Product Details

• Actors: Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Roy Dotrice, Richard Greene, Ian Hendry
• Directors: Freddie Francis
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305033048
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,771 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Horror > Television > Tales from the Crypt

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Before Creepshow and the Tales from the Crypt TV show became popular, this little-known film was the original adaptation of the famous E.C. horror comic. While visiting an underground catacomb, five tourists (including Joan Collins) venture off into a secret room where a mysterious, robed man shows them the horrible fates that will befall them should they decide to go through with the dastardly deeds they have secretly planned. These include killing a spouse, running away with a mistress, driving a neighbor out of town, using a mysterious idol to fulfill greedy wishes, and abusing the inhabitants of a home for the blind. While not as stylishly spooky as the E.C. adaptations that followed it, this particular compendium has its creepy moments and features a fine cast, including Collins, Peter Cushing, and Patrick Magee, who many may remember as the crippled author in A Clockwork Orange. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly good Horror Flick from the 70's!, January 3, 1999

By	Mathew W. Riedl (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This film is a surprisingly good horror flick from the 70's. The film has great shot angles much like the ones Alfred Hitchcock used to use and many of the plots are just like him as well. You get to see five tales of mayhem and suspense as well as a little comedy in each sequence. Based on the Tales from the Crypt comic books, Tales from the Crypt - The Movie is the one that inspired the hit television series directed by Richard Donnar (Director of the Lethal Weapon Series.) I'd reccomend this hit to any fan of horror films, Tales from the Crypt or just want a good scare!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I assure you, I have a purpose..., September 2, 2003

By	Pamela Scarangello (Middletown, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This 1972 horror anthology incorporates 5 spine-tingling stories from EC's "Tales from the Crypt" comic books. What made this film worth watching is how the stories expose the sinful flaws shrouded in each of the 5 tourists; devious practices of lust, greed and vanity which, of course, ultimately lead the main characters to a horrid demise. Although the first half of the movie was fairly slow, it dramatically picked up the pace as the following tales became increasingly shocking and disturbing.
In "And All Through the House," a greedy housewife named Joanne Clayton (Joan Collins) brutally murders her spouse by smashing his head with a poker. It's Christmas Eve, and after years of meticulous planning, she commits this murder to collect an insurance policy. However, as Joanne attempts to eliminate the body, she is stalked and terrorized by a homicidal lunatic dressed in a Santa Claus costume.
"Reflection of Death" concerns the fate of Carl Maitland (Ian Hendry), a cheating husband who chose to abandon his wife and children in order to begin a new life with his sexy mistress. As the two drive away together, Carl is suddenly killed in a fiery car accident and later on walks the streets as a festering corpse. Upon realizing the horror of his predicament, he wakes up back in his car; to his relief, his death turned out to be nothing more than an awful nightmare. Or was it?
In "Poetic Justice," Arthur Grimsdyke (Peter Cushing) is a charitable garbage collector who enjoys giving toys and candy to the neighborhood kids. However, his life is soon ruined by James Elliot (Robin Phillips), a spoiled, wealthy leech who forces Arthur to sell him his only property. By tarnishing the old man's public image and sending hateful Valentine's Day cards, Mr. Elliot drives poor Arthur to suicide. One year later, on Valentine's Day, Arthur's vengeful spectre rises from the grave to rip James's heart out...literally!
My most favorite tale is none other than "Wish You Were Here," which explains how a married couple try to recover from their financial woes by making 3 wishes on an Oriental statue. When Enid Jason (Barbara Murray) wishes to have a gaggle of money, her husband Ralph (Richard Greene) dies in a terrible auto accident. Then, when the grieving widow wishes her spouse to be how he was before the crash, a group of undertakers report to Enid that Ralph actually died of cardiac arrest. Finally, poor Enid makes the ultimate mistake by wishing for Ralph eternal life; he wakes up screaming in constant agony because the embalming fluid is corroding his arteries and organs! Even when Ralph's writhing body is hacked to pieces, he would never die!
The last scary story told in "Tales from the Crypt" is "Blind Alleys." Major Rogers (Nigel Patrick) is a former army officer hired to run a residence home for the blind. Under his cruel tactics, the patients are freezing cold at night and poorly fed during the day. Later on, when one neglected patient succumbs to illness, all of the abused residents finally had enough. Seeking revenge, they kidnap Rogers and teach him a ruthless lesson on how it feels to be truly blind. Let's just say that the Major's demise includes a half-starved dog and 100 or so razor blades!
What I didn't like about this film is how the Crypt Keeper is wrongly portrayed: Ralph Richardson's interpretation is that of a dignified monk guarding a cobwebbed monastary. (Unlike the EC version, who acts as a morbid color commentator bearing an endless bag of puns and wisecracks.) Also, with his dull dialogue and silly brown robe, the Crypt Keeper could have easily been parodied by Mel Brooks! If you love watching the HBO series and possess reprints of the original comics, this film may take getting used to. Nevertheless, "Tales from the Crypt" is worth seeing, along with "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Amicus Horror Anthology, February 26, 2006

By	DonnaReviews (Northeast USA) - See all my reviews

"Tales from the Crypt" is an Amicus horror anthology with five stories that unfold when five tourists stray from their tour and wind up in a sealed catacomb with a mysterious crypt-keeper (Sir Ralph Richardson) who questions them about their lives. Each tourist has a tale of the macabre to tell and as usual, it is a mixed bag, but overall, one of Amicus' best, my top favorite being "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors."

My favorite, by far, is the first with Joan Collins as a sinister, sexy, swingy wife who murders her husband on Christmas for his insurance policy as a homicidal maniac disquised as Santa Claus stalks her home. This tale is beautifully executed with a minimal of dialogue. As Christmas carols play and hubby contentedly reads the paper, Collins hits him over the head with a poker and then is left to dispose of his body as her daughter Carol (the always superb Chloe Franks) awaits Santa impatiently upstairs. The color in these films is wonderful and the mod 70's decor is well suited with psychedelic pictures and white and apricot walls, a white shag rug -- great vivid colors that go with the bright red stage blood. And Collins is in her youthful prime here, for those who only know her from "Dynasty." She was quite a beautiful babe. She also has the delicious toughness that would have made her a wonderful actress in film noir and works well here. This segment moves beautifully to its creepy climax and the sinister Father Christmas, tall and angular like one of those wooden decorations, is fantastic.

Each member of the cast has committed some sort of sin, so ostensibly the cryptkeeper is giving them their day of reckoning. All in all, great fun.