101) Tales from the Crypt (1972) - The More Horror There is...

Horror Anthologies! The More Horror There is....  

Now that I got my first 100 horror movies out of the way, I intend to watch a lot more! And by " a lot more" I mean checking out horror anthologies for my next bunch of reviews. Call me a glutton for punishment. There's a lot of them out there. These are multiple tales of terror calculated to drive audiences mad packed into one movie. 

I love these kinds of movies generally speaking. Movies and TV shows with multiple tales to tell always keep me coming back for more- The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, Tales from the Crypt, Amazing Stories, etc.

While I've seen a lot of these shows, I haven't seen nearly as many horror anthology movies. I've only reviewed a small few on here - Trilogy of Terror and Quicksilver Highway. The latter is part of my look into not-so-popular movies or series based on Stephen King stories which I wrote up back in 2019.

So, now that I've reach 100 horror movies, I'm continuing on with movies that offer double or triple the horror stories. 

I've wanted to dedicate a portion of reviews to horror anthologies. I do have my favorites. I made a list of 22 titles to pick from. I don't know if I'll do all 22. I'll certainly try. 

I'll call these reviews "The More Horror There is..." And we'll start with a horror anthology I've wanted to check out for a long time, but never have...until now. 💀 

"Who's next? Perhaps...you?"

Director

Freddie Francis

Cast

And All Through the House

Joan Collins - Joanna Clayton

Martin Boddey - Richard Clayton

Chloe Franks - Carol Clayton

Oliver MacGreevy - The maniac

Reflection of Death

Ian Hendry - Carl Maitland

Susan Denny - Mrs. Maitland

Angela Grant - Susan Blake

Poetic Justice

Robin Phillips - James Elliot

David Markham - Edward Elliot

Peter Cushing - Arthur Edward Grimsdyke

Wish You Were Here

Richard Greene - Ralph Jason

Barbara Murray - Enid Jason

Roy Dotrice - Charles Gregory

Blind Alleys

Nigel Patrick - Maj. William Rogers

Patrick Magee - George Carter

George Herbert - Greenwood

Harry Locke - The cook

 

...And All Through the House from
The Vault of Horror no. 35.

I'm a fan of EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Weird Fantasy and The Haunt of Fear. There's a lot of these types of comics that EC and other publishers produced back in the 1950s and later. My most favorite publication that popped out of the mind of Bill Gaines, former Co-Editor of EC, is Mad Magazine. 

The history behind Mad, which got its start as a satirical horror comic called Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad, is another story for another day. And one I could go on and on about.

Anyhow, I love those chilling stories, and maddening tales, and vaults and crypts full of horrific, over-the-top gritty and grimy fiction. My stash of such comics consist of reprints published in the 1990s save for my boxes of Mad. Those are originals. 

Each issue of Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Shock SuspenStories [sic], and the rest of the horror titles, created by Al Feldstein, features a "Crypt Keeper" or "Old Witch" or a "Vault Keeper" - some unsettling sinister story teller to move the issue along - and consists of multiple tales of horror which are often far fetched. Other times, they are insane yet somehow plausible. Either way, it's horror at its best, straight from the jugular vein. 

I found the entire HBO series of the same name, based on the EC comic books, on DVD for a reasonable $28. Of course I bought it. While watching season after season, I was reminded that there are a few movies that stem from the series - Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995), Bordello of Blood (1996), and Ritual (2002). I haven't watched any of these. At least, not yet.

What I didn't know was that before the HBO series and its subsequent film spin-offs, two movies based on the comics had already been released from the country that gave the world Hammer horror films - Britain.

Tales from the Crypt came out in 1972, and was followed by a sequel, The Vault of Horror the following year. I'll get to that one later.

Actually, both films are part of a string of anthology horror movies from the 1960s to the 1970s from British Film Company, Amicus Productions.

The series starts with Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), and continues through Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum (1972) and the last film, From Beyond the Grave (1974).

Tales from the Crypt features five tales of terror all told as a group of five strangers tour some old catacombs. 

As they get lost, they find a hidden chamber. Inside, torches are lit, and there's five seats set up for each one of them.

The Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson) emerges, and details one by one how each of them is going to die. 

Each of their deaths is a story for the audience to watch. The stories are all pulled straight from the pages of the comics. 

The first segment tells the story of a deranged maniac dressed as Santa Claus who's on the loose. 

