DOCTOR TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS

UK, 1965, 98 minutes, Colour.
Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Max Adrian, Ann Bell, Michael Gough, Neil Mc Callum, Bernard Lee, Roy Castle, Alan Freeman, Peter Madden, Jeremy Kemp, Donald Sutherland, Judy Cornwell, Ursula Howells, Katy Wild, Phoebe Nicholls, Isla Blair, Edward Underdown.
Directed by Freddie Francis.

Doctor Terror’s House of Horrors was the first of the Amicus Company’s portmanteau horror films. It was written by American Milton Sabotsky who contributed a great deal in writing and production to the British film industry from the 1960s. He also wrote The Vault of Terror and Tales from the Crypt for the 1970s.

The film consists of five short stories. The linking theme is a compartment in a train where five people give room to Doctor Schreck, played in fine sinister form by Peter Cushing. They pick tarot cards and he foretells their future – which ends in death. Christopher Lee portrays a snooty art critic who does not want to participate. His story is the eeriest, his criticisms of an artist, played by Michael Gough, leading to the artist having an accident, his hand being severed and pursuing the critic.

The film has a strong cast, the stories are brief enough to be effective, even if, by later standards, a bit predictable. The film was directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer, Freddie Francis.

1.The popularity of the portmanteau English horror films? The different stories? The linking stories? The atmosphere of horror?

2.The train, the compartment, the six men in the compartment, the room for Doctor Schreck? The conversation, the cards falling, their becoming more involved in the tarot cards? Each hearing their own story, their disaster? The final card being that of death for all of them? Finally discovering that they were dead, that Doctor Schreck was in fact Death? The finale with them seeing themselves separated from the other passengers, the headlines about their deaths?

3.The atmosphere for the different stories? The sinister house? The West Indies and voodoo? The house with people trapped by the vine? The ordinary house, hospital, and the setting for a vampire story? The art world for the critic? The musical score?

4.The werewolf story: The agent, his personality, his ancestors, going to the house, meeting the owner, her welcoming him? The maid, the handyman? The sinister aspect of the crypt, the grave, the stories about the werewolves? The past and the hostilities between families? The curse? The empty grave? The werewolf escaped? The terror with the maid getting killed, the handyman sealing the vault, the agent and his going up to the owner, her being the werewolf? Her explanation?

5.The killer vine: The ordinary family, at home, cutting back the vine, its extraordinary growth? The cuts? The consultation with the scientist? His being affected, his being killed by the vine? The consultant, trying to get an explanation? Trying to destroy the vine, its continued growth, surrounding the house, the family trapped within the house?

6.The voodoo story: The musician, getting the time in the West Indies, his playing, hearing the music, deciding to steal it and use it, the confrontation by the West Indians, the introduction to voodoo? His return to England? The voodoo vengeance on him for stealing the music?

7.The vampire story: The doctor, his bride, her dislike of the visiting doctor? His going to work, the boy and his leukaemia, being drained of blood? The older doctor and his insinuating to the young man about his wife, her being a vampire? His building up the tension, explaining that the doctor needed to kill his wife? In the bedroom, the death of his wife? The police arriving, the young doctor defending himself, the older doctor denying any knowledge? The police taking the young man away? The irony of the older doctor being a vampire and not wanting a rival vampire or a rival doctor?

8.The disembodied hand: The art critic, his personality, superiority, disdain? His mocking the work of the artist? The artist present at the exhibition? Their confrontation? The artwork being brought in, the assistant and her asking the question of the critic in front of everybody, revealing that a monkey had painted the painting? The humiliation? His going to give a lecture, people’s reactions? The artist and his being hurt, his confronting the critic, his being run down in the street? In hospital, losing the use of his arm? The critic and his nightmares, the disembodied hand pursuing him? The reality of the hand? Killing the critic?

9.The cumulative effect of this kind of horror story? The plausibility and implausibility? The what if…? and atmosphere?