''Tales from the Crypt'' is a 1972 British anthology horror film directed by

Freddie Francis Frederick William Francis (22 December 1917 – 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director. He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer. He started his career with British films such as Jack Cardiff's '' Sons and ...

. It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on stories from

EC Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950 ...

. It was produced by

Amicus Productions Amicus Productions was a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England, active between 1962 and 1977. It was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg. Films Prior to establish ...

and filmed at

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused ...

. In the film, five strangers (

Joan Collins Dame Joan Henrietta Collins (born 23 May 1933) is an English actress, author and columnist. Collins is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primeti ...

Ian Hendry Ian Mackendrick Hendry (13 January 1931 – 24 December 1984) was a British actor. He worked on several British TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, including the lead in the first series of '' The Avengers'' and '' The Lotus Eaters'', and played ...

Robin Phillips Robin Phillips OC (28 February 1940 – 25 July 2015) was an English actor and film director. Life He was born in Haslemere, Surrey in 1940 to Ellen Anne (née Barfoot) and James William Phillips. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic, where a c ...

Richard Greene Richard Marius Joseph Greene (25 August 1918 – 1 June 1985) was a noted English film and television actor. A matinée idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series ' ...

and

Nigel Patrick Nigel Patrick (born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman; 2 May 1912 – 21 September 1981) was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he became known as a debonair leading man in Brit ...

) in a crypt encounter the mysterious Crypt Keeper ( Ralph Richardson), who makes each person in turn foresee the possible manner of their death. It is one of several Amicus horror anthologies produced during the 1970s.

Plot

Intro

Five strangers go with a tourist group to view old catacombs. Separated from the main group, the strangers find themselves in a room with the mysterious Crypt Keeper ( Ralph Richardson), who details how each of them may die.

"...And All Through the House"

* Taken from '' The Vault of Horror'' #35 (February–March 1954). Joanne Clayton (

) kills her husband Richard (

Martin Boddey Albert Martin Boddey (16 April 1907 – 24 October 1975) was a British film and television actor. He was a founder member of the Lord's Taverners charity. Boddey started acting when he was nearly 40, often portraying irritable authority fig ...

) on Christmas Eve. She prepares to hide his body, but hears a radio announcement of a homicidal maniac (

Oliver MacGreevy Oliver John MacGreevy (25 July 1928 - October 1981) was an Irish actor who appeared in many British films and television series from the mid 1950s until he retired in 1980, often as brutish, shaven-headed villains. Among his roles he played Hou ...

) on the loose. She sees the killer (who is dressed in a Santa Claus costume) outside her house, but cannot call the police without exposing her own crime. After cleaning up, Joanne finally attempts to call the police (with the intention to make them believe the maniac killed her husband). However, her young daughter Carol (

Chloe Franks Chloe Franks (born 1 September 1963) is a British actress, best known for her appearances as little girls in British films of the 1970s. Franks was born in London, England. Career Her best remembered role was as Jane Reid, the young, witchcraf ...

) — believing the maniac to be Santa — unlocks the door and lets him into the house, whereupon he starts to strangle Joanne.

"Reflection of Death"

* Taken from ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'' #23 (April–May 1951). Carl Maitland (

) abandons his family to be with his secretary, Susan Blake ( Angela Grant). After they drive off together, they are involved in a car accident. He wakes up, having been thrown clear of the wrecked and burned car, and attempts to hitchhike home, but everyone he meets reacts with horror upon seeing him. Arriving at his house, he sees his wife (Susan Denny) with another man. He knocks on the door, but she screams and slams the door. He then goes to see Susan, only to find that she is blind from the accident. She says that Carl died two years ago in the crash. Glancing at a reflective tabletop, he sees he has the face of a rotting corpse and screams in horror. Carl then wakes up and finds out that it was a dream, but the moment he does, the crash occurs as previously seen.