Joanne Clayton (Joan Collins) has just murdered her husband when she hears of this escaped killer. 

As she tries to hide her husband's body, clean up the evidence, and keep her young daughter asleep in bed as she eagerly awaits Santa's visit, the maniac ends up outside her home and tries to break in. 

She uses this dire situation as a way out of getting caught by the police. She can just blame the maniac. 

Joan Collins and Oliver MacGreevy in the story And All Through the House.

As Joanne tries to call the police, her daughter let's the maniac in thinking it's really Santa Claus. 

It's the same story told in the HBO series, season one - episode two, also under the title And All Through the House. The original story is from Vault of Horror issue no. 35. I think the HBO series did the story much better as the maniac actually looks like a deranged, insane, and threatening maniac. In this movie, the maniac just strikes me as a dopey old man who's certainly not threatening in the least. That's not to say this earlier version is terrible. It makes the scenario much more realistic.

One small detail I found unsettlingly eerie is the Christmas song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen playing as she attempts to clean up her husbands blood and dispose of his remains.

Blind Alleys is the fifth story of the film, pulled from the pages of Tales from the Crypt issue no. 46. 

A home for the blind receives a new director, Maj. William Rogers (Nigel Patrick). Rather than do what he can for the sake of the residents, he uses his position as a means to live luxuriously at their expense. 

One of the residents, George Carter (Patrick Magee - A Clockwork Orange) pleads with Rogers to improve the living conditions for the residents, but Rogers ignores him and uses the home's funds for his own sake. 

So, Carter and the other blind tenants decide they've had enough of this new director, and revolt. They put him in an isolation cell for a few days without food nor water. In the meantime, they create a maze outside his cell which only leads to torture and pain. Though he can see, this forces him into their world of uncertainty.  

The same story is told in season six of the HBO series under the title Revenge is the Nuts. It's also my favorite segment in the film.

The most notable part of the entire movie is Peter Cushing's role as Grimsdyke in the segment, Poetic Justice.

In this story about a smear campaign towards an innocent and misunderstood neighbor, Cushing's character is a man who lives by himself and is otherwise a happy individual. He owns several dogs, and entertains the neighborhood children. 

When I think of Cushing, three particular movie roles come to mind - his role as Dr. Van Helsing in The Horror of Dracula (1958), his role as Victor Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (his first lead role) and his role as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). He plays them as serious and focused characters. 

In this movie, he plays a character that's innocent, nearly juvenile, likeable and fun-loving. 

Wish You Were Here is a variation of W.W. Jacobs's famous story, The Monkey's Paw. It stars notable British stage, screen, and television actor, Roy Dotrice, who among many notable roles plays Leopold Mozart in the movie Amadeus. 

The story Reflections of Death, from Tales from the Crypt issue no. 23, is a twisted one regarding a dream coming true. Personally, I found this to be the least memorable story. 

The style and feel of the EC Comics peeks through every one of the segment's manner of storytelling. It lingers from story to story. 

The horror is spread on in the right quantity. It's in the scenarios that make us uncomfortable. It lurks in the story details like an evil creature sneaking behind secrets. It can't hide itself.  The stories leave room for the audience to imagine themselves in these frightening situations. All the audience can do is watch and consider what they would do in these predicaments. It makes them squirm and pray they never have to experience what they're watching. 

Peter Cushing as Grimsdyke.

The distinct feel and style of the EC comics is there. Though the stories are  over-the-top in the comics, they're presented realistically and not as far fetched in this movie. It takes talented writing and acting to pull off the believability. With such notable and highly acclaimed actors in the film (Joan Collins, Richard Greene, Barbara Murray, Roy Dotrice, Peter Cushing, Nigel Patrick, and Patrick Magee) it's no surprise the movie can pull off such a feat. 

This movie doesn't cut corners. 

Even though its source material are these old comics that have a price of 10 cents printed on the cover, the stories are treated respectfully with effort and high-end talent.  

I'm sure as a fan of these tales and such, I found it more enjoyable than I suspect others not acquainted with the comics might. Perhaps many will find the movie more on the dry side. 

But audiences don't need to be fans of the EC comics to enjoy this horror anthology. Watching it reminded me of the days of watching movies down in my parent's TV room near our basement, on a 1978 12 or 19 inch Sears Solid State color TV. I think that's what we had? It was something similar to that, anyways. It was the kind of television that gave a mid-range hum when you turned it on, and had those rabbit ears, and a brightness, contrast, and volume dial. And it crackled when you turned it off. Outside of a cinema, this setting is the perfect one for Tales from the Crypt. 

