It's Movie time!!!! 7 - No one remembers the original premise.

As I've been playing a lot of "Prison Architect" recently, it's become a necessity to have something on in the background while I wait for money to build up and/or for the inmates to kill each other.

                                                           (1977 Theatrical poster)

An embarrased looking Christopher Lee stars alongside an equally embarrased looking Robert Vaughn (although arguably Vaughns role is less embarrasing) in this B-move romp about an alien invasion.
The people of the planet Alpha, situated in the constellation Orion arrive in our solar system and begin abducting people to perform experiments on. The abductees are then returned to Earth, but as the Alpha people (who call themselves the Legion of the winged serpent) are powerful telepaths, the abductees have been implanted with a post hypnotic suggestion to commit suicide shortly after their return.
Professor Duncan (Vaughn) is a UFO researcher who takes an interest in the sudden spike in UFO sightings and abductions, and believes an invasion is coming, and he is right!.
The aliens leader Ramses (Lee) explains that their secret mission is to find a new homeworld for their people, as their solar systems star is about to go nova.
Earth suits the aliens needs, however as it is already occupied by humans, the Intergalactic league of races, represented mostly by large headed aliens originating from Zeta Reticuli, will oppose them, so Ramses must deal with them before he can put his evil plot to make all humans commit suicide, via the use of a telepathic dommsday weapon, into action.

Despite this film being obviously filmed on a low budget, it somehow manages to be enjoyable in a "I turned off my brain" sort of way. I quite liked the way the story included various bits and pieces from UFOlogy and stories from alledged abductees.



Overall - 7/10

                                                 (Theatrical poster for 1962 English dub)

 In the year 1985, glorious Communist revolution taken over world!, and with petty things such as capitalism put firmly in the past, mankind works toward make benefit for glorious planet Earth!.
During a project to irrigate the Gobi desert, an alien artifact is found, which proves that the Tunguska event was actually the result of an alien spacecraft crashing on Earth.
The worlds leading scentists find that the artifact contains some sort of message, and originated from the planet Venus, so, the scientists embark on a mission into space on the spaceship "Kosmostrator" to make contact with the Venusians in the hopes of establishing a peaceful relationship.....however, they get a bit more than they bargained for....

This film was made in East Germany in 1960, and thus the original version contains much more communist related material than the english dub does, however the film itself is a very interesting one, albeit somewhat scientifically inacurrate and fantastical.
Even amongst all this communism and speculative fiction, the films main message is an anti war one, told via a simple "fantastic adventure" type storyline. 

Overall - 7/10

                                                               (2014 Theatrical poster)

David is a film archivist who finds that his wife is having an affair, his initial reaction is one of anger but he seemingly refrains from carrying out his violent urges and returns home to his son Billy.
In the course of his work he finds out that the house he lives in was connected with some unsolved murders for 100 years ago. When his wife doesnt return hime, he calls the police, and, sure enough, her body is later found at the bottom of the local canal.
Overwrought with grief, he embarks on a series of erratic behaviours, including claiming to have seen ghosts in the house and at the canal, and blames his wifes death on the haunting.
The question is, was it ghosts who killed his wife?, or is he insane?

Yeah, this isn't a half bad film, albeit a little slow paced, and figuring out what has actually happenned keeps you guessing right to the end. 

Overall - 7/10

                                                               (1996 Video release)

This failed TV pilot takes place in some unspecified future time where the Earth has become so overpopulated that the human race has began reaching out into space and colonising planets.
Several years before the film begins, one of the first colonies, Cynosura, declared its independance from Earth and began its own aggressive expansion (we are helped to realise that the Cynosurans are definitely the baddies because they dress in black uniforms and behave like nazis, whereas the good guys generally wear white or blue uniforms).
The story introduces us to a group of six eager space cadets, who are assigned to the Democratic Republic of Earth corvette "Surprise" for their training cruise. The cadets are drilled by a tough veteran space captain and his equally tough executive officer, however when they begin what they think is a training exersize in the Maraz system, they find themselves under attack by a Cynsuran attack fleet, which has been sent to exterminate the colony on Maraz so they can claim the planet for themselves.
The Captain and the XO are killed in the battle, and it is left up to the cadets ingenuity to defeat the bad guys and save the colony.

I can see why this TV pilot failed, as it borrows a hell of a lot from other sci-fi shows of the time, and has a lot of mid 90s cliches. the special effects are of poor quality for the time, and the acting is terrible, with the good guys being whiter than white saintly figures and the bad guys being little more than comic book villains.
The series itself, had it been picked up, could have gone on to be an interesting drama along the lines of something like "Space: Above and beyond", but only if it shed its "young adult" type of writing style, but alas, the pilot failed to impress, and the series never happenned. 

Overall - 5/10

Dodgy Sci-Fi double bill - Island of Terror & Night of the Big Heat

Being as I have suddenly found myself with some time on my hands, I decided to roll out some more B-movie related action (yay!).

This time round, its the turn of a couple of British made films which were made by the same company, Planet productions, released one year apart, 1966 and 1967 respectively, use the same director, and tell basically the same story, that story being "a remote community comes under attack by some strange and horrible creatures".



Island of Terror (1966)

The remote Petrie Island is home to a small community of people of Irish/Scottish heritage, and also a secret biological testing laboratory.
In the pre credits sequence, two scientists discuss the critical stage of an experiment they are working on, which appears to involve using radioactive materials to create mutant creatures. One of the scientists speaks out about the possible moral implications of what they are doing, but the other scientist points out that they could wake up tomorrow to find they have discovered a cure for cancer...

