100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 125: Tales from the Crypt

Director: Freddie Francis

Genre: Horror

Runtime: 92 minutes

Year: 1972

Starring: Ralph Richardson, Geoffrey Bayldon, Joan Collins, Chloe Franks, Martin Boddey, Ian Hendry, Angela Grant, Susan Denny, Paul Clere, Frank Forsyth, Peter Cushing, Robin Phillips, David Markham, Robert Hutton, Manning Wilson, Kay Adrian, Carlos Baker, Melinda Clancy, Clifford Earl, Edward Evans, Irene Gawre, Stafford Methurst, Roy Dotrice, Richard Greene, Barbara Murray, Peter Thomas, Hedgar Wallace, Patrick Magee, Nigel Patrick, George Herbert, Harry Locke, Tony Wall, Louis Mansi, Bartlett Mullins

Description: Five people get lost in a crypt and meet up with a strange crypt keeper who tells them stories of how they died.

Review: Five people are confronted with their (future) misdemeanors and faiths, by a mysterious crypt keeper.

 

1. All Through the House: A woman murders her husband. While she is busy trying to cover it up, she hears on the radio that a killer escaped a psychiatric facility. And it just happens that this same man is lurking around her house. The story has tension, because the killer manages several times to almost enter the house. Some good jump scares and a surprising ending.

 

2. Reflection of Death: Carl Maitland decides to leave his wife and child for another woman. When he and his lover Susan are in their way to a new life, they get into a car accident. Carl manages to get out of the car, but Susan is nowhere to be found. When he goes to his wife by foot, he is confronted by scared people. They are scared of him. But why… Another surprising ending and yet a movie filled with tension. You really want to know what happened and why all those people are scared of him. This was my favorite story of the five.

 

3. Poetic Justice: Two greedy businessmen, a father and son, want the old neighbor Grimsdyke gone and decide to terrorize him. They make sure he gets fired, his dogs are taken away from him and they send him Valentine’s day cards with horrible wishes on them. No one in the neighborhood wants anything to with him anymore and the old man commits suicide. But that doesn’t mean it’s over. It’s a cruel story and it’s pretty scary towards the end.

 

4. Wish You Were Here: Businessman Ralph Mason is declared bankrupt and soon after that he dies of a heart attack followed by a car accident. Ralph and his wife own a statuette which grant three wishes. Everything can be solved with that, but there are loop holes. Not quite that scary, but a very entertaining story.

 

5. Blind Alleys: An ex-military man gets a job as director of an institution for the blind. While he takes advantage of his position, the patients live under bad circumstances. The story takes some time to actually get interesting, but eventually it’s one of the better ones of the film. Especially the way the patients get their payback.

 

The film is off course a bit outdated, with the effects and the very red blood. But “Tales from the Crypt” is a pretty entertaining horror flick. Perfect for a Halloween night.

Rating: 3/ 5