Five men meet in an elevator over which they have no control. Sounds…like Tuesday morning in a large office building, right? Not so fast. The elevator takes them to a basement vault (of horror!) where they sit at a nicely set table and have drinks. Ahhhhhhhh! The film is British, after all. As the men begin to talk, they realize they all have frightening dreams so one by one they tell their stories. So begins this portmanteau horror film set in modern day (1970s) England. The five tales, directed by Roy Ward Baker (A Night To Remember, Don’t Bother To Knock) involve betrayal, revenge, and murder. And vampires! William M. Gaines and Al Feldstein of EC Comics and MAD Magazine fame wrote the stories and they boast an exaggerated, dramatic flair. All five storytellers have one thing in common. They’re all nasty people.

Lesser X-Men cosplayers

Daniel and Anna Massey (real life brother and sister) play siblings in the first tale. The characters they play must have had some awkward family dinners. In the second segment, Terry-Thomas and Glynis Johns are newlyweds starting a less than idyllic marriage.

Tell me again the dinner was late.

Curd Jürgens and Dawn Addams travel to India searching for novelty for their magic act in the third. They find it. In the fourth story, Michael Craig and Edward Judd partner up in a plot that goes awry. Their tale also stars Robin Nedwell and Geoffrey Davies from the old Doctor in the House TV series. In the last of the five parts, Tom Baker ditches the TARDIS and gets a lesson in voodoo in Haiti. Denholm Elliott appears as well.

Did you bring your co-pay?

These vignettes boast a stellar cast of British film and television actors. Some act as part of the Amicus Productions repertory company and some appear in small cameos. Amicus made a number of anthology horror films like Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), and Tales From the Crypt (1972) and often used actors borrowed from Hammer films like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and even Vincent Price to headline its casts.
My attention span rivals that of an adolescent gnat so I love anthology films and short stories. The plethora of character actors in these films makes it fun too. While Vault of Horror lacks the depth of a full-length feature film, it makes up for it with its inventiveness, cool cast, and inside jokes. At one point Michael Craig reads a paperback copy of Tales From the Crypt and later looks almost directly into the camera and says, “There’s no money in horror.” If you watch Vault of Horror with a sense of humor and enjoy the campiness, you’ll enjoy it as much as the cast seems to.

You feel a sharp pain where?

I wrote this for the 31 Days of Horror challenge on cinemashame.wordpress.com @cinemashame on twitter.

I’m @echidnabot on twitter.

October 3, 2014