"Poetic Justice"

* Taken from ''

The Haunt of Fear ''The Haunt of Fear'' was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics, starting in 1950. Along with '' Tales from the Crypt'' and '' The Vault of Horror'', it formed a trifecta of popular EC horror anthologies. ''T ...

'' #12 (March–April 1952). James Elliot (

) lives with his father Edward (

David Markham David Markham (3 April 1913 – 15 December 1983) was an English stage and film actor for over forty years. Markham was born Peter Basil Harrison in Wick, Worcestershire and died in Hartfield, East Sussex. In 1937 he married Olive Dehn (19 ...

) across from the home of elderly

dustman A waste collector, also known as a garbageman, garbage collector, trashman (in the US), binman or (rarely) dustman (in the UK), is a person employed by a public or private enterprise to collect and dispose of municipal solid waste (refuse) and r ...

Arthur Edward Grimsdyke (

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

), who owns a number of dogs and entertains children in his house. While both the Elliots are snobs who resent Grimsdyke as a blight on their neighbourhood, James strongly detests the old man enough to conduct a smear campaign against him: first having his beloved dogs taken by animal control (although one of them returns to him), then persuading a member of the council to have him removed from his job, and later exploiting parents' paranoid fears about child molestation. Unbeknownst to James, Grimsdyke dabbles in the occult and holds a seance by himself to confer with his late wife. On Valentine's Day, James sends Grimsdyke a number of poison-pen Valentines, supposedly from the neighbours, driving the old man to suicide. Exactly one year later, Grimsdyke rises from the grave and takes revenge on James. The following morning, Edward finds his son dead with a note that reads, "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY..YOU WERE MEAN AND CRUEL..RIGHT FROM THE START..NOW YOU REALLY HAVE NO.." with the final word represented by James' still-beating heart inside the folded end of the paper on which the note is written.

"Wish You Were Here"

* Taken from ''The Haunt of Fear'' #22 (November–December 1953). A variation on W. W. Jacobs's short story "

The Monkey's Paw "The Monkey's Paw" is a horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs, first published in the collection '' The Lady of the Barge'' in 1902. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with ...

". Ineffective, ruthless businessman Ralph Jason (

) is close to financial ruin. His wife Enid ( Barbara Murray) notices, for the first time, the inscription on a Chinese

figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with clay ...

in the couple's collection, which grants three wishes to the owner. Enid decides to wish for a fortune and, surprisingly, the wish comes true, but Ralph is killed, seemingly in a car crash, on the way to his lawyer's office to collect the money. The lawyer, Charles Gregory (

Roy Dotrice Roy Dotrice (26 May 1923 – 16 October 2017) was a British actor famed for his portrayal of the antiquarian John Aubrey in the record-breaking solo play '' Brief Lives''. Abroad, he won a Tony Award for his performance in the 2000 Broadway r ...

), then advises Enid she will inherit a fortune from her deceased husband's life insurance plan; however, when he learns of the manner of the wish granted that she made, he warns her not to wish Ralph back since he remembered the consequences of a similar story in which a mother wished her dead son back, only to be horrified by his gruesome appearance and forced to use the last wish to send him back to the grave. Against Gregory's explicit advice, Enid uses her second wish to bring him back to the way he was just before the accident, but he is returned still dead, as his death was due to a heart attack immediately before the crash and caused by fright upon seeing the figure of "death" following him on a motorcycle. Once more, Gregory warns Enid not to make a final wish and just let Ralph rest in peace. As Gregory goes outside to get some fresh air, she uses her final wish to bring Ralph back to life and to live forever. When he comes back inside, he discovers too late that Enid again went against his warning. Gregory points out to her that Ralph was embalmed and he is suffering from the fluids of the embalming liquid. Enid tries to kill Ralph to end his pain but, because she wished for him to live forever, he cannot be killed. Because of it, she has now trapped him in eternal agony and thus making her regret those last two wishes.

