It’s generally expected that horror anthologies will have at least one segment that doesn’t hit the mark. They can’t all be winners. It’s hard enough to develop a feature-length genre film that fires on all cylinders. But that’s not the case with Amicus’ Tales from the Crypt, a legendary anthology that found its source material in the classic EC Comics of old.
The movie follows five strangers, all of them clearly from the upper crust of British society, as they arrive at a cemetery to view the catacombs there. They get trapped in a big chamber with a strange crypt keeper that proceeds to tell them stories about the ways they’ll die. Each story is taken from an EC Horror comic from the 1950s, either from Tales from the Crypt, The Haunt of Fear, or The Vault of Horror.
Like a classic rock album where each song feels essential and thus deserving of careful placement, Tales from the Crypt shows exceptional pacing and a tense sense of rhythm that evokes doom and dread. Director Freddie Francis showcases a profound understanding of terror and how some kinds of it are better suited to follow others when building a sequence.
It starts with a story about a woman who does something terrible on the same Christmas night that a homicidal maniac escapes from a mental institution; it’s followed by a tale of infidelity that ends with a strange case of death and survival; it transitions into the case of man who employs absolute cruelty to kick a sweet old man out of his house just because he can’t stand the sight of him; and ends with two shockers that are best encountered in the process of watching the film.
In perfect EC fashion, each story features a central character of dubious moral constitution that is met with an end befitting of their terrible behaviors. They are morality plays with bloody outcomes, and their payoffs feel rewarding because the people at the center of them are among the cruelest of the cruel. The Crypt Keeper only appears to those who went out of their way to satisfy their privileged egos to the detriment of other, less fortunate souls.
Tales from the Crypt is at the top of the food chain in the field of horror anthologies. Not a single segment compromises the symphony of fear Freddie Francis put together here. It earns its designation as a horror classic. And contingent on your own character, it’ll make you question whether you’re due an appointment with the Crypt Keeper himself, too.
English (US) · 