THIS was probably one of the most randomly picked movies to watch and that says something.
Hello, everyone and welcome back to another review post on Shots of Horror. Um, like I said at the top, this was probably the most randomly picked movie to check out on Wednesday cos I was in the mood to watch something but I didn’t know what that was. I was thinking of an anime (eventually I gotta finish Corpse Princess) especially horror but I couldn’t find anything YET. Countless scrolls and saving movies to watch later, I came across this one and was curious.
I was not aware this was a sequel to another movie I just watched in April (you can read the review HERE) until I did some research briefly (scrolled on Google for a hot second) and went OH!
I did not take notes though I did write down some things to talk about and I did give a mini short review on Letterboxd. So this review is a more expansion on what I said and I still stick by my rating for it.
Let’s talk about 1973’s The Vault of Horror, a British anthology based off the EC Comics and sequel to Tales from the Crypt.
So, like I said, being a sequel to Tales from the Crypt, this had a little bit more to prove to me. I did enjoy Tales and I gave it a 4 out of 5 and even though I had some problems with the movie, specifically the Cryptkeeper himself, I feel as though he was missed a bit here in this sequel. The entire time watching, I felt like something was missing and I think a big part of it was that outsider element of the Cryptkeeper. The movie just throws you into the basement (Wiki says Gentleman’s Club) of where the wraparound story will take place but I do miss the outsider voice being present in the form of the Cryptkeeper.
He doesn’t need to say MUCH but his presence was a bit missed. Even I, who wasn’t the biggest fan, saw that.
Another interesting tidbit I noticed, all the main antagonists (??) were men. And quite a bit of the segments were male characters against female characters in a not so safe way.
Speaking of the segments, here is how I would rate them:
BEST: This Trick’ll Kill You, Drawn and Quartered
OKAY: Midnight Mess, The Neat Job
LEAST: Bargain in Death
I think for the best, This Trick’ll Kill You had a different spin on the whole “disproving what’s real and fake” angle. And the practical effects were pretty good, I wasn’t thrown off by them unlike a later one. And Drawn and Quartered felt familiar (this story has been done many times) but I liked the struggling artist angle and the build up towards the end. Also, freaking TOM BAKER WAS IN THIS! I kept going, wow he looks familiar. Duh, he’s The Doctor. 
The OKAY segments, what held it back came down to practical effects and predictability. I said out loud as I watched The Neat Job, “ma’am, you should go on and kill him”. The script itself was quite predictable and played out like oh he’s going to get it, she’ll snap and be happy. I was correct! And Midnight Mess had a very interesting concept, especially the idea of a town emptying itself after dark because vampires came out but I wished there was MORE. More to the relationship of the brother and sister, the inherent jealousy and lack of emotion the brother had to his sister and the vampire fangs at the end took me out. They looked more like snakes’ fangs to me. And his comeuppance was too short for me, I wanted MORE.
And as for the least favorite, it was predictable! And two characters named Tom and Jerry?? The car sequence reminded me of the “Reflection of Death” story from the first film. And with an Easter egg nod to the first film in book form (in this segment), the movie concluded kind of “meh”.
Oooh everyone disappears into the graveyard after being in a mausoleum? Which is why I felt a Cryptkeeper like character was needed to direct or explain what was going on really.
I gave The Vault of Horror a 3 out of 5 stars. It was directed by Ray Ward Baker and starred Terry-Thomas, Dawn Addams, Denholm Elliott, Curd Jürgens, Tom Baker, Michael Craig, Terence Alexander, Glynis Johns, Mike Pratt, Robin Nedwell, Geoffrey Davies, Daniel Massey and Anna Massey.
Shots of Horror 