An unspecified amount of time later, a man stops to investigate a strange sound emanating from a small cave in some rocks. As he enters the small cave, he screams as he is attacked by an off screen creature.
The following day, the local bobby is sent out to look for the missing man, and he finds his corpse in the cave, albeit whats left of it, as the corpse seems to have no bone structure and, as the bobby describes it "it was all like jelly".

The local doctor, baffled by what he finds when he performs an autopsy on the jellified corpse, contacts noted pathologist Dr. Stanley (Peter Cushing), enquiring whether he has ever heard of any disease that destroys only the bones of a body, but does no damage to any of the organs or other soft tissues. Dr. Stanley has not heard of any such ailment, and intrigued, he sets off for Petrie Island to see for himself.

Eventually, Stanley and his group come across the secret laboratory, but find everyone there has been killed in the same manner as the local man, He deduces that whatever has happened on the island must have originated from the laboratory, but can find nothing within its walls that gives a definitive answer, aside from the jellified corpses all appear to have small fang like punctures on the skin, which indicates that some chemical or venom was introduced into the bodies which broke down the calcium in the bodies.

As it turns out, the lab experiments got out of hand, resulting in the creation of a new species of silicon based creatures that feed on calcium. Because of their unique make up, the creatures are difficult to kill by conventional means (the locals try axes, petrol bombs and bullets on the creatures to no effect).
Eventually, it is discovered that the creatures can be killed by having them ingest Strontium-90, a highly dangerous and potent radioactive material. The locals get hold of some Strontium from the lab and contaminate some cows with it, which the creatures, now named "Silicates" eat and die.

In the films epilogue, it shows that after the island was evacuated, investigation teams moved in, and some unspecified time later, a Japanese laboratory is attempting to replicate the work done to create the creatures...with the same inevitable result...


This isn't a bad story, albeit a cliche filled one with a completely predictable "Deus-ex" type ending.
The special effects used for the creatures are laughably low budget, with the creatures themselves simply being inflated rubber blobs with tinned spaghetti poured over them. In the odd scene where one of the creatures uses its tentacle, its obvious its just a piece of rubber pipe being wiggled about on a piece of string.
Despite the el cheapo special effects and cliche ridden story, "Island of Terror" is an enjoyable enough bit of film which doesn't ask too much of its viewing audience.


Night of the Big Heat (1967)

(Also released as "Island of the burning damned" and "Island of the burning doomed")

The remote Scottish island community of Fara is experiencing a massive heatwave..in winter!. As temperatures soar, the locals begin to notice some odd things happening, strange lights are seen in the sky, radio, telephones and TVs stop working and windows, bottles and cars start exploding in the heat.
The local innkeeper, Jeff (Patrick Allen) and his wife moved to the island recently, supposedly because his work as a novellist was being crippled by writers block, however in reality it was due to Jeff having a sexual relationship with a young woman named Angela, who has followed them.

A local man is found apparently having been burned to death, which on top of the unexplained deaths by burning of some of the local farm animals, arouses the curiosity of Dr. Hanson (Christopher Lee) a scientist with a penchant for unexplained phenomena.

As it turns out, the island is being used as a beach head for an alien invasion (hence the strange lights in the sky). The aliens themselves being composed of a highly resistant magma like substance which radiates an immense heat, which means any living thing they approach is consumed by fire.
Dr. Stone (Peter Cushing) attempts to travel to Faras coastal radar station to warn the mainland about the invasion, but is killed after his car overheats and he is cornered by one of the creatures.
Dr. Hanson deduces that the aliens are attracted by heat and light, so they contrive a plan to lure all of the aliens to the gravel pit by setting fire to some hay bales, and then blowing the gravel pit up and burying the creatures alive. In the mean time, the immense heat is driving people insane, and a local man attempts to rape Angela, which causes Jeff to reveal the true reason for their being there (and provides one of the films most hilarious unintentionally funny lines in the form of "don't you understand woman?, I wanted her, I wanted her body!", which when said in Patrick Allens, gruff, authoratative voice sounds ridiculous) 
Eventually the trap is sprung, however after the explosives have detonated, it turns out that the creatures were completely unaffected by being buried, and burrow their way back out, however, just as all hope is lost, a heavy rainstorm blows in from the sea, and the aliens, who depend on heat for survival, are all killed as the heavy rainfall cools them down and dissolves them.

This is an extremely silly film on many levels. Firstly the aliens who we are told come from a planet which is much hotter than Earth, decide to invade one of the coldest parts of the British Isles.
Secondly, the effects used to show the aliens are proper bargain basement, with the aliens being little more than plastic bubbles with a light inside them, however being as this film stars both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, as well as Patrick Allen, you can see they had to save a few bob somewhere.
Most of the films actual "story" comes from the interactions between the locals, especially so with Jeffs pseudo love triangle thing going off.

Again, this is a film which doesn't expect much from its audience, but provides something to watch in lieu of there being nothing else.

B-Movie Weekender (03-04 Jan 2015)

Well, no sooner has the new year started than the good old British climate decides that I wont be going anywhere or doing anything, so in order to make practical use of the available time, I decided to sit and watch some old fillums, like you do.

The criteria for this was simple, any film made between 1950 and 1970 which wasn't (at the time) considered to be a massive big budget blockbuster (although these rules are flexible in some cases, lol).

So, supplies for this grand undertaking in hand (mostly stuff left over from christmas), I sat back to relax and enjoy...