"Blind Alleys"

* Taken from ''Tales from the Crypt'' #46 (February–March 1955). Major William Rogers (

) becomes the new director of a home for the blind, and exploits his position to live in luxury with his German Shepherd Dog Shane, while his drastic financial cuts on food and heating lessens the residents' living conditions. Rogers gets his comeuppance after he ignores the pleas of resident George Carter ( Patrick Magee) to both make the living conditions more bearable and later to get medical treatment for fellow resident Greenwood, who then dies from

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...

. Carter leads a revolt to subdue the staff before locking Rogers and Shane in separate rooms in the basement, and they then construct a small maze of narrow corridors between the two rooms. After two days left to starve, Rogers is released and forced to find his way through the maze for his freedom, getting past one corridor lined with razor blades once Carter turned the lights on; but Rogers finds his last obstacle to be a now-ravenously hungry Shane and flees back towards the razors only for Carter to turn the lights off, with Rogers heard screaming as the starving dog catches up with him and savagely kills him.

Finale

After completing the final tale, the Crypt Keeper reveals that he was not warning them of what would happen, but telling them what has already happened: they have all "died without repentance." There is one clue to this twist in that Joan Collins' character is wearing the brooch her husband had given her for Christmas just before she killed him. The door to Hell opens and Joanne, Carl, James, Ralph, and Major Rogers all enter (Ralph enters first and is seen falling down into a fiery abyss). "And now, who's next?" asks the Crypt Keeper, turning to face the camera as he says "Perhaps...YOU?" The scene pulls away as the entrance to the Crypt Keeper's lair is in flames.

Cast

Wraparounds: * Ralph Richardson –

The Crypt Keeper ''Tales from the Crypt'' was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics from 1950 to 1955, producing 27 issues (the first issue with the title was #20, previously having been ''International Comics'' (#1–#5); ' ...

Geoffrey Bayldon Albert Geoffrey Bayldon (7 January 1924 – 10 May 2017) was an English actor. After playing roles in many stage productions, including the works of William Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series '' ...

– Tour Guide "...And All Through the House": *

– Joanne Clayton *

– Richard Clayton *

– Carol Clayton *

– Santa Suit Maniac *

Robert Rietti Robert Rietti, (born Lucio Rietti; 8 February 1923 – 3 April 2015), was an actor, and Oscar-nominated director of Anglo-Italian descent. With over 200 credits to his name, he had a highly prolific career in the American, British and Ita ...

– Radio Announcer (voice, uncredited) "Reflection of Death": *

– Carl Maitland * Susan Denny – Mrs. Maitland * Angela Grant – Susan Blake *

Peter Fraser Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand La ...

– Motorist *

Frank Forsyth Frank Forsyth (19 December 1905 – 2 May 1984), sometimes credited as Frank Forsythe, was an English actor, active from the 1930s. He was born on 19 December 1905 in London, England. He appeared in several TV programmes, including '' Department ...

– Tramp "Poetic Justice": *

– James Elliot *

– Edward Elliot *

– Arthur Edward Grimsdyke * Robert Hutton – Mr. Baker * Manning Wilson – Vicar *

Clifford Earl Clifford Earl (29 August 1933 – 30 July 2015) was an English actor who appeared in numerous television programmes and films. Early years Earl was born Kenneth Clifford Earl on 29 August 1933 in Romney Marsh, Kent, England. He carried out his ...

– Police Sergeant * Edward Evans – Constable Ramsey * Irene Gawne – Mrs. Phelps * Stafford Medhurst – Mrs. Phelps' son "Wish You Were Here": *

– Ralph Jason * Barbara Murray – Enid Jason *

– Charles Gregory * Jane Sofiano – Secretary * Peter Thomas – Pallbearer * Hedger Wallace – Detective "Blind Alleys": *

– Major William Rogers * Patrick Magee – George Carter * George Herbert – Greenwood *

Harry Locke Harry Locke (10 December 1913 – 7 September 1987) was an English character actor. He was born and died in London. He married Joan Cowderoy in 1943 and Cordelia Sewell in 1952. He was a good friend of the poet Dylan Thomas. Their friendship in ...

