Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

Excellent but underrated film

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

yet another excellent British horror movie from the 1960's . I was pleasantly surprised with the special effects from such an old movie , each segment had it's own brand of humour and horror , perfectly combined . and if it wasn't for the fact they all died , that would have made for a fantastic train ride , with so much talent in one place . I recently watched this movie again , on horror channel , & in my opinion it has not lost any of it's charm , and is still very watchable today - a true testament to the actors , writer , and director . it is very skilfully filmed , written , and acted . a true must have for all collectors of horror classics .

This is one of the better horror anthologies on the market. 5 really good segments horror with a great cast. This one is a great watch. In-between the stories is a great story in itself of Dr. "Terror" Schreck who is on a train with 5 other men and read their tarot cards thus our 5 segments. The stories include: a werewolf, a human-killing plant, voodoo, a zombie crawling hand and a vampire - all of which are good.I'm still trying to decide on which of the 5 tales is my favorite - I think I'm torn between the werewolf, zombie hand and vampire as my number one pick. But what I liked the best about this anthology was the train ride scenes where they were getting their tarot cards read.Really good film for late at night or for the 31 Days of Halloween Movie Fest.8.5/10

This is I believe the first of the Amicus portmanteau films and like all of the others I have seen it is flawed and variable in quality but a couple of the stories are pretty good and another two are real curios.The linking story is probably the weakest aspect of the film. Peter Cushing as the mysterious Dr Terror meets the five central characters of each of the five stories in a railway compartment - not a house at all so the title of the film is a misnomer- and shuffles his tarot cards and encourages each man to take his cards and see the story which will unfold. At the end of each sequence the man is to take a final card which will show what he must do to avoid what has happened in their tale and each chooses the death card. This is not a great device and from my memory of Tarot the death card is to signify the end of a particular phase of life or the end of a story not the death of the person who draws it. Even allowing for this misuse of Tarot symbolism the death of each of the five seems a bit harsh on at least two of the five are hardly the causes of their own misfortune. Cushing, normally one of my favourite actors, looks a bit silly too.The first story, Werewolf, stars the now largely forgotten Neil McCallum and it is pretty routine stuff whilst Creeping Vine is just a rip-off of Day of the Triffids though it does have one or two spooky moments with good performances from the dependable Jeremy Kemp and Bernard Lee whilst the often slightly kooky Ann Bell is fine as the increasingly scared young wife of the central character Bill Rogers. The curio of this segment though is that the central character is played by Alan 'Fluff' Freeman the Anglo-Australian disc jockey whom I had forgotten had also been an occasional actor in the 1960s until I saw this film for the first time in decades six or seven years ago. He is okay but he was a better DJ.Voodoo is the worst tale of the five featuring as it does Roy Castle at his most irritating - which is considerable- but there is a real bonus for fans of British Modern Jazz with the Tubby Hayes band doing a couple of pretty strong numbers. Castle himself was a jazz trumpeter but I am not sure whether he plays on the soundtrack of these scenes and certainly at one point when he is blowing away like a hurricane there is no sound of trumpet. The tale itself is hackneyed and more than a touch racist.Disembodied Hand is the best of the five stories and is so by some distance. Christopher Lee plays Franklyn Marsh who is a narcissistic art critic. During an exhibition of the Avant garde artist Eric Landor- played by Michael Gough- Marsh produced several pithy phrases to rubbish Landor's work to the delight of the critic's sycophantic acolytes before the artist trumps his sternest critic by showing that work praised by Lee's character was actually done by a chimpanzee. Marsh is stung by this public humiliation and eventually runs over Landor causing the artist to lose a hand. Unable to paint Landor kills himself and possibly tormented by guilt Marsh is haunted by the disembodied hand which follows him everywhere. Eventually the hand causes Marsh to crash his car causing and the accident leaves him blind- and unable to work. It is a neat enough morality tale and the brief appearance of the delightful Isla Blair would lighten a wet November morn but the real highlight is Lee who is brilliant here –possibly his best performance until The Wicker Man. The arrogance of Marsh is one of Lee's trademarks but he does snivelling fear really well here too. The final tale, Vampire, stars Donald Sutherland as Bob Carroll a doctor returning to practise in the US after marrying a glamorous young French woman played by Jennifer Jayne (who was English I think). Prompted by the advice of his older colleague Dr Blake (Max Adrian) it begins to dawn on Carroll that his lovely wife is in fact a vampire causing havoc in her new hometown. Eventually after some bidding by his colleague, Dr Carroll carries out the old stake through the heart trick on his wife and is arrested by the police who believe he is a madman as Blake dismisses the notion that he has had anything to do with the slaying. It is a bit corny that Blake turns out to be the vampire himself but it is slickly done – Freddie Francis directs all the 5 stories rather well in fact- and Sutherland is, as he usually was, very good whilst Adrian is good too.The final scene where those on the train/house are revealed to be already dead became something of an Amicus trademark and it is not particularly well done here – certainly in comparison with the generally superior Tales From The Crypt- and is a rather bland ending to a film that is short on gore but strong on atmosphere.