The Earth Dies Screaming
(Lippert Films - UK, 1965)

This film, although its run time of 62 minutes barely qualifies it as such, comes from a time when the film industry in the UK imposed a quota on cinemas requiring them to show "home grown" films as well as American made films, and thus was born the phenomenon of the "quota quickie" (this explains the short run time of the film when you think about it).
Anyways, starring no one I've ever heard of, this low budget bit of celluloid combines sci-fi with a bit of good old fashioned cold war paranoia to create an interesting enough invasion film.
Simply put, suddenly one day people in 1960s Britain are all killed in what appears to be some sort of gas attack, and a small group of survivors try to figure out what happened and who the mysterious spacesuit wearing men they keep seeing are up to.

A good film, even by modern standards, even though the special effects budget must have been less than a tenner.

Invaders from Mars
(20th Century Fox - USA, 1953)

Long considered (at least by me) to be one of the definitive B-Movies, "Invaders from Mars" treads the much worn path of films depicting alien invasion.
In a nutshell, a martian spacecraft lands in rural America and begins abducting people in order to sabotage American efforts to perfect and mass produce deep space rockets equipped with nuclear weapons. The only witness to this landing is a young boy who struggles to get anyone to believe his wild stories about aliens and people being mind controlled.

Another film which clearly reflects the time when it was made, theres lots of talk about the then new sciences of atomic fission and rocketry, as well as mention made of "if any nation dare attack us" etc etc.
This film enjoyed so much cult status that it was remade in 1986, albeit with a drastically altered storyline.

Quatermass And The Pit
(Pathe - UK, 1967)

A feature film version of the BBC serial of the same name (cut down into a 90 minute feature from a 3 hour long TV series) again, this film is an alien invasion flick, however this time round theres a twist...
The film tells the story of a failed attempt by martians to escape their dying planet 5 million years ago by genetically engineering various earthly ape men to have characteristics similar to them, however this plan ultimately failed and the martians all died out.
5 million years later, one of the martian space ships is found buried underground while works are carried out on one of Londons tube stations, setting in motion a series of events which could finally see the martians grand plan succeed.
The film, carrying on from the TV series, handles the subject matter in an intelligent way and refrains from using any of the traditional "alien monster" movie cliches, it even manages to make various commentaries on human society and behaviour.


The Day Of The Triffids
(Rank - UK, 1962)

An adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel by John Wyndham, which takes the basic story as presented in the book and takes extreme liberties with it.
In a nutshell, most of the worlds population is rendered blind by a mysterious meteor shower, leaving the few who can still see to try and survive in a post apocalyptic world where giant walking carnivorous plants stalk humans as prey.

The film takes way too many liberties with the source material, for example, the main character, Bill Masen, is unexplicably changed from being a British scientist who specialises in Triffids into an American merchant navy sailor, and for some reason, the makers of the film decided that for their adaptation, the Triffids themselves would be easilly killed by being brought into contact with salt water.

Its an enjoyable enough film, provided you dont measure it against the standard set by the original book, or even the much more faithful 1981 BBC TV serial.

Robinson Crusoe On Mars
(Paramount - USA, 1964)

The two man crew of "Mars Gravity Probe 1" are forced to abandon ship  in orbit around the planet Mars after a near collision with a meteor exhausts all of their fuel. Christopher "Kit" Draper USN manages to survive his crash landing but his partner "Mac", played by Adam West, does not, thus, Kit becomes the first man to set foot on Mars, and at the same time finds himself stranded there, with only the ships experiment monkey "Mona" for company. "Kit" finds that he is able to survive and eke out a meager existence on Mars, however while exploring he finds that Mars has had visitors before.
Soon enough, Mars receives more visitors, this time alien, and Kit, along with an escaped slave he calls "Friday", have to hide and await rescue.

An enjoyable, if somewhat silly, film that gives a bit of a new take on an old story.


This Island Earth
(Universal Pictures - USA, 1955)

A nuclear scientist is approached by a secretive organisation to assist them in their goal of putting an end to war by the peaceful use of atomic power, however not is all as it seems when it turns out the group is actually a front for aliens.

Again, this is another piece of classic sci-fi that is essential viewing. I cant find fault with this film at all, it tells a good story and has decent special effects.

The Thing From Another World
(RKO Pictures - USA 1951)

Based on the short story "Who Goes There?" this film tells the story of a group of scientists who find a crashed flying saucer at the north pole, but to their horror, they find that one of the crew has survived!.

Another must see film in the sci-fi genre that combines elements of a "locked room" type mystery with a "whodunnit" style story, and adds an alien invader to the mix to create an interesting story.


Village Of The Damned
(MGM - UK, 1960)

 Another film based on the works of John Wyndham, this time round its "The Midwich Cuckoos" that get the film treatment.
The fictional village of Midwich is suddenly struck down by a mysterious force that causes all life within 5 miles to become unconscious. Despite numerous attempts by the army to penetrate the invisible barrier, no one is able to step more then a few feet inside its boundary without fainting.
Without any explanation, after 3 hours, everyone recovers, leaving scientists to wonder what actually went off, a mystery which is further perplexing when it turns out that all women of child bearing age within the boundary have suddenly become pregnant.
This understandably causes problems, as some of the now pregnant women are known to be virgins, and some of them are married, so infidelity is suspected. Nevertheless, all of the women give birth on the same day 9 months later, however, right from the beginning, it becomes apparent that these are no ordinary children.

A really good film and typical of Wyndhams works, which is reproduced almost faithfully to the original book.
A sequel film "Children of the Damned" followed in 1964 and a remake which changed the location and some of the details came along in 1995.


