Tales from the Crypt is a 1972 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis. It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on the Tales from the Crypt short stories by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, and Bill Gaines. In the film, five strangers (Joan Collins, Ian Hendry, Robin Phillips, Richard Greene and Nigel Patrick) in a crypt encounter the mysterious Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson), who makes each person in turn foresee the manner of their death.
Despite its title, Only two of the stories are from EC's Tales from the Crypt comic book. The reason for this, according to Creepy founding editor Russ Jones, is that producer Milton Subotsky did not own a run of the original EC comic book but instead adapted the movie from the two paperback reprints given to him by Jones. The story "Wish You Were Here" was reprinted in the paperback collection The Vault of Horror (Ballantine, 1965). The other four stories in the movie were among the eight stories reprinted in Tales from the Crypt. a few years later, "...And All Through the House", "Blind Alleys" and "Wish You Were Here" were all somewhat remade into episodes for the Tales From the Crypt television show.
And speaking of the show, it didn't take me long to fall in love with its delicious blend of classic horror stories, comic book style, and a uniquely 90s sense of eternal hornyness. Like the CREEPSHOW films before it, the movie perfectly adapts the comic book source material like very few films ever have. It's the very definition of American exploitation films, a Roger Corman-style shrine to boobs butts and blood. this movie is none of those things.
After the brief novelty of seeing a couple of classic tales from the crypt stories on screen for the first time, this movie is far too British to be enjoyable. Based on my brief experience with hammer horror films, I really don't think they can give this movie the level of sleaze it really needs. It's a movie that is entirely uninterested in mimicking the comic book style of its stories, including the over-the-top levels of violence and sexuality. The result is something a bit too polished and polite to really belong under the tails of the crypt family name, and honestly is a movie. I have a really hard time enjoying it at all.
This would definitely be one of the museum exhibits you walked past quickly to get to the cooler shit
2/10
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