This is where it all started, an Amicus anthology series that ran for nine movies and fifteen years. While none of them had the artistic value of their vague inspiration, Dead of Night, lots were fun and engaging.
The same can't really be said of this first entry, sadly. While still worthwhile and less overtly campy than most of the others, it's a fairly dull entry. The different elements making up the plot involve Alan Freeman being terrorised by killer plants and Roy Castle and Kenny Lynch in a West Indian voodoo cult. Both Castle and Lynch master the art of performing music without microphones, but their story doesn't really go anywhere, as does the opening werewolf segment.
Easily the best are the final two entries with Christopher Lee and Donald Sutherland, though even here we have to contend with a plastic hand (complete with close ups of the seal down the side) and a rubber vampire bat. Though, as stated, these vignettes are played as "straight", there are two instances of the fourth wall breaking. One is where Roy Castle's character runs past a poster for the movie, the other is with Max Adrian as a Doctor talking to the audience.
Ultimately the film doesn't make any sense - if all the passengers are dead from the start, then their "future" stories mean nothing, as they all have no future. Also, look out for the awful trailer, which goes one better than a similarly poor one for later entry Asylum, in that it features the final shot as part of its footage.
The Amicus anthology series, then. Nine films, three or four of which were, frankly, below par, and another two or three which were just... okay. Less than a handful were genuinely good, and none of them particularly changed the world or had great artistic merit. But most of them, even the bad ones, had a fun entertainment value and are ideal viewing for an evening if you're in the right mood. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is one of the least engaging, but must at least be credited as being the one that started it all.
The same can't really be said of this first entry, sadly. While still worthwhile and less overtly campy than most of the others, it's a fairly dull entry. The different elements making up the plot involve Alan Freeman being terrorised by killer plants and Roy Castle and Kenny Lynch in a West Indian voodoo cult. Both Castle and Lynch master the art of performing music without microphones, but their story doesn't really go anywhere, as does the opening werewolf segment.
Easily the best are the final two entries with Christopher Lee and Donald Sutherland, though even here we have to contend with a plastic hand (complete with close ups of the seal down the side) and a rubber vampire bat. Though, as stated, these vignettes are played as "straight", there are two instances of the fourth wall breaking. One is where Roy Castle's character runs past a poster for the movie, the other is with Max Adrian as a Doctor talking to the audience.
Ultimately the film doesn't make any sense - if all the passengers are dead from the start, then their "future" stories mean nothing, as they all have no future. Also, look out for the awful trailer, which goes one better than a similarly poor one for later entry Asylum, in that it features the final shot as part of its footage.
The Amicus anthology series, then. Nine films, three or four of which were, frankly, below par, and another two or three which were just... okay. Less than a handful were genuinely good, and none of them particularly changed the world or had great artistic merit. But most of them, even the bad ones, had a fun entertainment value and are ideal viewing for an evening if you're in the right mood. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is one of the least engaging, but must at least be credited as being the one that started it all.