Horror Express
(Indipendant production - UK/Spain, 1972)

 

Its 1906, and Professor Saxton (Christopher Lee) is traveling to Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Express. In the Trains freight car is the fossilised remains of an ape-man he found whilst exploring a cave system in Manchuria, a fossil which he hopes will provide the "missing link" and prove that the theory of evolution is correct once and for all. Unfortunately for him though, the fossil is far from dead, and just happens to harbour an evil force that has been on earth since prehistoric times, which then sets about killing people within the cramped confines of the train as it speeds through the desolate wasteland that is Siberia.

This film, although low budget and not made by any studio of any note, stars a surprising number of well known actors in the form of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Telly Savalas, not only that, but it manages to tell a decent story as well.




     

Amicus Horror Anthologies - The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

During the 60s and 70s, British film makers Amicus productions made a series of films containing several short horror stories, linked by a framing story.
Starring many big names (for the time), these low/medium budget films told several stories mainly concerning ghosts and the supernatural in a typically British way, and usually featured some sort of twist ending.

The third of these was "The House That Dripped Blood", released in 1971.

Framing Story
Detective Inspector Holloway (John Bennett ) of Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate the mysterious and sudden disappearance of popular actor Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee ). Initially visiting the house that Henderson was renting from a Mr. A.J Stoker , he finds the gates locked and barred, so he calls in and introduces himself at the local police station. Holloway resents being pulled away from more important duties to, as he puts it "chase around after temperamental film stars". 
Sergeant Martin, the local bobby who reported the disappearance, admits that although he filed the report as quickly as he could, he did leave out an important part, namely that this wasn't the first time that something had happened to people who had lived in that house. He hands Holloway a file containing reports of previous cases relating to Mr.Stokers mysterious house, and they begin to read together....

Story #1 - "Method For Murder"
Pulp novel writer Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott ) and his wife Alice rent the property from Mr. Stoker. Alice doesn't like the houses "olde worlde" atmosphere, but Charles loves it due to is extensive library containing many of his favourite classic horror novels, and the fact that he needs some peace and quiet to finish writing his new book (he is suffering from writers block due to the hustle and bustle of living in London).
His creative juices soon start flowing, and he begins writing a story centred around a character called "Dominic", who is a psychopathic murderer who escaped from an insane asylum and stalks the countryside looking for victims. He even presents his wife with a picture he has drawn of the character, saying he was inspired that very afternoon while staring out of the window.
Over the next few days, Charles works away feverishly on his book, becoming more and more obsessed with the character of Dominic, saying that he feels as though the character is actually a real person.
That night, as he takes a break from writing to smoke a cigarette, Charles sees what he believes is "Dominic" standing at the top of the stairs reflected in a mirror, but when he turns round, there is no one there. He pours himself a stiff drink but is startled by the sound of an evil laugh coming from upstairs, but when he checks on it, once again, no one is there. He returns to his study and sees that the picture he drew of "Dominic" has gone missing, and decides to call it a night after Alice comes home and startles him.
The drawing mysteriously reappears on his desk the next day, but as he watches the screwed up picture float away when he throws it in the nearby river, he is terrified to see a ghostly looking "Dominic" fish the paper out of the water while grinning at him evilly.
Clearly shaken up, he returns home and tells Alice what he has seen, but she tells him he is working too hard and should take a rest from writing, but Charles refuses and says he must get his book finished.
That night, while once again working late, he looks up and sees the ghostly form of "Dominic" staring at him through the window, he cries out in terror and flees the room, causing Alice to come and see what is wrong. He explains that "Dominic" is in his study, but when she enters the room, there is no one there, despite Charles insistence that he can still see him, firstly sat in his reclining chair, and then hiding in a dark corner. Alice once again implores him to take a break from writing, and tells him to go and see a doctor, he reluctantly agrees. The doctor/psychiatrist he sees doesn't offer much by way of help, except to tell him he needs to see him a few more times.
Charles once again gets writers block, and explains to Alice that the psychiatrist says that it appears that he is letting himself become too overtaken by the character of "Dominic", in many ways using the character to act out some of his own dark fantasies.
While Alice is in the kitchen, Charles wakes from a brief sleep to see "Dominic" seemingly strangling her, he rushes to her aid, but finds her alone and terrified of him. He asks what happened and she says that it was Charles who was strangling her. She calls for his psychiatrist to come and see him immediately, but the psychiatrist insists once again that "Dominic" is actually an extension of Charles darker side, who bears some hostility to his wife and the world around him, and like an actor that has become too immersed in a part, he is beginning to act out the role of "Dominic" for real.
Whilst attending another session at the psychiatrists offices, Charles explains that he finds it odd that despite writing about murders for years, that he should suddenly start to want to commit murder himself, when he doesn't get a response to his statement, Charles looks up and sees "Dominic" standing over the psychiatrists dead body, and he laughs maniacally as Charles screams in horror.
Alice paces around their home worriedly, when suddenly "Dominic" enters the room, instead of being terrified, she embraces him and asks if everything went according to plan. "Dominic" removes his mask and wig and says everything went fine, Alice says that with Charles out of the way, they can run away together and make a new life living off the money made from Charles's books. The phone rings and Alice is informed that Charles has been found dead, strangled, alongside the psychiatrist. Shocked, she asks "Dominic" what has happened, as the plan was for it to be made to look as though Charles had gone insane and killed the psychiatrist. "Richard", as she now calls him, says that he killed both of them because it felt "better that way", but Alice says that it was stupid because the police will now be looking for a killer, perhaps even "Richard" himself. "Richard" says he doesn't know anyone by that name, as he is called "Dominic", before he strangles Alice to death.....

