Tales From the Crypt / Vault of Horror (1972)

Includes:Disc 1: Tales from the Crypt (1972)Disc 2: Vault of Horror (1973)Tales From The Crypt (1972)Prepare for a "gruesomely spine-tingling and stomach-wrenching" (Variety) journey into the heart of terror! When five unwary travelers with dark hearts stumble into a series of catacombs they find themselves in a cavern with no way out. But the horror's only just begun as a mysterious figure appears to reveal to each person the chocking events that will soon lead to their well-deserved untimely -- and unavoidable -- deaths!Vault Of Horror (1973)Get ready for to descend into the darkness of horror! In this "frequently macabre and eerily funny" (Cue) collection of tales five unsuspecting hotel guests step out of an elevator into a vault deep underground. Trapped with no way out each guest shares a gruesome story of an encounter with death. But as the stories unfold the men begin to suspect that their presence in the vault is no coincidence and they may have already found that the only way out...is death!System Requirements:Running Time: 175 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR/DEMONS UPC: 024543459729 Manufacturer No: 2245973 Product Description

Two good classics from Amicus

Two good samples of British horror from the 1970s. While I consider Tales from the crypt superior to Vault, both have some good stories. I must for classic horror fans.

Any one reading this should blame Fox for this package not getting 5 stars. The reason: the ending scenes of the first two stories in Vault of horror were indeed cut, most notably the first, vampire tale. This is really incomprehensible. May be the guy who was supposed to look for the original negative got the wrong copy!! I own a Vipco's PAL version which has the unedited endings and the finalle for the vampire short is really a great missing on the Fox version.

Some good things about the Fox version (despite the edits) compared with Vipco's include a widescreen format, subtitles (Spanish, French) and a generally superior analog to digital transfer. Interestingly, the total lenght of the Fox version is longer than Vipco's PAL version. I checked this after running the two discs on the same DVD player. The difference may have to do with the PAL to NTSC conversion.

Message to Fox: produce an unedited version of Vault and send replacement discs for free to those who own your current edition. June 27, 2008

Tales from the Crypt

If you like tales from the crypt this is a classic to add to your collection. June 4, 2008

Tales From The Crypt / Vault of Horror

This is the wonderful old thriller movies that you used to go to theaters and see at midnights for a night of scary gore. It was a real blast from the past. You will probably never find this in a store and only on here to order. JCS May 27, 2008

Vault of Horror is the cut Fox version but this double feature is still worth it.

In the 1960s and 1970s Amicus studio's were one of the main rivals of Hammer Studios, specialising in making horror anthology films as well as gothic period horror films. Both Tales From The Crypt and Vault of Horror take their inspiration from the old EC comics of the 1950's and its similar to other anthology horror films like The House That Dripped Blood, They were both classic British horror films that had some great acting and an allstar cast, this double dvd from Fox is great value and both films are in good condition with good transfers and are presented in 1.85 widescreen but the only problem is that Vault of Horror has a cut scene which happens in the first tale called Midnight Mess when Daniel Massey is hanging upside down while the vampires are draining blood from his neck, this however is one small scene but it is quite annoying still both films have finally been released on dvd so its not a big deal and I'm not going to complain about it anyway both films were great so heres a short synopsis for both films:-

Tales From The Crypt was directed by Freddie Frances and was released in 1972, it stars Joan Collins, Peter Cushing and Patrick Magee among others and the film contains five stories my favorite story would be All Through The House which was then remade as an episode for the Tales From The Crypt t.v. show during the first season which was fantastic. Five strangers lost on a tour of old English catacombs wander into a meeting with a strange man (The crypt keeper) in a hooded cloak who proceeds to tell each of them their unpleasant fates.

All through the house, a woman kills her husband so she can begin living happily ever after until Santa stops by. He's been a bad boy and wants her head on a plate. This story was amazingly good and has a fantastic and memorable performance by Joan Collins as the scheming and frightened wife who's being chased around the house by a maniac dressed up as Santa.

