Tales from the Crypt – 1972
Director
Freddie Francis

Writers
Johnny Craig
Al Feldstein

Cast
Joan Collins
Peter Cushing
Roy Dotrice

Review by Wayne Malin

Dull,

Badly dated attempt to turn 5 1950s EC comic stories in a multi-part horror film linked by Ralph Richardson (!) as the Cryptkeeper (!!). All the stories worked well in comic-book form but just don’t come across in the movie.

The first story has a young Joan Collins dealing with a psycho Santa–it’s actually very scary and quite bloody. Things go downhill after the first one. The second is a boring, obvious story of a married man, his mistress and a car crash. The third features Peter Cushing as a kind old man tormented to death by neighbours but gets his revenge–this is VERY bloody. The fourth has a few good gory moments also–it’s a retelling of “The Monkey’s Paw”–sort of. The last has blind people taking revenge on an evil building owner–very dull.

So, the first one with Collins is good but the others are real snoozers. A very good cast wasted–although Richardson seems to be enjoying himself. A huge hit in 1972.