bewhiskered, German-accented Dr. Sandor Schreck (Cushing) uses tarot cards somehow to pre- dict supernatural fates for his fellow passengers, triggering ge- nerically-titled tales: “Werewolf,” “Creeping Vine,” “Voodoo,” “Dis- embodied Hand” and “Vampire.” Though purportedly Subotsky “originals,” one episode at least is outright plagiarism (“Voodoo,” from Cornell Woolrich’s novella “Papa Benjamin,” legitimately adapted on TV’s THRILLER) and all the others are derivative. “Dis- embodied Hand” owes a great deal to the short story (by W.F. Harvey) and film THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, while “Creeping Vine” seems a rerun of the “additional scenes” Francis had recently shot for THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS. The “Werewolf” and “Vampire” anec- dotes are fresher: “Werewolf” is even a possible screen first in that it rejects the tormented hero ly- canthrope of all earlier movies in the sub-genre (THE WOLF MAN, CAT PEOPLE, etc.) to present a shudder pulp-style evil bastard shapeshifter (“Cosmo Valdemar”) as the villain, while “Vampire” is a matter-of fact dose of EC Com- ics irony set in a small American town where different types of leech (medical and supernatural) compete.
Though the house of title is a deck of cards, there is a through-line theme about home invasion: “Werewolf” and “Vam- pire” turn on territorial disputes, while all the other stories feature ancient, unnatural invaders men- acing protagonists in their own minimally-furnished, modernist homes. This indicates Amicus’ major break with the Hammer style, carried over in four out of five films in the collection, as period settings and old myths are set aside in favor of bringing the horror home by having it intrude into contemporary reality, often
Peter Cushing as the tarot-reading Dr. Schreck of DR. TERROR’S HOUSE OF HORRORS.
unleashing monsters in ordinary, suburban streets or semi-hip milieux like the jazz world of “Voodoo” or the modern art busi- ness of “Disembodied Hand.” With its amazing range of play- ers (besides Cushing, the film has room for Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Donald Suther- land, Alan Freeman, Roy Castle, Katy Wild, Bernard Lee, Jeremy Kemp, Kenny Lynch, Isla Blair, Al Mulock, Max Adrian and Jen- nifer Jayne), the film began Am- icus’ tradition of distinguished, varied casts called in to work a day or two (the triumph of this policy was signing Sir Ralph Richardson to play TALES FROM
THE CRYPT’s Crypt Keeper), and somehow the shifts of mood be- tween the stories play well be- cause of Francis’ imaginative, careful direction. It’s never very deep and Subotsky’s script doesn’t allow for the nuances found in Bloch’s work for the company: Lee’s pompous art critic is a typical, albeit funny philistine’s caricature of a wasp- ish idiot (he disses talented painter Gough but is tricked into praising the work of a chimp) and his torment by crawling hand is something we relish, whereas his apparently abusive, actually tragic father in THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED
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