Reflection of death, A man who is leaving his wife for a mistress without telling his wife dreams of his horrific car crash, unfortunately when he tries to find out where his mistress is it has been years since his death and his existence is a surprise to everyone. This one stars Ian Hendry and was it was my least favorite.

Poetic Justice, Peter Cushing stars in this next segment as a kind hearted old man who is hounded to death by his horrid neighbors only to exact brutal revenge on them, great stuff this is my second favorite.

Wish you were here is the reworking of the old tale Monkey's Paw, Richard Greene and Barbara Murray star as a loving couple who suddenly find themselves faced with the grim threat of bankruptcy. They however own a oriental statue that is said to grant the owner three wishes but they both have thier own selfish and greedy reasons and so their luck backfires on them, this one was decent although a bit boring.

Blind alleys, an efficiency expert who is also a cruel retired army officer played by Nigel Patrick has taken over a home for the blind but treats them as if they weren't even handicapped. So he'll get his efficiency back at him when the blind patients treat him as disrespectfully as he did to them. This last segment was great as it wraps up the film. Overall Tales From The Crypt was a highly influential and classic British horror film that should be seen by all horror fans.

Vault of Horror was directed by Roy Ward Baker and was released a year later after the success of Tales but wasn't a hit like the previous film, it wasn't really that bad and there were a couple of great moments like the painter who gets his revenge on the people who gave him a bad deal and tried to cheat him but its obvious that Tales was the more superior film, five hapless men huddled together in a vault beneath the Thames each awaiting the fulfillment of their own prophetic nightmares.

I'm not gonna give a short synopsis cause I feel that I might give away too much but I have to say that the last segment Drawn & Quartered was my fave, it's about an artist who is vengeful upon hearing the wrong people are making money off of him so he gets some special voodoo powers from an island sorcerer. When the artist paints a victim anything that happens to the painting all of a sudden happens in real life. A great tale that closes off the film and also has a bit of gore when one of the art dealers gets his hands accidentally chopped off, my least favorite was This Trick'l kill ya cause of the bad acting and lame plotline about magic tricks in India and an evil and greedy magician, I just felt like the story didn't work. Anyway both series of stories were very interesting and were both quite entertaining British horror films I was not disappointed by this, I highly recommend these two films and its cheap so you can't complain either way.



May 26, 2008

Somewhat in Fox's defense....but not quite

I have been waiting a long time for these two films to be released on dvd, as I have only had the Prism Video release of Tales and the Nostalgia Merchant Video release of Vault. In Fox's defense (which for me is very rare because they have pi**ed me off with their constant rehashing and re-releasing of their titles) the version of Vault in this set IS the R-rated version, the SAME EXACT one on the Nostalgia Merchant release from the early 80's. NEITHER film is uncut....I have seen the original UK releases of both films and both are quite gory for the time they were released. Example 1: In the "Grimsdyke" story in TALES, there is a longer shot of the father screaming at the still beating heart of his son after he unwraps the paper, and Example 2: The vampire story in VAULT does NOT just cut to a still frame photo of Daniel Massey hanging upside down being used as a human keg and then back to Anna Massey being handed a glass of blood. In the original, she gets the blood first and THEN the cut to the human keg grimacing in pain as the tap is run. The Tom Baker story segment also has added bits of gore that are not in the US release. Fox seems to just have gone to the original US distributors of both films for the prints they used, instead of going to the UK house where the prints are stored. I'm just as pissed about Fox's treatment of the consumer as the rest of you, and their handling and release of these films does great injustice to Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky and AMICUS pictures in general. But even when the MIDNIGHT MOVIES marquee was distributed by MGM, they only used the release prints of some of the films. DERANGED was only available to them in the theatrical version released by American International. The director's cut version, which I have on VHS from Moore Video, is still currently unavailable even on VHS anymore. May 10, 2008

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