Tales from the Crypt (1972)

 Chances are, you know the 'Tales from the Crypt'-series with the zombie cryptkeeper, you know: the desiccated corpse that always makes puns? 

This predates that by a stretch.

But still, the setup is pretty much the same: a bunch of strangers get lost whilst visiting a crypt (go figure) and meet up with a mysterious hooded figure, who shows them things, most horrid things. So yes, this is one of those anthology-films, this time with five short stories, each of them entertaining as all heck. 

Not to put a finer point on it, but all these people are complete douches and yes: they are in actual fact already dead. They just get shown how they meet their demise and it is well deserved every time. 

Even though all tales are a lot of fun, one stands out thanks to the excellent performance by Peter Cushing. In this segment, Cushing is an old garbage collector, who is a real nice man and fixes toys for the children in the neighbourhood. Yet, his snobby neighbours want him gone, because his presence devalues the worth of their property. So they set up various nefarious plots in order to get him to move. They take away his dogs, they poison the minds of the people so they keep their kids away from him and to add insult to injury, send him horrid Valentine's Day cards, thus driving him to commit suicide. But one year later, he comes back from the grave to exact a most deserved revenge. 

The reason this one works, is because Peter Cushing is so gripping in his role, as apparently he had lost his wife in real life and so the grief you see is pretty darn real. Mr Cushing also was a great actor and it is so gutwrenching to see him undergo all the abuse the stuck up neighbours put him through. 

The most creative end is probably the residents of a home for the blind, who teach their new superintendent a valuable lesson about humanity. I won't give away too much, just know that the bastard's dog is involved, but not in a way you would expect. 

The film does show its age, especially in the design department (that living room from the first segment!), but it remains a lot of fun and you can tell those involved had a lot of fun filming. Except maybe Joan Collins, but it's hard to tell, seeing as the woman only has one facial expression anyway. Honestly, she's like Steven Seagal before that was a thing. But the cinematography is great, the stories engaging and fast-paced and you are waiting with anticipation to see how the horrible people will get their comeuppance. 

Unabashed horror fun? Why, yes please!