100) The Monster Squad (1987) - The Last Nostalgic Horror Rental

"One hundred years before this story begins, it was a time of darkness in Transylvania...a time when Dr. Abraham Van Helsing and a small band of freedom fighters conspired to rid the world of vampires and monsters, and to save mankind from the forces of eternal evil. They blew it!" 

Director

Fred Dekker

Cast

Andre Gower - Sean Crenshaw

Robby Kiger- Patrick

Brent Chalem - Horace

Ryan Lambert - Rudy

Ashley Bank - Phoebe Crenshaw

Michael Faustino - Eugene

Leonardo Cimino - Scary German Guy

Duncan Regehr- Count Dracula

Tom Noonan - Frankenstein's Monster

Jonathan Gries - The desperate man/ The Wolfman

Tom Woodruff - Gillman

Michael Reid MacKay - The Mummy

Jack Gwillim - Abraham Van Helsing

The weekend before Halloween, I found a DVD collection of Abbott and Costello's four "meet the monsters" movies. This was a great find for sure. During Halloween week, I wanted to introduce my two oldest kids (six and five years old) to these classics.

I put on Abbott and Costello's second "monster" movie Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) for us to watch together. Well, it's their third if you want to count Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff (1949). 

After about 15-minutes, both kids were bored. 

As they're well aware of the classic Universal Monsters, and my daughter has a bit of a liking to Frankenstein's Monster mainly from depictions in cartoons and children's books, I asked if they'd rather watch Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). 

They nodded and so I put it on. 

Both kids, and for the most part, my two-year old, sat and watched the entire movie.

At the end, I asked them if they liked it or not. The oldest said "no" because he didn't like Frankenstein's Monster. Everyone's a critic, I guess. And my daughter just gave some silly answer because, well, that's just how she reacts to all inquiries imposed on her. Silly answers require no commitment later on. 

Regardless, they stayed tuned in until the end. 

This was their true introduction to a monster movie. More specifically, this was their introduction to the classic Universal Monsters - Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolfman. All three star in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. 

While I first watched Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein when I was around 12-years old as my dad had a VHS copy, it wasn't my introduction to the same monsters. 

My introduction to those monsters, and to horror in general, came thanks to the 1987 "horror comedy" The Monster Squad from 1987.

Actually, to be honest, I can't say with absolute certainty this was my introduction to the genre as growing up with three older brothers, I had seen bits and pieces of some heavier horror flicks such as A Nightmare on Elm Street part 3: Dream Warriors, Day of the Dead, and Friday the 13th Part ?. They rented movies like these which my innocent eyes had no business seeing at such a young age. But I saw parts, and that was enough. The damage was done. And now I have this blog.

The Monster Squad is a horror movie my parents allowed me to rent back in my youth. And it's one I really liked as a kid. I consider it to be truly my gateway into the genre. 

For years I thought I was one of the lucky few who knew about this movie, and appreciated it as I didn't know anyone else growing up that enjoyed it, or much less ever watched it.

It wasn't until I saw horror enthusiast and critic James Rolfe's review of The Monster Squad for his annual 31-day horror review series "Monster Madness" on his site, cinemassacre.com, back in 2007 that I realized this movie developed quite a fanbase since its bleak and abysmal release in 1987.  

Since then, I've noticed that its popularity has really peaked, even leading to a 2018 documentary Wolfman's Got Nards, directed by Andre Gower who plays the protagonist Sean in the movie. I watched half of the documentary last week, and I need to finish that.

The movie opens in Transylvania 100 years prior to 1987 where vampire hunter, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Jack Gwillim, Clash of the Titans) and a group of vigilantes charge into Count Dracula's castle to put an end to his vampiric reign of evil.

They're met with a female vampire sucking the blood out of a dead animal. Gross!

Andre Gower (left) and Robby Kiger.

As they start their attacks, the ground shakes and splits open. Living-dead corpses rise out of the floor to attack. 

In the center of the room is a powerful amulet. 

The vampire hunters bring in a young virgin girl to read an incantation that will open a portal to limbo in order to expel Dracula and his evil minions for ever. 

The portal opens, but things go wrong.

Cut to present day 1987.

A group of pre-teens who share a love of monsters and monster movies have a small club, "The Monster Squad," with Sean Crenshaw (Andre Gower) as their club leader. He's the biggest fan out of them all.

