Based on the paperback edition of the EC comics, Tales From the Crypt is an above average 5 part anthology film involving five strangers that get separated from their tour group and find themselves trapped in ancient catacombs. A monk-like Crypt Keeper holds them captive and one at a time reveals their doomed futures. At first it doesn’t seem like the sightseers have anything in common but the Crypt Keeper soon exposes them all as morally bankrupt jerks who deserve their respective fates.
In And All Through the House, Joan Collins offs her husband in a poorly conceived insurance scam. Why she picks Christmas Eve to commit murder in the living room while her young daughter lays in bed anticipating Santa completely escaped me. She has no plan to dispose of the body and her situation is exacerbated by an unanticipated (awesome!) threat. All in all it’s an effectively dark, if uncomplicated yarn that literally made me jump.
Reflection of Death follows a man who abandons his family for his mistress only to get involved in a nasty car wreck. He awakens to a double bummer. His wife is with another man and his mistress is blind from the accident. I can’t elaborate further with spoiling but there are a couple of nifty twists. Let’s move on, shall we?
I read wonderful things about the third story Poetic Justice and thankfully it delivered. Peter Cushing plays Arthur Grumsdyke, a kindly old garbage man adored by children and animals. His pompous neighbor feels that his very presence in the neighborhood lowers property values and through a mean-spirited campaign of harassment, drives him to suicide. Fortunately justice has a way of triumphing in Tales from the Crypt, in fiendishly satisfying ways. Cushing pours his heart into this mini-role (drawing from the grief he experienced over the recent death of his wife) and his shabby, pitiable character is noticeably different from the confident, sophisticated personas he's better known for.
In the weakest episode Wish You Were Here, we get a different take on the old Monkey’s Paw story. The wife of a businessman on the brink of bankruptcy discovers a Chinese figurine that grants wishes. She learns the age old lesson "be careful what you wish for" the hard way.
Blind Alleys closes the film strongly. A former major takes charge of a home for the blind and cruelly diminishes their already meager living conditions for financial gain. His remorselessness to the handicapped establishes him as the perfect villain. In one shamelessly heart tugging yet compelling scene, a blind man pleads for better treatment, stating that blind people feel hunger and numbing cold more because of their heightened senses. Unmoved, Major Rogers summons his attack dog to end the conversation. When one man dies from the cold the tenants band together to exact revenge.
I have a high tolerance for early 70's British horror but I agree with JPX that they are often slow builders with little payoff. However Tales From the Crypt avoids the long windedness due to the anthology format and the result is 5 engaging stories with little fat to trim. It's worth seeking out for Poetic Justice alone.
