This afternoon after we prepared this evening's big continental Christmas meal for an elderly guest and ourselves we put our feet up. the Missus watched Judge Judy - doesn't matter that its Xmas Day! - and I managed to watch my fave tale in the anthology horror Tales from the Crypt from 1972. Fortunately its on You Tube.
The story is the first one starring Joan Collins as a murderous wife at Christmas. She bumps off her hubby for the insurance but fails to notice that her young daughter has let in a Santa-suited homicidal maniac recently escaped from the asylum!
Its a classic EC tale where the perpetrator always gets what's coming to them.
A similarly sobering segment is the Valentine's Card, in which the aging binman Grimsdyke - one Peter Cushing - is forced to take his own life by the mean, callous and terribly snobbish neighbour. Alas, said neighbour gets his come-uppance in the grisly finale, which was probably quite shocking in 1972.
Old horror anthologies like Crypt were and are simply fantastic viewing and I could watch them all day. Have you got a fave anthology or segment?
Not a horror fan, but as for anthology series, I did enjoy The Outer Limits.
ReplyDeleteA super series Kev. I watched the first episode again a few months ago. Excellent stuff.
DeleteLike Kev, I'm not a horror fan but I do like the Amicus and Tigon portmanteau films.
ReplyDeleteThey were brilliant Scoop I agree. I seem to recall you saying that another Sixties horror flick, The Haunted House of Horror was partly filmed in a big old hotel in Southport. Years since I've seen that film, the very first one I ever saw on VHS video in the early 1980's.
DeleteAh yes, Woodsy, The Haunted House of Horror! Originally it was to have David Bowie as one of the major characters. Filmed at Bank Hall in Tarleton and fleetingly at the Palace Hotel in Southport.
DeleteFascinating Scoop. I know Frankie Avalon was in it. Was he instead of Bowie I wonder?
DeleteI don't think so, Bowie's part was played by Julian Barnes.
DeleteTales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Dr Terrors House of Horrors e.t.c.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed all of them and also like the BBC's 'Inside No 9', the short black comedies by the Leage of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, which are clearly influenced by those cinema forerunners.
I will have to check out Inside No. 9 Mish. I may have seen it, just can't recall. I enjoyed Crooked House as well a few years back. there's a really creepy scene of a hunched old man crawling towards the lead character in the dark. Made my skin crawl!
DeleteAlways love an Amicus portmanteau - Roy Castle and Tubby Hays' Voodoo jazz blowing up a storm (literally !) in Dr Terror , Terry-Thomas and his neatly displayed "Odds and Ends" in Vault of Horror, and poor old Ian Bannen's character in From Beyond the Grave - wonderful stuff.
ReplyDeleteFenton