about a magician and his wife that kill to acquire a magic trick. Curt Jurgens is very good as the evil magician. A good story. The fourth story is easily the weakest about a man buried alive for insurance. Lastly, the most literate of the stories concerns Dr. Who's Tom Baker seeking revenge on those that have profited on his artwork behind his back. He gets revenge through voodoo. All in all a great deal of fun. As previously stated, be sure to get the uncut version.

It's no surprise to horror fans that HBO's Tales From the Crypt was a huge success -- the UK's Amicus Productions was cranking out 4- and 5-story anthologies in the late 60's and early 70's. Utilizing veteran actors and cameramen who knew how to beautifully combine camp and horror, Vault of Horror was one of the best.

But you'd probably never know it, if you live in the US. Every version ever available on tape or on TV is cut, badly enough to almost totally destroy any payoff. A "Tale from the Crypt" is more dependent than most on a shocking ending; chop out the deliciously gory ending, or water it down, and you've got a big build-up to nothing. I first saw VOH in its hacked-up, PG version, and thought it pretty limp. It's so unfair: the last-minute hacks of a studio butcher (!) can render any carefully created piece of work into tepid mush, making the filmmakers appear incompetent.

Where can you find the uncut version in the US? Legally, nowhere. You'll need a friend in the UK who can lend you a copy, or possibly a Japanese import. This movie begs for release on DVD.

**UPDATE** The uncut version is finally available on DVD from Vipco (Britain). It won't play on most U.S. players, but may be played with some PC software such as WinDVD.

"Vault of Horror" (1973) is one of seven horror anthology pictures released by Hammer rival Amicus over an eight-year period. It had been preceded by "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors," "Torture Garden," "The House That Dripped Blood," "Asylum" and "Tales From the Crypt," and would soon be followed by "From Beyond the Grave." As in its immediate predecessor, the vignettes here were all inspired by tales that had appeared in the fondly remembered EC Comics of the 1950s. "Vault" wastes little time with its obligatory framing story, as five men, strangers to one another, are shanghaied via elevator to a luxuriously appointed subbasement chamber and, over drinks, discourse on their respective nightmares. In "Midnight Mess," a brother (Daniel Massey) kills his sister (real-life sister Anna Massey) over an inheritance but must later face the neighborhood's very unusual nighttime denizens. In "The Neat Job," a compulsive neatnik (Terry-Thomas) subjects his new wife (Glynis Johns, 50 here and still adorable in this, one of her last theatrical films) to more aggravation than Felix Unger ever dished out to Oscar...until poor Glynis can't take it anymore, that is. In "This Trick'll Kill You," a husband-and-wife team of magicians (Curt Jurgens and Dawn Addams) steals a magic rope in India, only to have things go terribly wrong afterwards. In "Bargain In Death," two men (Michael Craig and Edward Judd) attempt an insurance scam involving a faked death and premature burial, leading to quite a messy situation indeed. And in "Drawn and Quartered" (great title, that!), future Dr. Who portrayer Tom Baker plays an artist living in Haiti who uses voodoo to take vengeance on his enemies. All five of these stories are compact, occasionally humorous but nonetheless quite grisly affairs, more than competently directed by Amicus veteran Roy Ward Baker. The film's conclusion will surprise only the most naive viewers, but remains wholly satisfying. In all, a pleasing quintet of shudders. Oh...this is the only film of the seven mentioned above that does NOT feature the talents of the great Peter Cushing. But since he did appear in "The Creeping Flesh," "The Satanic Rites of Dracula," "And Now the Screaming Starts" AND "From Beyond the Grave" that same year, I suppose all can be forgiven! "All the things that make life worth leaving," the trailer for "Vault" proclaimed in '73. Indeed, indeed....