TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972)

While taking a tour of old catacombs, five people get separated from the group and wind up in a room with a robed and hooded man seated on a stone throne in front of a rock background sculpted like a skull face. This man, the crypt keeper, tells them, one by one, stories that they think will predict their future. 1) On Christmas Eve, while her little restless daughter waits in bed for Santa Claus to arrive, Joan Collins kills her husband, drags his body out of the living room, and cleans (astonishingly well) the bloody white carpet where she attacked him. Meanwhile, the radio reports that a murderous lunatic dressed in a Santa suit has escaped a nearby asylum. Of course, he shows up at her door (pictured at left). 2) Ian Hendry has run away from his wife with his mistress (Angela Grant), but their car goes off the road during a storm and catches fire in a ravine. Hendry comes to, having been thrown from the car, doesn’t see Grant, and leaves the scene. As he makes his way home, every person he has contact with looks at him and screams. Finally finding Grant alive and at her home (which was supposed to be their new home), he discovers that more than a year has passed since the accident, and also discovers why he is eliciting shrieks of horror from all who see him. 3) Upper-crust Robin Phillips is upset that his elderly neighbor's (Peter Cushing) house is in disrepair and his antics while entertaining neighborhood children are bothersome. Phillips gets Cushing's beloved but noisy dogs confiscated, spreads rumors that Cushing is a child molester, and on Valentine's Day, sends him dozens of cruel valentines supposedly from the neighbors. Cushing kills himself. A year later, Cushing climbs out of his grave and visits Phillips, and pulls his own bloody Valentine's Day prank.

4) Richard Greene tells his wife (Barbara Murray) that his business dealings have gone sour and he has to sell off his art collection. But when Murray runs across an ancient Chinese statuette that promises the owner three wishes, she wishes for money. She gets her wish, but only because her husband is killed in a car accident and she inherits his insurance. Her lawyer (Roy Dotrice) points out the similarity of her situation to the one in the famous tale The Monkey's Paw but she ignores him and wishes for Greene to be returned as he was just before the accident. She comes to regret her wish as well as the one she tries to use to set things right. 5) Nigel Patrick, a former army officer, takes over the running of a home for the blind, bringing his faithful German Shepherd with him. Patrick runs the place with a tight fist, cutting back on food, heat, and blankets to save money. After trying to talk Patrick into changing his ways, Patrick Magee, one of the patients, leads the rest in a plot for revenge in which the dog plays a big part. Finally, the five listeners realize that, rather than the future, the Crypt Keeper has told them their recent pasts before they are sent through a passageway leading to Hell.

In the early 1950s, EC Comics published a popular line of horror comic books with titles like Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Weird Fantasy. The stories, like similar stories that Rod Serling wrote a few years later for The Twilight Zone, were usually ironic tales of revenge, with gory details in the artwork, and often a darkly humorous twist. As they appealed to children, censorship problems broke out and EC quit publishing the line in 1955. Since then, they have reprinted often, and a TV series, Tales of the Crypt, had a long run on HBO. This British anthology film from Amicus dramatized five EC stories, two of which I have vivid memories of from paperback reprints in the 60s: "And All Through the House," the Christmas story, and "Wish You Were Here," the Monkey’s Paw adaptation,  both of which had particularly disturbing final panels. This movie has a PG rating, so the visuals are not as explicit as the comics were, but still there are a few nice horror jolts here along the way. The Santa story and the Valentine's story, are the best vignettes here, with the final story the weakest, partly because it's too long and partly because it strains credibility. The acting is adequate, with Ralph Richardson effortlessly taking the honors as the Crypt Keeper—he's never referred to by that name in the movie but in the comics, a different version of him narrates the stories—a role he apparently filmed in one day. Joan Collins and Peter Cushing are also good. Your reaction to Patrick Magee (pictured at right) will depend on your reaction to his over-the-top style, which I happen to like. The production values are not especially high but, like the acting, they're adequate. It’s been pointed out that not all the main characters deserve to be sent to Hell, but there’s no need to think about that too much. I reviewed the sequel, THE VAULT OF HORROR in 2023. [Streaming]