Holloway closes the file and holds his head in his hands as Martin explains that they found Dominic/Richard stood over Alice's corpse, laughing like a loon. He adds that it is not the man that is at fault, but the house itself, as it has something wrong about it. Holloway dismisses the notion as being absurd, and says he wants facts, not fantasies. Martin proceeds to tell him the tale of a Mr. Grayson, another tenant of the house...

Story #2 - "Waxworks" 
Phillip Grayson (Peter Cushing ) is a former stockbroker who has retired to the country, and is now looking forward to a nice quiet life of leisure.Grayson is a lonely man, who although he never married, he is obsessed with a woman he knew in his youth, and spends a lot of time thinking about her.
One day while exploring the local town, he goes into a wax work museum, and is astonished to find that amongst the assorted poor quality exhibits, one of the wax figures resembles his lost love, seated in an alcove with the decapitated head of a man resting before her on a silver platter.
The proprietor of the establishment calls her "Salome", and explains that she has a strange effect on people who see her, causing them to see all sorts of strange things as they look at the figure. He goes on to explain that he modeled the waxwork on his dead wife, who was herself a murderess who was executed by the state for her crimes after she killed his best friend.Clearly shaken, Grayson leaves the museum, telling the owner he will not be wanting to return. Although he tries to stop himself from thinking about it, he secretly yearns to return there, just so he can stare at the image of his lost love, even in his dreams he ends up going there and finds that the figure instead has had its head replaced with a bare skull.
He is woken from his daydream by the sudden arrival of his friend Neville (Joss Ackland ) at the door.
It is revealed that in the past, Neville and Grayson had a falling out over the very same woman that Grayson spends so much time thinking about, but they forgive each other, realising that neither of them could have had her.
While Grayson shows Neville around the town, they end up in the wax museum at Neville's insistence, where he is shocked to see the wax image of the woman they both loved, and he quickly becomes enchanted by her. Neville leaves for home the next day, but both men find themselves drawn back to the wax museum, where Grayson finds Neville stood gazing at "Salome", but manages to tear himself away. Later, Neville once again turns up at Graysons house and apologises for his behaviour, and says that there is something evil about the place, Grayson agrees with him and offers Neville a room for the night, but Neville says he must leave.
The next day, Neville calls him and says that no matter how hard he tries, he cannot bring himself to leave, and that he needs to go back to the museum, Grayson tells him not to go and to wait for him at his hotel, but when he gets there, Nevilles room is deserted. Grayson rushes to the museum, and to his horror, he finds Nevilles severed head now resting on Salomes platter. The museums proprietor approaches Grayson with an axe, and tells him that it was he who killed his friend, and framed his wife for the murder so that he could embalm her body and keep her to himself forever, and that over the years he has had to deal with many would be suitors to her image. There is a brief struggle, but finally the axe wielding mad man corners Grayson...
A young man enters the museum, and once again the proprietor launches into his monologue about the figure of Salome being beautiful, except now it is Graysons head on her platter.....

Holloway is getting bored of hearing Martins fantastical tales, but once again Martin insists that there is something rotten about the house which does things to everyone who lives in it. Holloway asks if Henderson was the next person to live there, but Martin tells him there was one other before him, but he doesn't know the full details of what happened. Holloway decides to visit Mr. Stoker to find out what happened and to ask for the keys so he can look around the place himself.
Stoker insists that he did try and warn people about the house, and is surprised that the policeman hasn't figured it out yet, still, he tells him the story of Mr. Reid and his daughter....

Story #4 - "Sweets To The Sweet"
Mr. Stoker shows widower John Reid (Christopher Lee ) and his young daughter around the house, when Reid complains that it is cold, Stoker sets the log fire going, causing Reids daughter to flee in terror, he explains that his daughter is scared of fire. Reid asks his solicitor to hire a child minder who can look after and teach his daughter while he is away on business, which eventually results in him hiring Mrs. Norton, a widow and former teacher. Mrs. Norton notices that Reid is very cold and uncaring towards his child, and finds that he doesn't even allow her to play with toys, or behave as one would expect a child to behave, even denying her the opportunity to go to school or play with other children. The child, whose name is Jane, once again demonstrates that she is scared of the fire, but Mrs. Norton manages to talk her out of her irrational fear, after assuring herself that Reid is not abusing the girl by burning her.
Over the next few days, Jane proves to be a very bright little girl, and Mrs. Norton asks for permission to buy her some toys to play with, Reid agrees on the condition that the toys are educational.
Mrs. Norton arrives the next day bearing gifts, but Jane is most excited by the doll she is given. Reid enters and seizes the doll, throwing it on the fire in front of the child, he then lambasts Mrs. Norton for buying it her, saying she is forbidden from owning dolls. Mrs. Norton says that Reid blames Jane for his wife dying, but Reid counters by saying he was actually glad his wife is dead, and that Mrs. Norton would not understand his reasons for being cold to the child.
That night, Jane sneaks out of her bedroom and goes into her fathers study, where she takes a large old book from one of the shelves and begins reading it. The next day, Mrs. Norton catches Jane reading from the book again and finds that the book itself is a volume containing information about witch craft and black magic.
She once again raises her concerns over the childs welfare with Mr. Reid, and accuses him of being scared of something, but just as he is about to answer, a power cut knocks out all the lights. Mr.Reid goes to get some candles, but finds they have all gone from the drawer where he kept them hidden, he goes to search for another stash of candles he keeps hidden, and finds that several are missing from the box. He notices Jane standing at the top of the stairs and angrily demands she tell him what she has done with them, but ends up slapping her face when she remains silent.
A phone call the next day sees Mr. Reid called away on business, but while he is talking, Jane collects a hand full of hair clippings from her fathers electric razor. As Reid conducts his business meeting, he suddenly collapses with violent chest pains, meanwhile back at home, Jane laughs childishly as she appears to be stabbing something with a hatpin, but is disturbed by Mrs. Norton insisting that she come with her for a walk as it is such a nice day, as they leave, Reids pain stops just as suddenly as it started.
Reid is woken in the middle of the night, once again struck down by chest pains, Mrs. Norton calls for a doctor in spite of Reid protests, but the doctor can find nothing wrong with him, putting it down to a simple case of indigestion.
Reid finally tells Mrs. Norton the truth, Jane, like her mother before her, is a witch, and she has made a wax doll in the image of her father, which she uses to torture him. Mrs. Norton doesn't believe him, but changes her mind as Reid begins screaming in agony again, and she turns round to see Jane clutching a crude wax image of her father. She tells Jane to hand over the doll, but Jane instead throws it on the fire, as the figure melts, Reid screams in agony, while Jane just grins.

