"Do you think that our fears, could be some kind of warning?"
The Vault of Horror (1973), also known as Vault of Horror, Further Tales from the Crypt and Tales from the Crypt II, is a British anthology film directed by Roy Ward Baker and produced by Amicus Productions. This is the sequel to Amicus' Tales from the Crypt (1972), and like that film The Vault of Horror contains five stories almost entirely taken from the pages of the long-running Tales from the Crypt EC Comics anthology.
Five men walk into an elevator, which then goes directly to the basement floor despite no one pressing it. When it opens they find a gentleman's club, and they find themselves 'trapped' there. Making the most of it they sit down and have a drink and start to talk, each man starts to talk about strange dreams they've been having recently.
The stories in Vault of Horror are all quite good, much like Tales from the Crypt they picked stories that translate well on screen. The direction in them is less good than that of the previous movie, but it is effective. I think my favorite story is the second one, "Midnight Mess" it's simple and silly and very amusing.
The acting here is not bad over all, if anything it leans on the bland if nothing else it starts to blend together but that's more to do with the casting, but more on that in a second. Sadly this is the only Amicus Horror anthology that doesn't have Peter Cushing, and it could have probably benefited from his consistently strong performances. Instead, here we have Tom Baker, (Yes, Whovians the fourth Doctor!), and while he's about as diverse as the cast gets (because his hair isn't gray?) his acting saves a story that I probably wouldn't have like otherwise!
One of the things I can't not see about this film is how it seems mildly sexist. At the very least this film should be an argument for diversity in casting, because I can't imagine a film with a cast made up of a bunch of old white men really getting that diverse of a following. I'm even a (soon to be old) white man and I felt dirty watching this!
The framing story of this movie is quite boring if you've seen Tales from the Crypt, which okay yes I did watch them back to back but the films came out a year apart in their original release, so I can't imagine many people saw these movies farther apart than that! It's the SAME exact formula only done worse because there's no Crypt Keeper! It's like they set out to do something different but in the end just looked at the original and copied it point by point.
The Greatest thing about The Vault of Horror is the way the stories ramp up and with each one they get more peculiar and strange as they go on. This works super well so much so that I wasn't really feeling this movie from the beginning (you'll realize it's a rehash of Tales from the Crypt, pretty darn quickly) but as the movie went on my interest was raised with each story!
The Vault of Horror (1973) is not terrible, but I'd probably always pick watching Tales of the Crypt over it. It ends up less as a sequel and more like a rehash.
3/5 Stars.
Happy watching!
This is part of my 2014 run of 13 Nights of Macabre Movies! Tune in tomorrow as I review a different take on a tribute to the EC Comics with the original Creepshow (1982).
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