Sean has a six-year old sister Phoebe (Ashley Bank) who desperately wants to join her brother's club. 

Otherwise, the club is just Sean and his standard token friends. There's the overweight and often teased kid, Horace (Brent Chalem), Sean's second-in-command, Patrick (Robby Kiger), the little kid and club side-kick, Eugene (Michael Faustino) and the tough older kid, Rudy (Ryan Lambert). Rudy is kind of a weird character. I'll get to him later. 

Sean's mom, Emily (Mary Ellen Trainor), gives him a book she finds at a garage sale. It turns out to be the diary of Van Helsing. Lucky find!

Unfortunately for Sean, it's written in German. 

The only German-speaking person he knows in town is a reclusive old man who lives alone in Sean's neighborhood. 

The kids in town refer to him as "scary German guy" (Leonardo Cimino). 

But Jack is determined to get the contents of Van Helsing's diary translated. And much to his surprise, "scary German guy" isn't actually scary at all. He's a friendly German guy who's more than willing to assist Sean and his club. It's also subtly revealed that he's a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, so he knows a thing or two about horrifying monsters.

Meanwhile, Dracula (Duncan Regehr) steals Frankenstein's monster while it's being flown in a B-52 Mitchell. 

He also summons his monster cohorts - the Wolfman, Gillman (aka the Creature from the Black Lagoon), and the Mummy. 

They meet up at the lagoon where the Gillman dwells, and Dracula brings Frankenstein's monster (Tom Noonan) back to life. 

The Wolfman, played by Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite), is not the faithful follower Dracula assumes he is. When he's not transformed into a werewolf, he calls the police to warn them of Dracula's plans of bloodshed and world domination. Of course, they don't believe him.

Dracula is seeking the amulet he once possessed 100-years ago in order to take control of the world. 

Van Helsing's fighters had taken the amulet and hidden it out of Dracula's reach. 

He finds it buried in the wall of a the stone basement within an abandoned house in town. It's the same secret room were Van Helsing's diary was also found. Dracula takes up residence right there and turns it into his abode. 

Crucifixes surround the amulet along with words inscribed throughout preventing Dracula from simply taking it. 

The Monster Squad break into the house, and take the amulet, barely escaping Dracula's grasp. 

This royally pisses off the Count. With the help of his monster cohorts, along with three school girls whom he transforms into vampires, Dracula sets out the get back the amulet at any cost. 

He commands Frankenstein's monster to kill the children who took it, and get it back.

But the monster isn't necessarily keen to follow those orders. 

It becomes a race against time for the Monster Squad to find a virgin to recite the incantation to open the portal and suck the monsters into Limbo.

Dracula is a very intimidating presence on the screen thanks to Regehr's portrayal. Being a classically trained Shakespearean actor, I'm sure that has something to do with his performance.

Duncan Regehr as Count Dracula resurrects Frankenstein's 
monster (Tom Noonan) in The Monster Squad. 

Even Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula manages to convey a somewhat likeable persona for the infamous vampire. That's due to the way Lugosi gives him a cunning gentleness when he's not sucking the life out of some innocent victim. Of course, the audience can see past his false persona. They know he's completely void of all sanctifying grace. But the characters are fooled by his sexy and debonair characteristics. 

Regehr throws all that gentleness out. While dawning the classic Dracula look with the traditional black cape, old school tuxedo, slicked back hair and hissing, Regehr makes him a real badass. He's pure evil and Regehr doesn't hold back to let it show. I truly believe his Dracula should be on a pedestal leveled with other notable portrayals - Lugosi, Max Schreck from Nosferatu, and Christopher Lee in the Hammer Horror films. I mean, Regehr's Dracula straight up calls little Phoebe a "bitch" to her face. Not even Pennywise the child-eating clown did that!

In the documentary about the making and fandom of The Monster Squad, Ashley Bank who plays young Phoebe in the movie, says she was terrified of Regehr while on set. 

Andre Gower mentions that on the first take of the scene in which Dracula picks Phoebe up by the chin and demands she give him the amulet, little Phoebe was so scared that she lost her breath and couldn't scream. Dekker needed her to throw out a long scream, which she did in the second take. And that's the take used in the film.