After first hearing about the title during Steve Coogan's interesting TV Horror Comedy Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible,I have been meaning to take a look at British Horror movie studio Amicus first anthology movie for a number of years,but for some reason have never had the chance to.Talking to a friend about a number of excellent articles on Amicus recently appearing in UK film mag The Dark Side,I was happily caught by surprise,when he passed me 2 Amicus DVDs,which led to me getting ready to at last meet Dr.Terror. The plot-Note:Due to this being an anthology,I will give each "story" its own section.Wraparound story:Entering a carriage filled with 5 men, Doctor Schreck sits down,gets out a pack of Tarot cards,and begins to tell each of his fellow passengers what awaits for them in the future.Story 1:Getting sent to a Scottish island to approve of changes that Mrs. Biddulph wants to do to the house, architect Jim Dawson finds a coffin of Count Cosmo Valdemar,who was the owner of the house,and was killed in a conflict involving Jim's family.After finding the coffin,Jim begins to fear that the Count will come back as a werewolf,which leads to Jim getting Silver bullets to finally end the family feud.Story 2:Returning from a family holiday, Bill Rogers discovers that a vine has grown round the house,which defends itself against any attempts to cut it.Contacting the Ministry of Defence,Rogers soon finds out that the plant is far more intelligent than any of them have expected.Story 3:Working as a Jazz musician in London, Biff Bailey gets a chance to tour the West Indies.Whilst in the West Indies,Bailey learns about a Voodoo ceremony taking place.Attending the ceremony,Bailey decides that the Voodoo music being played would make a hit record.Coming home to London,Bailey starts to play the music,and soon discovers that the voodoo has returned with him.Story 4:Believing himself to be the best art critic in town, Franklyn Marsh takes great pleasure in humiliating artist Eric Landor.Getting his revenge by getting Marsh to praise a painting by a monkey,Marsh gets his revenge by running over Landor's hands.Delighted over chopping Landor's hands off,Marsh soon discovers that Landor's hands are still out for revenge.Story 5:Returning home with his new wife Nicolle, Dr. Bob Carroll finds her to act very odd around blood.Learning about strange bite marks appearing on a child's neck,Carroll begins to wonder if his wife has something to hide.View on the film:Putting the 5 unlucky guys in a carriage,the screenplay by Milton Subotsky lays a darkly comedic track for the terror train to run down.For the 6 men in the carriage, Subotsky splits things pretty evenly,with half the guys being cursed with bad luck,whilst the other ones are cursed by fragile egos. Centring each story around a distinctive "monster", Subotsky digs a little too deep into the comedy the stories,which leads to them lacking a deadly final bite.Covering 6 stories,director Freddie Francis & cinematographer Alan Hume gives each tale a unique,stylish appearance,which goes from framing Marsh's story with picture frames across the screen,to Carroll's vampires having a light Gothic romance redness.Along with giving each story its own elegant appearance, Francis subtly wraps the film in growing green,which hints at the excellent supernatural sting awaiting the passengers.Pulling every story out of his pack of cards, Peter Cushing gives an excellent performance as Dr. W. R. Schreck, (I wonder if he is related to Max?!)with Cushing's half-whispered murmurs giving Schreck a strikingly creepy atmosphere.Replacing original choice Acker Bilk,Rot Castle gives a toe-tapping debut as Bailey,whilst Donald Sutherland gives a terrific,scared out of his wits performance as Carroll,and Christopher Lee gives the stuck-up Franklyn Marsh a superb high level of smugness,as they all enter Dr Terrors House of Horrors.