– Harry the Cook * Tony Wall – Attendant *

John Barrard John Barrard (12 September 1924 – 13 October 2013) was a British character actor who had a career spanning five decades and who perhaps is best known for playing Dooley, Santa's No. 2, in '' Santa Claus: The Movie'' (1985). Barrard's te ...

– Blind Man (uncredited)

Production

Milton Subotsky Milton Subotsky (September 27, 1921 – June 27, 1991) was an American film and television writer and producer. In 1964, he founded Amicus Productions with Max J. Rosenberg. Amicus means "friendship" in Latin. The partnership produced low-budg ...

had long been a fan of

' ''

'' and eventually persuaded his partner Max Rosenberg to buy the rights. The copyright owner,

William Gaines William Maxwell Gaines (; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992), was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically import ...

, insisted on script approval. The budget of £170,000 was higher than usual for an Amicus production, and was partly funded by

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

. Peter Cushing was originally offered the part played by Richard Greene, but wanted to try something different and played the elderly Grimsdyke instead.

Filming dates

Filming started on 13 September 1971 and finished in 1972.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

, reported that 90% of 21 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7.07/10. Allmoviesaid, "It has a certain magnetism about it that is hard to resist and which accounts for its enduring popularity. There's something about ''Crypt'' that makes even jaded viewers feel like they're kids sitting in their rooms late at night with the lights out, telling eerie tales with the aid of a flashlight."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote that the film lacks style and is too heavy-handed in its morality. Eric Henderson of '' Slant Magazine'' rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote that "the undercurrent of sternness is tempered by a truly bottomless roster of campy excess". Chris Alexander of '' Fangoria'' wrote, " om its first frames to its invasive final shot, this classic British creeper offers an unrelenting study in the art of the macabre." Anthony Arrigo of Dread Central wrote, "The greatest strength in ''Tales'' comes not from the acting or directing – both of which are perfectly sound – but in the rich stories culled from the comics." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Time gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying “It's put together something like the comic books, with the old Crypt Keeper acting as host and narrator. In the movie version, he is played with suitable ham by Ralph Richardson”.

Home media

The film was released on VHS in North America by Prism Entertainment Corp in 1985, then by Starmaker Home Video in 1989, and finally by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment under their Selections label in 1998. In the UK it was released on VHS in 1988 by CBS Fox Video having been rated 18 without cuts by the BBFC. ''Tales from the Crypt'' was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 28 June 2010. It received its first Blu-ray release from Shock Records distribution in Australia on 2 November 2011. The film, paired with another Amicus anthology, '' The Vault of Horror'', was released on a double-feature DVD on 11 September 2007. Shout! Factory released the same double feature on Blu-ray on 2 December 2014.

Points of interest

* Only two of the stories are from EC's ''Tales from the Crypt'' comic book. The reason for this, according to ''

Creepy Creepiness is the state of being wikt:creepy, creepy, or causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or wikt:unease, unease. A person who exhibits creepy behaviour is called a creep. Certain traits or hobbies may make people seem creepy to others. The ...

'' founding editor

Russ Jones Russ Jones (born July 16, 1942 in Ontario) is a Canadian novelist, illustrator, and magazine editor, active in the publishing and entertainment industries over a half-century, best known as the creator of the magazine ''Creepy'' for Warren Publis ...

, is that producer Milton Subotsky did not own a run of the original EC comic book but instead adapted the movie from the two paperback reprints given to him by Jones. The story "Wish You Were Here" was reprinted in the paperback collection '' The Vault of Horror'' (Ballantine, 1965). The other four stories in the movie were among the eight stories reprinted in ''

'' (Ballantine, 1964). * Richardson's hooded Crypt Keeper, more sombre than the EC original (as illustrated by

Al Feldstein Albert Bernard Feldstein ( ; October 24, 1925 – April 29, 2014) was an American writer, editor, and artist, best known for his work at EC Comics and, from 1956 to 1985, as the editor of the satirical magazine '' Mad''. After retiring from ''Mad' ...

