Last year I did a review for the film, Asylum, and I had a great time with it. This year, I am trying to get the entire series of those older British anthology films. I think most, if not all of them have Peter Cushing, so that’s always a treat for me. I am going to write about the film, with some spoilers, and afterward, I will provide you with my final thoughts as well as a rating. Enjoy.
SPOILERS
The wrap around story takes place on a train as 6 guys are seated with each other, including the great Peter Cushing as Dr. Terror, and Christopher Lee, who I always enjoy. Everybody is intrigued by Dr. Terror’s tarot cards, well everybody except Christopher Lee, who is a condescending, grumpy guy. He certainly had a presence.
Segment #1 “Werewolf”
We get Jim Dawson, who is an architect and visits the old family home to help this middle aged well to do, adequate looking lady, Mrs. Biddulph. So she bought this place in honor of her dead husband. Jim finds the coffin of Count Cosmo Valdemar and he died feud with Jim’s family many generations ago. There’s a werewolf and it kills the young chick housemaid, so her grandpa and Jim want to kill it with silver bullets that Jim made from this ancient silver cross. The bullets do nothing, and it’s a double cross. Mrs. Biddulph is the wife of the Count and she has somehow come back from the grave to seek vengeance on Jim who is the last of his family. I think that’s the story. Fuck, talk about convoluted. 0.4 out of 2.0
Segment #2 “Creeping Vine”
Bill Rogers returns home from vacation with his wife and daughter and they find this vine. Whenever they try to cut or harm this new vine, it reacts angrily. So Bill contacts some people and these scientist dudes show up to help him. Well the vine grows to be a killer and I know there is more to it, but it bored me to tears. 0.2 out of 2.0
Segment #3 “Voodoo”
Not to be outdone by the last one, this one was even duller to me. Biff Bailey is a jazz guy takes some gig in the West Indies and steals the music from a voodoo ceremony, so he kinda gets cursed and well, that’s the gist. 0.2 out of 2.0
Segment #4 “Disembodied Hand”
Ahhh, the Christopher Lee story. He plays an art critic who is pretty much a jerk face. He is Franklyn Marsh and he thinks he is so cool and witty when talks shit about art. Eric Landor is a painter who gets talked down to so he makes a fool of Marsh with a monkey and bonus for having a monkey by the way. Marsh gets him back for humiliating him and running his bitch ass over and gets his painting hand. Landor is a saaaad panda over this, so he kills himself. Well, the titular disembodied hand starts driving Marsh nutso. He tries burning the hand but ends up blinding himself in the end and he is no longer an art critic. 2.0 out of 2.0
Segment #5 “Vampire”
Holy balls, that is The Donald, the real Donald, Mr. Sutherland. He plays Dr. Bob Carroll and he comes back home to the US with his hot new French piece of ass wife, Nicolle. Well, he notices signs of a vampire, so he consults Dr. Blake and determines that Frenchie is the vampire. Fucking Europeans with their vampirism. Blake tells him to kill her, so he does. The police show up and Blake acts like he didn’t give the advice and Carroll gets arrested. As Carroll is getting escorted, Blake tells us that the city isn’t big enough for 2 doctors OR 2 vampires! What a Tweest! 2.0 out of 2.0
The wrap around story is that Dr. Terror tells the guys that they could avoid these fates by dying first. Well, too late, they get off the train and find out that they died when Terror disappeared and he was death all along. That was pretty solid for a wrap around.
End Film
Final Thoughts – So basically, the wraparound story is fantastic, which was expected with this cast. The first story was not impressive, the next 2 were dreadful, and the last 2 were both really well done. 1965 horror was incredibly tame, but when done right, horror is timeless as the last 2 proved. You do with that info what you like.
Rating: 5.3 as I felt the wrap around was worth an additional 0.5 points. Still, only half of this movie is worth watching in my opinion.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Amicus Productions (presents)
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