Stoker tells Holloway that once again, it wasn't the mans fault, it was the house, but Holloway tells him he only deals in fact, not fiction, and demands to know the details of Paul Hendersons arrangement with him. Stoker says he tried to dissuade Henderson from renting the property, but as he insisted on having it, he let him rent it....

Story #4 "The Cloak"
Paul Henderson (Pertwee) is an actor who has a reputation for being somewhat temperamental and rude, seeing himself as being a great actor despite the fact that he has only really ever starred in a series of low budget, low quality films. His latest gig is playing a vampire in a low budget vampire film, which although he believes is beneath him, he accepts the role anyway.
Arriving in grandiose style at Mr. Stokers house, later than he arranged to meet him originally, he and his co star Carla (Ingrid Pitt ) find the house adequate for his needs. Stoker tries to warn him about the houses peculiarities, but Henderson laughs it off, citing himself as being an "expert on the occult".
On set, Henderson lambasts the low budget nature of the film, right down to poor quality sets and costumes, even physically damaging the props while extolling the virtues of "classic" horror films. Henderson rejects his vampire costume, and says he will supply his own, and luckily while he is in his dressing room, he finds a card advertising a costume shop nearby, which he visits.
In the shop, he asks the owner, a sinister looking man named Von Hartmann, if he has a "real vampires cloak", and attempts to impress the man with his name and supposed knowledge of the occult, which fails miserably. Von Hartmann produces a lead casket containing a very old and authentic looking cloak, lined with blood red silk and sporting a fine silver bat shaped clasp, which he says he can buy there and then for the tiny sum of 13 shillings. Henderson pays up immediately, and Von Hartmann says it is lucky he came, as he is closing down the shop, Henderson bids him farewell and leaves, to which Von Hartmann says that he can now "rest in peace".
On set again, Henderson begins to notice a few odd things happening whenever he puts the cloak on, for example he always feels a sudden chill when he wears it, and notices that he no longer has a reflection in the mirror, but, ever the professional, he wears the cloak while doing his scenes.
While filming a scene with Carla, it ends with the vampire biting his female victim, and, much to Carlas alarm, Henderson actually bites her, and he is given a warning from the director not to get too carried away with the role.
That night, he tries an experiment while standing in front of a mirror, he once again puts on the cloak, and notices his reflection has vanished, then, as the clock strikes midnight, he undergoes a horrifying transformation, he grows a pair of fangs, , his skin goes an ashen grey, and suddenly he finds himself floating above the ground, he quickly crashes back to the ground and takes off the cloak, hiding it in the cupboard under the stairs.
On the next shooting day, he apologises to Carla for his indiscretion, and is relieved to learn that none of the scenes they are doing that day involve him having to wear the cursed cloak.
Carla comes round for dinner, and while pouring drinks for them both, he notices that there is a newspaper story about Von Hartmann, whose body was found in his burnt out shop, apparently having been dead for years.
Henderson explains to Carla that Von Hartmann must have been a vampire, and the cloak caused him to become a vampire himself, so he says he is going to burn it, Carla tells him he is being stupid, and convinces him to wear the cloak to prove it has no power over him. He puts the cloak on just as the clock strikes midnight, and is relieved that nothing happens to him, but then notices that the cloak he is wearing isn't his, and Carla reveals she has the original one, and puts it on. Henderson tries to stop her, but she carries on regardless.
She reveals that the vampires loved his films so much, that they wanted him to become one of them forever, and she suddenly sports a pair of fangs and flies menacingly towards him, transforming into a bat as she draws nearer, Henderson screams in terror......

Holloway dismisses the tale as crazy nonsense, and demands Stoker hand over the keys to the house so he can have a poke around himself, but Stoker strongly advises against him going there alone, but Holloway insists, so Stoker hands them over.
By the time he gets to the house and lets himself in, it is dark, and because the house has no electricity connected to it due to it being vacant, he has to light a candle to see with while he walks around. Inside, the house is the same as it was while Henderson was living there. Finding nothing of interest upstairs, he descends to the cellar, where he finds a door chained and padlocked. He breaks open the lock and enters the chamber beyond, becoming startled when the door slams shut behind him, but he notices a new coffin in there with him. As the clock strikes midnight, the coffin opens, and Henderson, now a full fledged vampire, leaps out and attacks him. Holloway manages to stab Henderson through the heart with a broken piece of wood, which causes the vampire to fade away, leaving only the cloak behind, but then Holloway is attacked by Carla in bat form. With no way to escape the crypt, Holloway screams....

