Yet another good Amicus horror anthology - this one follows the format seen in 'Dr Terrors House of Horrors' and 'Tales from the Crypt', with five strangers telling (or being told) their stories.
'Vault of Horror' starts with a panoramic view of London, which moves round to a modern tower block. Five men enter the building's lift at various levels going down to the ground floor. The lift carries on to the sub-basement where the men find themselves trapped. To kill the time they recount their recurring nightmares to each other.
Whilst much about these anthology films is sub-standard, the short story format doesn't allow boredom to set in and as a viewer I find them enjoyable to watch. They know their limitations and concentrate on giving the horror fan numerous quick-fixes to keep him more than happy.
'Vault of Horror' isn't quite up to the standard of the two genre classics mentioned earlier, but its certainly up with the likes of 'Asylum' and 'From Beyond the Grave' (the latter being slightly over-rated in my opinion).
As is usual the five stories range in quality - the 1st and 3rd segments (Midnight Mess & This Trick'll Kill You) are the above-average standard fare; the 2nd segment (The Neat Job) looks like it is the comic relief story. This impression is mainly due to Terry-Thomas in the main role and on closer inspection the segment is more of a psychological horror/thriller entry - not as fun to watch but still average. The 4th story (Bargain in Death) is the disappointment - the story is fine featuring insurance fraud, betrayal, premature burial etc. but the segment self-destructs with implausible coincidences, poor dialogue and disastrous comic-relief - Arthur Mullard as a grave-digger and Robin Nedwell as a medical student. This leaves Tom Baker to rescue things in the final story (Drawn and Quartered), as a vengeful artist who's been ripped off by critics and gallery owners. This is a longer segment with good characterisation and a decent script which could have been fleshed out into a full-length horror film in its own right.
We all know what will happen in the end, but this only reinforces the affection that fans will have for the film and others like it. It really is a shame that Hammer didn't branch out into the anthology area in the early 70's as well - with these films Amicus proves itself to be the near equal of that more famous British studio.
This was just recently releaed on bluray uncut thanks to Scream Factory. It is on a double feature with Tales from the Crypt. This is a must pick up beacuse you get to see it in its intended glory and not the cut version that was put out earlier.
'Vault of Horror' starts with a panoramic view of London, which moves round to a modern tower block. Five men enter the building's lift at various levels going down to the ground floor. The lift carries on to the sub-basement where the men find themselves trapped. To kill the time they recount their recurring nightmares to each other.
Whilst much about these anthology films is sub-standard, the short story format doesn't allow boredom to set in and as a viewer I find them enjoyable to watch. They know their limitations and concentrate on giving the horror fan numerous quick-fixes to keep him more than happy.
'Vault of Horror' isn't quite up to the standard of the two genre classics mentioned earlier, but its certainly up with the likes of 'Asylum' and 'From Beyond the Grave' (the latter being slightly over-rated in my opinion).
As is usual the five stories range in quality - the 1st and 3rd segments (Midnight Mess & This Trick'll Kill You) are the above-average standard fare; the 2nd segment (The Neat Job) looks like it is the comic relief story. This impression is mainly due to Terry-Thomas in the main role and on closer inspection the segment is more of a psychological horror/thriller entry - not as fun to watch but still average. The 4th story (Bargain in Death) is the disappointment - the story is fine featuring insurance fraud, betrayal, premature burial etc. but the segment self-destructs with implausible coincidences, poor dialogue and disastrous comic-relief - Arthur Mullard as a grave-digger and Robin Nedwell as a medical student. This leaves Tom Baker to rescue things in the final story (Drawn and Quartered), as a vengeful artist who's been ripped off by critics and gallery owners. This is a longer segment with good characterisation and a decent script which could have been fleshed out into a full-length horror film in its own right.
We all know what will happen in the end, but this only reinforces the affection that fans will have for the film and others like it. It really is a shame that Hammer didn't branch out into the anthology area in the early 70's as well - with these films Amicus proves itself to be the near equal of that more famous British studio.
This was just recently releaed on bluray uncut thanks to Scream Factory. It is on a double feature with Tales from the Crypt. This is a must pick up beacuse you get to see it in its intended glory and not the cut version that was put out earlier.
7.5/10
6.6/10 IMDB
6.6/10 IMDB
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