IMDb RATING
6.5/10
6.5K
YOUR RATING
An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building.An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building.An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building.
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
Curd Jürgens
- Sebastian (segment "This Trick'll Kill You")
- (as Curt Jurgens)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDespite the film's title, none of the stories showcased appeared in the EC comic "The Vault of Horror." The story "The Neat Job" originally appeared in "Shock SuspenStories," and each other story originally appeared in "Tales from the Crypt."
- Goofs(at around 57 mins) The first thing seen in the voodoo hut is a mask obviously meant to be of Haitian origin, though it's actually of Pacific Northwestern Native American origin.
- Quotes
Waiter (segment 1 "Midnight Mess"): Good evening. The table d'hôte is rather nice, sir. Juice, soup, roast, sweet, coffee.
Rogers (segment 1 "Midnight Mess"): That'll be fine!
- Alternate versionsThe original UK version, also originally shown in US theaters with an R rating, differs from the version used for the Nostalgia Merchant videotape and pay-TV showings as follows:
- Tale 1: Full-motion scene of Daniel Massey hung upside down with a tap in his neck, shuddering as the waiter pours glasses of blood and hands them out. In the cut version, entire section replaced by a still frame of same.
- Tale 2: After Glynis Johns hits Terry-Thomas on the head with a hammer, blood spurts out, and he falls backward out of frame. The cut version becomes a still frame when the hammer makes contact with the head. The ending shows four shelves of her husband's body parts neatly preserved in jars, including one labeled "Odds and Ends." The cut version shows only the first two shelves.
- Tale 5: When the publisher gets his hands chopped off by the paper cutter, the camera dollies in as he continues screaming, holding out his bleeding stumps.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987)
Featured review
An uneven anthology of EC horror comics stories from Amicus, this time directed by Roy Ward Baker who had worked on 'The Avengers' and was responsible for some of the best Hammer movies ('Quatermass And The Pit', 'The Vampire Lovers', 'Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde'). Baker had already made 'Asylum' for Amicus the previous year. It was a similar anthology, only based on stories by Robert Bloch. 'The Vault Of Horror' has an even better cast of actors than 'Asylum', but is slightly less enjoyable for me. Maybe it's because there's five stories instead of four, and is therefore a bit rushed in places, but a lot of it has to do with the uncertainty of the tone. Gruesome black comedy is easy to pull off in a comic book, but not so easy in a movie. Well, not in this movie anyway. It's starts off strangely, almost like a Bunuel film. Five strangers (Donald Massey, Terry-Thomas, Curt Jurgens, Michael Craig, Tom Baker) enter a lift which unexpectedly takes them down to a basement. They get out and see a table waiting for them, so they sit and begin to recount nightmares that haunt them. Massey's involves looking for his missing sister, Terry-Thomas plays a newly married neat freak, Jurgens a magician looking for new ideas in India, Craig a man with an ingenious insurance scam and Baker a painter who uses voodoo to punish his enemies. All the stories have their moments but the final one starring Tom Baker (just before he became Dr Who #4) is the most effective. The film is full of well known faces in supporting roles including Denholm Elliot, Glynis Johns, Edward Judd, and even a surprise appearance from Robin Nedwell and Geoffrey Davies from the "Doctor" TV shows, playing yes, medical students. I can't honestly say that 'The Vault Of Horror' is all that good, but I enjoyed it for the most part, and if you approach it not expecting all that much you should have some fun.
- How long is The Vault of Horror?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Vault of Horror
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
