Multi-Story Horror.
For as long as I can remember I have had a huge love for horror compendium films. There is just something wonderfully entertaining about a movie that is split into four or five creepy short stories. The oldest one that I am aware of is the brilliant ‘Dead of Night’ from 1945.
However, the golden age of horror anthologies was in the 1970s. Hammer and Amicus studios seemed to be making a never-ending stream of films. Each of them was a bunch of stories held together by a single common thread. Sometimes the tales would be told by the characters from their memories or each story might be linked to a certain house.
There was just something very special about the movies from this time. Who cares if each of the films had the same old actors? When you were casting people like Christopher Lee, Donald Pleasance, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing and Jon Pertwee you could easily get away with it.
Much of the inspiration for these Amicus/Hammer productions came directly from the controversial EC comics of the 1950s. Several of them were even named after the banned titles such as; ‘Tales from the Crypt’ and ‘Vault of Horror’. This was an idea that was re-explored in 1982 by Stephen King and George. A. Romero when they created, ‘Creepshow’. Since then, ‘Tales from the Crypt’ has reappeared in several different formats on television.
If I were to list my absolute favourites from the creepy portmanteau movies I have seen then it would have to be, ‘The House That Dripped Blood’ and ‘The Monster Club’. These are both much underrated movies and it is rare to see them even mentioned.
We are long overdue for another good compendium horror. The few attempts at this genre over recent years have not been particularly good. I am sure that if someone made a half-decent one then it would still prove to be very popular.