VAULT OF HORROR

UK, 1973, 86 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Massey, Anna Massey, Terry- Thomas, Glynnis Johns, Curt Jurgens, Dawn Addams, Michael Craig, Edward Judd, Tom Baker, Denholm Elliott.
Directed by Roy Ward Baker.

Vault of Horror is a collection of short stories which were based on horror comics: The Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt by Al Feldstein and William Gaines. They were adapted by Milton Subotsky. Subotsky and partners in the Amicus company had made a series of such collections during the late '60s and early '70s including The Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, Tales From The Crypt. There was to be another collection around 1980, The Monster Club, directed by Roy Ward Baker (who had worked in the British industry, with some films in America: Inferno, Don't Bother to Knock, since the '40s). These stories are brief, there is a basic horror point, a horror fable in each, and there is an interesting British cast.

1. The enjoyment of horror stories? Fear, terror, horror? The effect of nightmares? Ability to watch our nightmares, facing our fears?

2. The adaptation of these short stories from comic strips? The retaining of the comic strip directness? Two-dimensional style? dialogue?

3. Colour production, use of light and darkness, moods and atmosphere? Musical score? The variety for each story? The framework?

4. The skyscraper: the meeting of the men, the lift going down, the room with the drinks, a-dream situation, nightmare situation? Each man telling his story? The finale and each one insisting that the dream was not real? The lift and the cemetery? The men vanishing in the graves? Sebastian remaining, indicating that the hell is the nightly telling of the story? Leaving the empty vault?

5. Midnight Mess: The focus on Rogers, his search for his sister, the eeriness of the town? The warnings about 'them'? The encounter with D6nna, Roger killing her? His dapper style, going to the restaurant, the crowd (after its being deserted during the day)? The style of the restaurant? The cocktail? The irony of the blood? The mirror and his being revealed as the only non vampire? The vampires, including Donna, converging on him? A vengeance fable?

6. The Neat Job: The focus on Critchit and his Terry- Thomas style? His fussiness? Neatness? The marriage to Eleanor? Her love for him? Her response to his criticisms? her inability to stand any more? The friends? Eleanor killing her husband? Cutting, him in pieces? The neat labels? The black humour?

7. This Trick'll Kill You: Sebastian and his work as a magician, searching for new acts? The encounter with the fakir? His humiliating him? The exposure of the trick? The assistant and her rope trick? Her tempting him, her refusing to sell? Sebastian and Inez and their plot? Murdering the girl? Inez climbing the rope, disappearing with a scream? The life in the rope? Its killing Sebastian? The assistant and her resuming her work? A fable about greed and its deadly results?

8. Bargain in Death: Maitland and his plot, the drug, his seeming to die? The plan with Alex to collect the money and dig him up? His intention to betray Alex? The irony of Alex double-crossing him? The medical students (Tom and Jerry!) and their search for the specimen? The cemetery, the gravedigger, the corpse reviving? The students, running away? Alex and the accident and his death? Irony? The gravedigger and the money? The irony of his having killed Maitland? A fable about lies and betrayal?

9. Drawn and Quartered: Moore as an artist? His diving in Haiti? His skill, his self-image, failure? The discovery that his collaborators had cheated him, made money? The voodoo priest and the power, the painting's coming to life and to truth? Moore and his return to London, his vengeance? The portrait of Breedley and blinding him? The guillotining of Gaskill's hands? Dilitant and his shooting himself? The portrait of the three men as suave, greedy? The effect on Moore, his finding it hard to breathe? The irony of his self-portrait being hidden away in the safe? His releasing the painting? Putting it on the easel? His return to the scene of the crimes to protect himself? The irony of the turpentine spilt over his portrait, the paint running, Moore's being run over? A vengeance fable?

10. The perennial popularity of horror films? The horror touches? Audience identification? The twist and the moral fable point?