As familiar as I am with the HBO series Tales from the Crypt, I guess it’s sort of surprising I never saw the Amicus film of the same name. At long last, this embarrassing shortcoming has been remedied. And, as is so often the case, it’s something I should have done a long, long time ago.
Of course Joan Collins plays a murderous wife.
Like the television show I can likely blame for all my bad taste, the film is based on EC Comics. The setting here is a little different, to say the least. The Crypt Keeper isn’t a screeching skeleton spouting off bad puns (which, just to be clear, I love) but instead a monk in a robe. Five unlucky folks have ended up in a cave and he’s recounting to each of them how they died, and why the ended up there.
He who dares send mean-spirited Valentines to Peter Cushing won’t make it to heaven…
Among them is a plotting wife (Joan Collins), a cheating husband, a snobby kid, a greedy businessman and a selfish Major. And, as you can guess, they all get theirs in the end, and with blood so red it rivals Herschell Gordon Lewis’s films. With each story under 15 minutes, there’s no time to get bored. Not that you would; everything is well-paced and so damn stylish. I can’t wait to watch more like this.
If you want to survive you must pass through the razor blade wall!
Schlock Wave 
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