Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Directed by Freddie Francis

Film Review

With the portmanteau horror film proving to be its most bankable product, the British film company Amicus released two such films in quick succession in 1972, both noticeably darker in tone than previous and subsequent offerings in the genre.  A few months after Asylum came the release of Tales from the Crypt, one of the more macabre and viscerally shocking films in the series.  This latest compendium of terror may lack the polish and narrative coherence of other Amicus horror romps but it is by far and away one of the most frightening, a film that is pretty well guaranteed to give you nightmares and put you off tapioca pudding for life.

The film owes its title and content to a popular series of stories originally published in EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror.  The premise is similar to that of  Amicus's earlier Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), with a group of strangers having the tale of their grim demises aired by a mysterious angel of death.  On this occasion, the framing story is far less satisfactory and conflicts horribly with the constituent stories.  As a result, the film lacks an overall logic and appears to have been cobbled together by several writers who never communicated with each other.  (In fact the script was the work of one man, Amicus producer Milton Subotsky.)  Such blatant lapses made it easy for the critics to deride the film on its original release, and for many years it was considered one of Amicus's weaker films.

The script may be dodgy but in every other respect Tales from the Crypt is hard to fault.  The film is directed by horror stalwart Freddie Francis with his customary flair for visual impact, and features a glittering ensemble of acting talent.  With Joan Collins going out of her mind as she fends off a psychopathic Santa, Peter Cushing resurrected as a heart-tugging zombie and Ralph Richardson putting the fear of God into everyone (including the audience), there isn't much to dislike on the acting front.  There is far less humour than in Amicus's other anthology films, and what humour the film has is of a distinctly black hue.  In a sick reworking of The Monkey's Paw, one unfortunate (Richard Greene) has his innards exposed as his wife (a literary ignoramus) tries in vain to end his eternal suffering after falling for the old three wishes routine.  In an even more sadistic episode, the inmates of a home for the blind inflict a particularly cruel revenge on their director - the death of a thousand cuts as sponsored by Wilkinson Sword.

Each of the five stories that make up Tales from the Crypt is a perfectly constructed little film in its own right, imaginatively directed and performed with total conviction by some great actors.  Where it goes wrong is Subotsky's pretty lame attempt to bring them all together under the leakiest of umbrellas.  For some of the characters, the events shown on screen would seem to be in their future, so why should they suffer the same fate as those who have already committed evil?  Is eternal damnation a suitable punishment for a man who has simply run off with his mistress?  And isn't the grisly death suffered by some of the protagonists punishment enough for their comparatively minor transgressions?   Examine it too closely and Tales from the Crypt just falls apart before your eyes.  But this doesn't prevent it from being a very effective little chiller, far more unsettling, far more memorable than its limply comedic sequel, The Vault of Horror (1973).

Film Synopsis

Visiting some ancient catacombs, five strangers are taken to the Crypt Keeper, a hooded old man who recounts a story in which each of them meets a gruesome demise.  Joanne Clayton died on Christmas Eve, strangled by a psychopath dressed as Father Christmas, just minutes after she murdered her husband to claim on his life insurance.  Carl Maitland met his death in a car accident, having abandoned his wife and children to start a new life with his mistress.  James Elliott had his heart ripped out by the resurrected zombie-like corpse of a solitary old man he had attempted to drive away from the neighbourhood.  Ruined financier Ralph Jason was condemned to eternal agony after his wife made a total hash of the three wishes offered to her by an ancient Chinese statuette.  Major William Rogers was the victim of a cruel revenge by the residents at a home for the blind who had grown tired of his obsessive penny pinching.  All five are now dead, but an even worse fate awaits them...