There are some weird continuity moments in the movie. For instance, when Dracula recovers the crate with Frankenstein's Monster submerged in the swamp, and the other creatures gather around him, including the Mummy, the scene then switches to young Eugene's room (the kid wearing the Confederate cap for some reason). Eugene tells his dad there's a monster in his closet. Of course, his dad doesn't believe him and mockingly humors his son by opening the closet door to show his son nothing is in there. But he doesn't see the Mummy standing inside.

So, the way the scene comes across is that the Mummy participated in resurrecting Frankenstein's Monster, and then shuffles off to hide in a random seven-year old's bedroom closet. 

When his dad leaves, we see the Mummy having just crawled back out through the bedroom window and walking away. Why the hell did he bother to hide in there in the first place? He was in the closet. Did nothing except scare Eugene - accidentally, no doubt. And then left. 

While at the swamp with Dracula and the rest of the monsters, did he think to himself, "After this, I'll go find a kid's closet to hide in, hang out there for a bit,"? 

The movies biggest problem is its writing. 

For instance, only a virgin can read the words that'll open the portal. But the Monster Squad assumes the virgin must be female. These young boys struggle to find a virgin when, obviously, they're virgins themselves. No where in Van Helsing's diary does it specify the gender of said virgin. I don't recall that detail, anyways. I know it's a cliché in old horror movies that any needed virgins always seem to be female. Why? I suppose it's sexier that way, I guess?

Also, inside the Squad's treehouse, they have a camera pointed towards Patrick's older sister Lisa's room so they can watch her as she changes.

Rudy accidentally takes a picture of Lisa in her underwear while watching her through the zoom lens. He decides to use the photo of her as blackmail, as she claims she's a virgin, by posting copies around the school in order to get her to recite the words necessary to open the portal. So now the Squad is lacking in moral or ethical code just like Dracula. Aside from fighting monsters, now there;'s less for young audiences to aspire to when watching this squad that aims to do good. One of them is willing to blackmail his own sister in the worst possible way just to accomplish their goal. That's pretty evil.

And Rudy, who's the token cool guy with his slick black hair, leather coat, sunglasses, and cigarettes is clearly much older than the rest of the kids. They're in junior high while he's obviously in high school. Yet, he eagerly wants to be a part of their Monster Squad. It strikes me as awkward that a junior in high school like Rudy would be so eager to join a "monster club" made up of seventh or eighth graders. 

Ashley Bank as Phoebe with Tom Noonan as
Frankenstein's Monster.

Otherwise, considering the classic monster atmosphere, monster movie clichés are needed to maintain that classic tone. The classic monster movies gave birth to all those standards used in The Monster Squad. If the writers used monsters they made up themselves, then those same clichés would make the movie unimaginative and dull. Otherwise, impressively, they fit in well here. While watching these classic villains, those classic elements are expected.

The actors give their all in this movie, especially Jonathan Gries, Tom Noonan, Duncan Regehr, and the child actors, especially Ashley Bank. 

Mary Ellen Trainor, who plays Sean's mom, is an actress seen in a generous handful of 1980s movies such as The Goonies, Ghostbusters II, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Romancing the Stone and Back to the Future II. She is the quintessential movie mom. Trainor sadly passed away in 2015.

For a movie aimed at kids, it doesn't hold back. That accounts for the PG-13 rating.

And the look of the Gillman is fantastic and superb. Great love and care went into paying the proper homage to these Universal Monsters through their depictions. It's like a small love note to the golden years of horror. 

Monster movie fans, and those nostalgic at heart, will find The Monster Squad fun and enjoyable despite its flaws. The love for classic monster movies still shines through.

I think this is my last nostalgic horror rental for the year.  

This is the movie that did for me. I didn't know it then, but I know it now - The Monster Squad was my introduction to Hollywood's foundational monsters, Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, Gillman, and especially Frankenstein's monster. 

The Monster Squad has a Scooby Doo style to it with all the kids chasing monsters. Kids and teenage protagonists were all the trend in the 1980s in movies. So The Monster Squad certainly has a spot among such teen adventure sci-fi and/or horror movies like The Goonies, Gremlins, Back to the Future, Bill &Ted's Excellent Adventure, and Teen Wolf.

Maybe I should have made this movie my first review on this blog. I'm happy with my decision to put it in a place of honor that is my 100th horror movie review. 

My set deadline for this post was Oct. 31. But broken deadlines help build anticipation. So, you're welcome!
And I never forgot that Wolfmans' got nards! Thanks to The Monster Squad, his junk is now canon.