Vault of Horror (1973) Directed by Roy Ward Baker

After watching From Beyond the Grave just the other day, I thought I would return to Amicus for another omnibus Wednesday evening.

***

The men must address their fate.

Five immoral men (Tom Baker is really the only man among them who has a reason for using murder, but even then, using violence will only bring he himself into ruination) find themselves in a high rise room after getting off an elevator which took them there, seemingly deliberately. Once inside, the elevator has not buttons in the room to go back in, so the five men sit around a table, drinking brandy, and discussing very real dreams each of them have been haunted by. But are they a dream or much more?

The first tale concerns a monstrous Daniel Massey looking to murder off his sister (real life sister, Anna) in order to collect an inheritance. The town she lives, however, contains bloodsuckers. Daniel strangles some guy who finds Anna from behind with a scarf, allowing us to see the kind of cold blooded killer he is. His visit to a restaurant with a peculiar menu will soon include: him!

The second tale has a control nut  with an obsession for organization marrying a woman who is anything but neat or ordered. As Terry Thomas continues to complain, bitch, gripe, and assert his demands for "everything in its proper place" to an exhausted Glynis Johns who tries, bless her heart, to humor the guy, to no avail. As he pushes and pushes, it results in a mental break...unfortunate for Thomas this happens in his tool room where a hammer is handy! This is probably a fantasy for folks who find OCD people intolerable. That said, Johns' appearance in this seems to be a pretty big deal to those at Amicus. Thomas is insufferable but funny. There's a gag with jars and body parts, particularly teeth, that is a macabre piece of black comedy. Poor Johns going through a domino effect of disorderly disaster is a hoot.

The third tale has a sociopathic magician and his wife securing a "rope trick" through the use of a machete to the back of a young woman who is tricked into performing the magic (through the use of music to command the rope from a basket as if it were a snake) in their room away from onlookers. What they don't anticipate is the rope's secret turning on them. This is my least favorite of the tales due to the rope whipping Curd Jürgens when he tries to flee his room as it is on the attack. It just looks silly, and the slow motion makes the effect even worse. Curd would go on to play a villain in The Spy Who Loved Me, one of Moore's best films as James Bond. The rope being able to stand straight up is carefully done not to expose the obvious string holding it in place.

The fourth tale has an author plotting to fake his own death to secure the profits from insurance, but his friend isn't quite so keen on rescuing him from his coffin! And the author (Michael Craig) isn't an innocent...he planned to murder his friend after he is dug up out from the ground of his grave. The twist regarding two anatomy students and a cemetery caretaker helps this rather hum drum tale achieve a satisfying conclusion.

The final tale is my favorite due to its ingenious use of voodoo and art together as a weapon. A portrait artist learns while on a retreat in Haiti from a friend he knows from London that his agent, an art critic, and art seller worked together to swindle him of profits made off his work. Through a purposeful treachery (talking down the relevance of the art to the artist while making a killing off his work without his knowledge as he was in refuge from the city which had him disenchanted by fraudulent criticism), the trio achieved a great deal, but when the artist (Tom Baker of Doctor Who fame) returns, he has a bone to pick with them. "Buying voodoo" from a Haitian practitioner, the artist now has a "poisoned brush" he'll use to get even. This one has Denholm Elliot (who was in the first excellent tale in The House That Dripped Blood) as the agent, joining Terence Alexander and John Witty in laughing at Baker who threatens them when they freely admit to suckering him. The use of the painted brush and how the canvas, if damaged (or the art itself), can execute those portraited really is what I think sells this tale as effective. Hands come off, a gun is turned on a victim who plans to shoot Baker, and acid in the eyes are fiendish ways the despoiled canvas of those assaulted by Baker's artist are quick, ghoulish "horror spotfests".

The Neat Job, second tale in the anthology

Drawn and Quartered, the final tale in the anthology

Midnight Mess, the tale opening the anthology

An artist and his vengeful, dangerous talent put to use

This neat freak has an anxious moment when his marriage disrupts his order

Fresh blood always tastes best to vampires. "Good year"

Sister shows devious brother that she's not so easy to get rid of

This Trick'll Kill You, the third tale in the anthology

Artist destroyed by his art. Irony, I think not.

The secret is in the rope.

Everything's soon to be in its place.

Bargain in Death, the fourth tale in the omnibus

Finishing touches.

The secret just consumed the magician's wife!

Magician will use violent methods in order to attain a secret

Be careful what you wish for...

It doesn't pay to swindle your client in the voodoo themed Drawn and Quartered

Buried alive, a theme that resonates in horror

Each *dream* makes up a tale in this anthology, with the finale showing the elevator open and a graveyard awaiting. This is rather predictable. You know that these men are bearing witness to their demise, sharing the details which led to each one. Because the men each plot or carry out murder, their fates are justified and deserved. So we are allowed to sit in judgment if we want because they are such slime.

I think Vault of Horror is easily the weakest of the Amicus anthology movies. I don't think a single tale is a knockout, with most okay to mediocre. There is a sense of justifiable destruction visited upon each man for their sins. Missing a lynchpin (a guide to lead each man on their journey through how they wound up in the current place) that ties the tales together in a wraparound hurts this one, I think. Amicus would bounce back with From Beyond the Grave after this rather disappointing effort from the studio. Good cast does what it can. Each actor gives his character a real lecherous quality that makes them quite worthy of your repulsion.