This is a collection of five different stories. All of them are so slow paced that you tend to go to sleep. It is slow paced even for the 1970s standard. No horrible getup is used anywhere though the poster shows a horrible skull with a single eye. Even the music is dull. A waste of time. Good actors are wasted. Though the movie is about "as you sow so you reap", in the fourth story, we wonder if the protagonist really deserved what he got.

This 1972 Amicus film is a portmanteau film made in the early seventies that is way better than the sum of its parts. The linking story in which the five main characters are revealed to be already dead and are about to be consigned to Hell is hardly in the Dead of Night class and although he was a great actor Sir Ralph Richardson isn't particularly good as the Crypt Keeper either. All five of the dramas have flaws such as unconvincing blood, poor special effects and all except perhaps the last, Blind Alleys, are underdone in terms of plot with the second,Reflection of Death, featuring the ever reliable Ian Hendry being particularly flimsy. But this is a smashing horror compendium that is directed with real flair by master cinematographer Freddie Francis with at least one great scary moment in each tale. Joan Collins features in the first story- ...And All Through The House- and fortunately she isn't given many words to speak as the scheming killer hoist by her own petard and the lack of dialogue throughout her vignette sets the tone for the film as Francis lets the pictures tell the stories. The two best tales are the third , Poetic Justice, starring the great Peter Cushing as a kindly dustman bullied by a grasping neighbour (the finale to this tale is one that made me smile as I watched it through the cracks in my fingers) and the final segment, Blind Alleys in which a cruel, complacent Nigel Patrick gets his comeuppance in as gruesome a way as you can imagine. This final tale features the brilliant Patrick Magee- always a reassuringly malevolent presence-at his most menacing. The weakest tale is probably the fourth, Wish You Were Here, but even it is all carried off with great panache. And I have always had a soft spot for Barbara Murray. The acting is mostly pretty good in this film and the scary moments are authentically scary. Of course it is cheap -at times the exterior shots look like something out of a public information film - and Tales From The Crypt is not exactly Citizen Kane or even The Shining. But if you want to while a way 100 minutes on a gloomy Friday evening you can do worse than going down into this crypt.

Original British horror anthology based on EC's 'Tales from the Crypt' which would eventually lead to the more well known US TV series and films. As usual Amicus are behind the tales of terror.Being a British version of the old comic its naturally slightly reserved and a little more serious or gloomy. The cast is made up of some classy stalwartly Brits such as Peter Cushing and Ralph Richardson and many well known characters actors of British film, TV and theatre.The five short stories are interesting but not wild effects packed thrillers as the later movies. The first has Joan Collins murdering her husband at Xmas but being strangled herself by an escaped loony dressed up as Santa who was let in the house by her little girl. Second has a cheating husband seeing his own death and coming back as the undead. Third shows Peter Cushing as an old man being hounded by his snobby neighbours to move as they dislike his scruffy presence next door. The old man commits suicide then comes back from the dead to exact revenge.Fourth story is a variation on the famous short 'The Monkey's Paw' (also spoofed by 'The Simpsons' so well in their Halloween episodes). A recently widowed woman makes bad choices or wishes with a small Oriental statue causing herself much grief. The last story shows what happens to a mean money pinching man who runs a home for blind men very badly. The residents get their revenge on the Scrooge-like director of the so called care home.The stories are told as predictions of the future by the crypt keeper to a group of people visiting some old catacombs, the frame/wrap plot. The keeper is a much more serious take on what you may be used to these days, very monk like, a normal human face, well spoken, almost like the Grim Reaper. The stories are also quite tame and not overly exciting by today's standards. Some blood on show but its pretty clearly red paint and the odd good bit of makeup/prosthetics on the undead. Peter Cushing's small performance as a zombie is actually extremely unnerving down to the quite ghastly makeup applied to his gaunt face, kudos there.The film isn't as fun I thought, its kinda dull and takes itself too seriously. The stories are fair but lean more towards simple revenge without much visual gore or goo, that's perfectly fine but I always thought these anthologies need at least one or two good monster/creature features. The finale vignette for example, about the care home for the blind, is very strange. At first you feel sorry for the elderly men being pushed around by the new director, but when they take their revenge it seems way too extreme and nasty frankly, you end up feeling sorry for the director and his dog.The same can be said for the woman and her Chinese figurine. She's not a bad person, she merely makes wishes that turn sour on her so again you're not too sure how to feel towards that character, you feel for her in the end. As for the Joan Collins short story...that's just unscary and bloody obvious right from the start (no pun intended), just a dull murder tale. The best and most inventive tale must be 'Refection of Death' with the man seeing his own death, brilliant twist at the very end there.In the end the bookend plot involving all the people in the catacombs has a nice eerie twist which isn't overly original as this twist does pop up in other anthology movies. Never the less it works really well despite the dodgy sets and effects of the time, rather predictable though methinks. An Interesting set of horror stories, not a thrilling set but fun to watch all the over acting and reactions. Certainly one of the better made horror anthologies if a bit bland in places.5/10

Five strangers are separated from their tour party while touring ancient catacombs. In attempt to find the others, they end up trapped in an eerie crypt where they meet the Cryptkeeper (Ralph Richardson), a sinister monk who shows them their grisly fortunes and then sends them to hell at the end for their evil deeds.Rather like From Beyond The Grave, another memorable portmanteau from the same era as Tales from the Crypt, this film is a portmanteau of five stories where the five main characters have committed crimes ranging from driving someone to suicide to murder. Joan Collins is top notch in And All Through The House as an evil housewife who murders her husband for his insurance policy and who in turn is murdered by an escaped murderer in a Santa suit. ( It is a bit odd watching this story in March and hearing Christmas music).However, the best story in the portmanteau has to be Blind Alleys, where a cruel ex army officer takes over a home for blind men, allows the men to freeze and almost starve, while he spends the funds on himself and his Alsatian guard dog. When an inmate dies due to the cold and malnourishment, the inmates turn on the superintendent and trap him in the cellar with his dog locked in a room next door. Eventually the superintendent is allowed out of his makeshift prison, but has to try and escape through a narrow passage lined with razor blades and after trying to get out, the prisoners switch the lights off and release the Alsatian on him, which tears him apart.Also good and made better by Peter Cushing is Poetic Justice, where Cushing plays an elderly binman who lives in a rundown house with his dogs and is popular with local children. Yet a snobbish neighbour played by Robin Phillips wants to drive him out and has his dogs confiscated by the police and also spreads a rumour that the old man is a child molester, which drives him to suicide. However, the old man comes back from the dead in the night a year after he dies and kills his snobbish neighbour by ripping out his heart, leaving a message stating that he had no heart.Reflection of Death is a decent cautionary tale about adultery, where Ian Hendry plays an adulterous husband who takes off in his Jaguar with his mistress and is involved in a car crash, but is ignored when he asks for help and leaves his girlfriend for dead. Later on it is revealed his girlfriend has been blinded in the accident and Hendry is visiting her from the dead as the story flashes back to the car crash. Not so good is Wish You Were Here. I found the story to be flimsy and with unnecessary gore at the end, as the whole film had managed with only a minimal amount of bloodshed. I'd advise people to skip this as it's weak and predictable, which drags down the rest of the film. On the whole, Tales on the Crypt is a decent British horror and it's nice to see Catweazle( Geoffrey Bayldon) in a cameo as the guide in the catacombs. Also using Bach's Toccata and Fugue as the introductory music is an excellent touch.