31 Horror Movies in 31 Days: The Vault of Horror

The Vault of Horror (1973)

Directed by Roy Ward Baker

Starring Terry-Thomas, Curd Jürgens, Tom Baker, Dawn Addams, Denholm Elliott, Michael Craig

Five men exit an elevator and enter a mirrored room they didn’t intend to visit. The strangers see no way out and the elevator will not open, so they decide to relax and tell stories. Each man has had vivid nightmares that they recount, each tale filled with twists and terror. As the men finish each story, they get the unease feeling that they’re all in this room for a terrible reason.

The Vault of Horror is a sequel to Amicus’s 1972 EC Comics adaptation Tales from the Crypt. It has that same steady, if not deliberate pace and good script. All the actors involved are good and perfectly game for every improbable terror to come their way. The only minor difference is the stories. Each segment of this movie is very well done, but Amicus picked stories that aren’t the same caliber of the stories in Tales. There are two that are absolutely great. The first is a story with Daniel Massey as a murderous brother who learns to late about his sister’s strange little town. The other segment has famous fourth Doctor Tom Baker as a troubled painter who seeks supernatural comeuppance for those who profited off his work.

But the remaining stories just don’t have the same impact or tension of the last batch. While entertaining, a story about an abusive neat freak isn’t as memorable as the story about a murderous wife fending off a serial killer Santa on Christmas. The Vault of Horror is not a bad movie, it just could have been better. Or at least, it could have had better stories. The filmmaking is still wonderful craftsmanship and definitely worth watching. Give The Vault of Horror a view sometime, preferably in a double feature with Amicus’s Tales from the Crypt.

8 out of 10