The next morning, Stoker stands outside the house. He turns to the audience and asks if we now understand that the house reflects the personality of the person or persons in it, and treats them accordingly. He says he hopes it finds a good tenant soon, and perhaps one of us would like it, because there is nothing to be afraid of, if you're the right kind of person......

Amicus Horror Anthologies - Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1964)

During the 60s and 70s, British film makers Amicus productions made a series of films containing several short horror stories, linked by a framing story.
Starring many big names (for the time), these low/medium budget films told several stories mainly concerning ghosts and the supernatural in a typically British way, and usually featured some sort of twist ending.

The first of these was "Dr Terror's House of Horrors", released in 1964.

Framing story
Five men (Neil McCallum , Alan "Fluff" Freeman , Roy Castle , Christopher Lee  and Donald Sutherland ) are sharing a train coach together when they are joined by the mysterious "Dr. Shreck" (Peter Cushing), who over the course of polite conversation reveals that by using his deck of Tarot cards,which he refers to as "the house of horrors", he can divine each mans fate, and possibly show him how to escape it. Initially disbelieving his claims, especially Mr. Marsh (Lee), Shreck tells them all they have to do is tap the deck 3 times, shuffle it and then the first 4 cards they draw will tell the story, while the fifth card will tell them what they need to do in order to escape it. The men agree to give it a try, simply to pass the time on their long journey....

Story #1 - "The Werewolf"
Jim Dawson (McCallum) is a Scottish architect now living in London. He accepts a job to renovate his old ancestral home, which he sold a a Mrs. Biddulph, who intends to use the house as a museum to her late husbands life and achievements.
Dawson approaches the task with some gusto, as he believes he will be paid handsomely for the job, but while he is looking the place over, he finds a coffin hidden behind a fake wall in the cellar, which contains the body of the late Count Cosimo Vandemar, an old enemy of the Dawson family whom he blamed for swindling out of his house. Legend has it that Count Vandemar swore revenge on the Dawson family and would return as a werewolf to exact revenge on the family until they and anyone who owned the house were dead.
That night, the housekeeper is killed after she tries to warn Dawson that something is amiss, and Dawson decides that the werewolf has indeed returned to kill both him and Mrs. Biddulph. He melts down an ancient silver cross used by his ancestor to kill Count Cosimo and makes silver bullets out of it, as they are the only thing that can kill a werewolf. That night, the werewolf attacks them and Dawson manages to shoot the werewolf six times, but yet it doesn't die.
Mrs Biddulph reveals that she swapped his silver bullets for normal ones, and that in fact she is the wife of Count Cosimo, and has been kept alive for centuries thanks to his black magic. She also reveals that she had lured Dawson to the house so that the werewolf could kill him and complete his revenge against the Dawson family, Dawson screams as the werewolf once again appears and attacks him....

Back in the train carriage, Shreck draws the fifth card from his deck, revealing it to be "Death". He quickly hides the card and asks if anyone else would like to have their fate divined.....

Story #2 - "The Creeping Vine" 
Bill Rogers (Freeman) returns from a holiday with his family to find that a strange ugly vine has sprouted in his garden. He attempts to cut it down but finds that every time he does so, the vine seemingly responds violently, on one occasion even physically knocking the shears out of his hands.
He informs some of his scientist friends who work for the Ministry of Defense about the strange plant, and they hypothesise that maybe the vine is some sort of new breed of plant that has learned to defend itself from any attempt to eradicate it, and that such a plant could, in theory, be very dangerous to mankind if it was allowed to grow uncontrolled.
Rogers manages to get a sample of the plant to examine under a microscope, and finds that each cell of the plant contains a tiny brain, meaning that the plant is actually a highly intelligent form of life. As he makes this discovery, the vine kills the family dog, who was at the time digging up the plants roots.
Rogers decides action must be taken, but as he has just finished calling the MoD scientists to come and help him get rid of the plant, a vine snakes in through an open window and strangles him. His friends arrive and find themselves trapped in the house as the vine spreads to cover the doors and windows, but one of the scientists finds that the plant, like most forms of life on Earth, is scared of fire, so he vows to go get help as he rushes out to his car carrying a burning newspaper, leaving the others trapped inside with the vine slowly surrounding them....

Back in the carriage, Rogers looks shocked, and once again when Shreck draws the fifth card, it is revealed to the audience to be "Death", but he quickly hides it and moves on to the next man....

