Tomb of Terror

(2004) Tomb of Terror HORROR

Disappointed to find out these are shortened versions from the original movies, to make it appear to look like they were intended to be thirty minute episodes is false advertising.

The first one is called "Ascent Hell" shortened from the movie released in 1994 called "Dark Angel: The Ascent" that involves a young female demon from hell, Veronica (Angela Featherstone) escaping from her raving dad toward the planet earth. There she meets a young doctor, Max (Daniel Markel) after she was hit by a car and then letting her stay with him at his place of residence. When Max is out working at hospital, Veronica is searching for evil doers, and it is not long before she finds some. Her killings involve detective Harper (Mike Genovese) and Detective Greenberg (Michael C. Mahon).

The second one is called "Infinite Evil" shortened from a movie called "Lurking Fear" originally released in 1994. It centers on former convict, John Martense (Blake Adams) just getting out of prison, and the first thing he does is see his friend, Knaggs (Vincent Schiavelli) to retrieve a drawing of a map that could lead him to cache of money. Except that it is located on a tomb where Dr. Haggis (Jeffrey Combs) and others plan to blow up, as a result of ghouls living underground. At the same time, gangsters led by Bennett (Jon Finch) is also aware about the map as well as the money. All three different groups have different reasons to be there.

Third and final episode is "Eternal Damnation" but is actually a shortened version of the movie "Talisman" released in 1998 that has Elias Storm (Billy Parish) sent to a Cathedral boarding school to serve out his punishment along with five or seven others. The yuppie one amongst the group is a guy named Burke (Jason Adelman) with Elias quickly making friends with Jake Fine (Walter Jones). Some of the students are wanting to seduce the only young lady in the school, her name is Elizabeth Storm (Ilinca Goia) who also happens to be the dean's daughter. With Elias oblivious of the actual reason he was brought there in the first place that involves amulet that can open the gates of hell. As he continues to have dreams of him and the amulet itself.

Upon looking at the ratings of some of the edited movies, the only one that deserved to be checked out is "Dark Angel-The Scent" speaking as a hetero male, it was very obvious that there was supposed to be more nudity, The other two movies did not receive not so good ratings either, except that if I were to watch those movies again in it's entirety, then I'll know what to expect. It can also be interpreted as shortened versions of bad movies, which is why I'm giving it a four.

I rented this DVD expecting to see a collection of three short horror movies. What I didn't realize was that they were 3 shortened versions of previously independently released, full length films. The Tomb of Terror butchered these original films. It is easily discernible that key elements of the films must have been cut out. The films are choppy and the connection of the characters is hard to follow. It's really too bad because I think that each one individually might be OK if viewed in their entirety. I really would like to see Dark Angel: The Ascent" as it was originally released. It looks like it may be pretty good but you don't really know by watching The Tomb of Terror. The films had too much hacked out to shorten them. They don't make sense and lack continuity. The Tomb of Terror is a waste of your time.

This is as a different reviewer stated "the butchering of 3 films". And while that may sound enticing to some, it overall isn't. Now there is nothing wrong with cutting down some movies because they are way too long. But some movies only get slightly better when they are cut down, running time wise. And when it comes to Lurking Fear, I think the full movie is a better watch.

And it is the movie that made me give this overall mess a second "star" in my rating. Good actors, even if they don't get fully utilized are at work here. I remember when I first watched it, it was a cut version and I still kind of liked it. There is not much to say about the other two films that are also cut down to make this a sort of anthology. If anything I recommend seaking out Lurkind Fear and watching that - something I plan on doing myself sometime

The problem is that I've seen all of these films in their entirety, not broken down into 30 minute abridged flicks that seem to jump around from one scene to the next without cohesion or a sense of involvement. The characters seem to be empty shells just walking around in front of a camera.

There is no development of story whatsoever, just a series of random lines that do not even seem to go together. It is practically impossible to figure out what is really happening in any of these "stories" since two thirds of each film was removed. If you like B horror films, I highly recommend picking up the full length features on DVD, you will not be disappointed that way.