In the 1950s, comic books were largely seen as something for children with superheroes and war heroes dominating the pulpy pages on the drug store periodicals rack. However, there were a few books that pushed the boundaries of taste and were geared towards an older audience, with the younger folks speaking of them in hushed tones, trading editions from deep under their mattresses. Vault of Horror was one of these surreptitiously shared titles, and in 1973, it hit the big screen in a theatrical release that was too gruesome for US audiences.
If you’re not in the know, you might be thinking “Wait, a 50s horror anthology? Like Tales From the Crypt?” Yes, exactly like that. See, Vault of Horror is part of a trifecta of scary story anthologies from EC Comics, who specialized in horror, war, crime, and sci-fi anthology comics before going out of business when the comics code was implemented. Their horror catalog included Vault of Horror, The Haunt of Fear, and, surprise, Tales From the Crypt. In 1972 Tales From the Crypt got the movie treatment, so it made sense for one of the other EC titles to follow.
Fair warning, I will be hitting upon major plot points going forward, so if you have not yet seen this 52 year-old movie, there are spoilers ahead.
Starring Daniel Massey, Terry-Thomas, Curd Jürgens, Michael Craig, and a pre-Doctor Who Tom Baker, Vault of Horror is sometimes labeled as Tales From the Crypt 2 or with an added “Further Tales From the Crypt,” and rightly so. The majority of its stories are pulled from Tales and it follows the same formula as the 1972 Tales movie, albeit with a more black comedy approach. It follows five persons drawn together to tell a story wherein something terrible and often gruesome happens to them. Unlike Tales, however, Vault dispenses with the flimsy “crypt tour” premise as well as the Crypt/Vault Keeper character, and simply has the characters board an elevator one by one over the opening credits. It’s a simple and efficient way to bring the five main characters together as it gives no other context besides they’re all heading down to the first floor.
This simple premise gives way to the characters finding themselves mysteriously brought to the sub-basement, where a table is set up with libations. The characters find themselves trapped, but decide to enjoy a drink until someone finds them. Here they begin to tell each other of their “dreams,” which serve up the gruesome tales for the viewer to enjoy (or not, as some critics of the time would say).
The first “dream” finds Massey’s character meeting with a private investigator, whom he pays to find a woman. The P.I. is very good at his job, as he points out to Massey after taking payment and divulging the woman’s location. But I’d reckon he couldn’t have been THAT good at it, as Massey then proceeds to easily surprise and strangle the P.I. do death with a necktie. He then gets takes his money back, because, as we find out, he’s out for money as the woman he’s looking for is his sister (played by Massey’s real-life sister) who disappeared but inherited all their father’s money upon his recent passing. Massey’s sister lives in a small, strange town where, upon arriving, he’s warned to not stay out after dark. After being turned away from a restaurant because they are about to close, he then finds and murders his sister. The inheritance is his! He then leaves and sees the afore mentioned restaurant is now open, so he returns and finds it hopping. He’s quickly served and discovers the food tastes funny, then notices a mirror, and none of the other patrons have a reflection! Vampires! All of them! And the food, blood! Then his presumptively dead sister enters, and she’s one too! Now Massey is the main course as they hang him upside down and tap him like a keg, leading to a bit of that dark humor as he twitches when they turn the tap handle, handing out drinks from his neck to the patrons who all have comically long vampire fangs. I feel the size of their fangs has to be intentional, as they’re REALLY long.
The rest of the stories follow this same formula with varying degrees of humor and gore. The second “dream” finds Terry Thomas as an obsessive compulsive man who abuses his trophy wife for not keeping the house perfectly neat. Similar to the first vignette, this story ends with a bit of humor as the wife, after killing her husband with a hammer, dismembers him and organizes him in a series of neatly labelled jars, which the camera pans over to reveal a jar labelled “odds and ends,” which warranted a chuckle from this viewer.
Similar to Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror doesn’t incorporate a ton of effects besides simple makeup. However, the third “dream,” featuring a magician and his wife travelling through India in search of a new show-stopping magic act, utilizes some surprisingly well done practical effects. In this story, the magician, played by Curd Jürgens, kills a rope charmer and is attacked by her rope. The rope is animated by strings as it attacks Jürgens and his character’s wife. The puppeteering, combined with excellent editing, creates a scene that looks really well done, even by today’s standards.
As I’ve mentioned, Vault of Horror leans into the dark comedy more so than its predecessor. This is very apparent in the fourth “dream” which finds Michael Craig’s character, a writer of horror stories, enacting an insurance fraud scheme with an accomplice. At one point Craig comments on how there’s “no money in horror,” which I bet was a cheeky comment by the writers. He then sits down to read the novelization of the Tales From the Crypt film, with a cover that reads “Now a major motion picture!” We also get a few slapstick gags including the dopy undertaker constantly shoveling dirt on the cadaver-stealing med students, and those same med students’ comedic scare (complete with raised hair and sped-up retreat) when Craig pops out of his coffin to kill his accomplice. It’s a tonal shift in the film that is fun, sure, but doesn’t quite work overall, especially considering the previous story incorporated no comedic elements, and the next story, wherein Tom Baker’s struggling artist seeks revenge upon a trio of art-world snobs who cheated him, is devoid of humor as well.
In the same fashion as Tales From the Crypt, the film ends in a twist. But unlike Tales, I feel Vault’s twist conclusion is better executed. Both endings frame the collection of vignettes as a series of morality tales. However, Tales’ ending is somewhat heavy-handed with the religious aspect, heavily implying God judged them and sent them to hell. Instead, Vault has each of the men walk out into a newly revealed cemetery (because, as we find out, they were really in a mausoleum the whole time), each to disappear to their final resting place as the narrator explains the men are damned to relive their worst deeds every night for eternity, so what they thought were dreams were in fact their deaths. It’s a haunting ending that nicely caps the series of stories without hitting you over the head with a “be good or else” moral.
Ultimately, Vault of Horror is a decent movie. It’s not a great movie, but it’s not bad. Its relatively short length helps it not overstay its welcome. I wouldn’t say it’s one to show to somebody who isn’t a fan of horror, as they’ll likely find it hokey and boring. But for those who like the retro horror of Tales From the Crypt and Creepshow, this movie is a good watch. The acting isn’t the worst on screen (I mean, come on, it’s got Tom Baker) and the stories are fun little romps through the graveyard. Thankfully the movie is now only available in its original version and not the censored US version, which apparently removed the neck tapping scene (which completely ruins that whole story) as well as a few other bloody shots. So if you do decide to give it a watch (it’s readily available from Shout Factory on Blu-ray and is often on streaming, usually Amazon Prime) you’ll know you’re getting the full gory and campy version as the studio intended.