Story #3 - "VooDoo"
Biff Bailey (Castle) is a down on his luck leader of a jazz quintet, who cant believe his luck when their agent offers them a well paying gig in the West Indies.
Two weeks later and the band have arrived to begin their new job. As they sit and have a drink with the outgoing band leader, Bailey makes a rude comment about a piece of jewellry worn by one of the waitresses which shows an ugly golden face. He is given a friendly warning by the other band leader that most of the locals are practitioners of VooDoo magic, and that after dark he should stay in his hotel room and not interfere, or even pass any comment about the VooDoo religion or its patron god, "Damballa".
Bailey completely ignores this warning and goes out after dark to investigate the sound of drums he can hear coming from the woods, where he stumbles across a VooDoo ceremony in progress. He becomes aware of the catchy beat used by the drummers, and decides to write down the music as he hears it, unaware that he has been surrounded by a group of angry looking natives, who take him prisoner and bring him before the high priest.
The priest asks him what he was doing, and Bailey replies that he was listening to the music and wanted to know if he could use it in one of his songs, to which the priest tells him that if he dares to steal the sacred music then Damballa will exact a terrible revenge.
Several weeks later Bailey and his band return to London and Bailey insists on using the VooDoo music as part of  his bands set, which results in the club being trashed by powerful gusts of wind. When he returns home, the wind again causes the doors and windows in his living room to slam closed, and the power cuts off. While Bailey is fiddling with the lamp, the high priest suddenly appears and scare Bailey to death, then leaves, taking the music sheets with him.

Once again, when Shreck turns over the fifth card, it is revealed to be "Death", but this time he admits that everyones fifth card thus far has been the same. Marsh (Lee) loudly dismisses Shreck as a charlatan and a con man, so Shreck offers him the deck....

Story #4 - "The Disembodied Hand"
Franklyn Marsh (Lee) is a pompous and arrogant art critic who has a particular loathing for an artist named "Eric Landor". One night while appraising some works in an art gallery for his newspaper, Marsh is challenged by Landor to appraise his latest work (an avant-garde piece which bears some resemblance to a rorshach ink blot test), which Marsh immediately denounces as being "crude and unimaginative". Landors assistant brings in a canvas and states that it is the work of a new and upcoming young artist and would Mr. Marsh give them his opinion of it, to which he agrees. Marsh looks at the painting(which contains nothing but a few childish smears of coloured poster paint) and declares that the artist is a genius, showing creativity and imagination in an interesting fashion. Landors assistant asks if Marsh would like to meet the artist, and he says he would be delighted to, but then everyone, including Landor, has a good laugh at his expense as the artist turns out to be a chimpanzee.
Over the next few weeks Landor continues to embarrass and humiliate Marsh by turning up at events at which Marsh is delivering speeches and distracting him by pulling stupid faces and holding up paper cutouts of monkeys, so much so that Marsh decides to silence him once and for all.
As Landor leaves his gallery one night and crosses the street, Marsh hits him with his car, which causes Landor to lose his right hand. No longer able to paint, Landor commits suicide not long after.
Marsh reads about Landors death in the news, and seemingly feels guilty, however things take a more sinister turn as Marsh begins to be stalked everywhere by Landors severed right hand, which resists all attempts to destroy or contain it. Eventually, as Marsh is driving home, the hand attacks him in his car, causing him to have a crash. As he is loaded into the back of an ambulance, the doctor remarks that although Marsh will live, he is now totally blind..Marsh screams in horror...

Back aboard the train, Marsh once again dismisses Shreck as a fraud, and says that no doubt he will expect them to give him money at some point, but he soon goes silent when Shreck once again reveals that the fifth card is "Death".
He then offers the deck to the final man, Dr. Carroll (Sutherland)

Story #5 - "The Vampire"
Dr. Bob Carroll (Sutherland) returns to his home in New England from travelling in Europe with his beautiful new French wife Nicole.
Everything seems idyllic until one day a boy is brought into the clinic he works in seemingly suffering from unexplained blood loss, his collegue, Dr. Brookes says that it could be a simple case of anemia, but Carroll disagrees and says it looks like the boy was bitten on the neck and the blood drained out of him.
Brookes suggests that maybe Carroll should keep an eye on his wife, as the boy only got ill after she had arrived in town, and that night, when Carroll is pretending to be asleep, he watches in horror as his wife turns into a vampire bat and flies out of the window.
He tells Brookes what he saw, and Brookes says that the only way he can put an end to the problem is to kill his wife by driving a stake through her heart, even handing Carroll a wooden stake as he talks. Carroll agrees to do the deed and that night when his wife returns after her nightly feed, he kills her.
The police come at his request and find his stories about vampires to be ridiculous, but when Dr. Brookes arrives he says that he will be vindicated, but Brookes denounces Carroll as a madman and the police take him away for murdering his wife. As the police car drives away, Brookes addresses the audience and says "This town isn't big enough for two doctors...or two vampires!" before himself turning into a vampire bat and flying away laughing...

Back on the train, the assembled men laugh at the story, until Carroll reveals that he indeed was on his way to meet a French girl called Nicole whom he intended to marry, and the men fall silent.
Now all terrified and fully believing in Shrecks fortune telling, Rogers angrilly demands that Shreck divine his own fortune, which he does, and reveals his fifth card is also "Death". Dawson panics and says that they are all going to be killed in a train crash, and moves to pull the communication cord until Marsh stops him by pointing out that that act on its own could cause a fatal accident. Shreck calmly says that death is certain for everyone, and that the only way that they can escape their fates is to die before they happen, to which the men angrilly demand to know who he is. The lights suddenly go out as the train enters a tunnel, and when they come back on, Shreck is gone, leaving behind only his tarot cards, with the "Death" card displayed on top.
Suddenly the train stops, and the men rejoice in the fact that their journey is at an end, and they all hurridley leave the train, stepping out on to a deserted platform. Startled, they also notice that the train has vanished, and then a piece of newspaper flutters down from the sky, bearing the headline "TRAIN CRASH - FIVE MEN KILLED". Marsh spots Dr. Shreck walking away from them and calls after him, but as he turns around, the men find themselves staring into the face of Death himself, and realise that they are in fact dead, and Death has come to claim their souls.