and Jack Davis), has a monk-like appearance and resembles EC's GhouLunatics. In the EC horror comics, the other horror hosts (the Old Witch and the Vault Keeper) wore hoods, while the Crypt Keeper did not. * The earlier Amicus anthology film '' Torture Garden'' features a similar ending breaking the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

. * The screenplay was adapted into a tie-in novel by

Jack Oleck Jack Oleck (March 1, 1914 – March 10, 1981)Social Security Death Index, SS# 115-01-6988. was an American novelist and comic book writer particularly known for his work in the horror genre. The brother-in-law of comics pioneer Joe Simon, Oleck' ...

, ''Tales from the Crypt'' (Bantam, 1972). Oleck, who wrote the novel ''Messalina'' (1950), also scripted for EC's Picto-Fiction titles, ''Crime Illustrated'', ''Shock Illustrated'' and ''Terror Illustrated''. A tie-in novel was also written by Oleck for the later Amicus anthology film '' The Vault Of Horror'', released in 1973.

Connections to the TV series

"...And All Through the House", "Blind Alleys" and "Wish You Were Here" were all somewhat remade into episodes for the ''

Tales From the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'' television show. "Blind Alleys" and "Wish You Were Here" were both changed. * "...And All Through the House" had the woman killing her husband so that she can take her daughter and live with her boyfriend. The episode ended with her daughter letting the axe-wielding maniac into the house as he quotes "Naughty or Nice" with the episode ending with the woman screaming. The Crypt Keeper stated that the daughter was not harmed because the escaped maniac “preferred older women... in pieces”. * "Blind Alleys" was now "Revenge is the Nuts" and was about a beautiful blind girl (portrayed by

Teri Polo Theresa Elizabeth Polo (born June 1, 1969) is an American actress. She starred as Pam Byrnes-Focker in the ''Meet the Parents'' trilogy and played the role of police officer Stef Adams Foster in the Freeform series '' The Fosters'' (2013–201 ...

) who comes to live at a house for the blind where the sadistic director (played by '' The Dead Zone''s

Anthony Zerbe Anthony Jared Zerbe (born May 20, 1936) is an American actor. His notable film roles include the post-apocalyptic cult leader Matthias in ''The Omega Man'', a 1971 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, '' I Am Legend''; as an Irish C ...

) tries to sexually assault her. In the end, she and the other residents take their revenge on the director in the same fashion as in the original story. * "Wish You Were Here" is similar to the TV series' 7th-season episode "Last Respects" in that both borrow plot elements from W. W. Jacobs's classic short story "The Monkey's Paw" and both are directed by the original film's director

. Like many of the show's episodes, "Last Respects" uses the title of an existing story from the comics (''Tales From The Crypt'' #23), but does not use the story itself. The statue from the film is reverted to the original monkey's paw in the TV episode, and the story now deals with three sisters who come into possession of it. One wishes for 1 million pounds, and she and the second sister are in a car crash where she dies, and her life insurance policy is for 1 million pounds. When the third sister wishes that the dead sister was the way she was just before the crash, she learns that she was actually killed by the second sister. In a form of revenge, the third sister gives her last wish to her sister, but she did not say ''which'' sister she wanted to give it to, thus beating the monkey's paw at its own game. The third wish is transferred to the dead sister, who comes back from the dead to kill the second sister.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tales From The Crypt (Film) 1972 films 1972 horror films 1970s British films 1970s English-language films Amicus Productions films British films about revenge British horror anthology films British serial killer films British supernatural horror films British zombie films Films about blind people Films about death Films about wish fulfillment Films based on American comics Films directed by Freddie Francis Films scored by Douglas Gamley Films set in England Films shot at Shepperton Studios Gothic horror films Hell in popular culture Live-action films based on comics Mariticide in fiction Metromedia Producers Corporation films Santa Claus in film Tales from the Crypt films Valentine's Day in films