Correction! The picture of Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky is actually Max Rosenberg and Paul Annett. I must be bad with faces, because I didn’t realize I had the wrong guy! My apologies, and there will be a correct picture in the next Amicus review.
Did you know that Rosenberg & Subotsky's first horror film was "The City of the Dead"? They produced it under the company they called Vulcan Films. This is the only film made under that company. It's also one of my favorite creepy horror flick
Hi Daniel. I don't think there are any movies in the world that I love more than the Amicus anthologies! My dear mother and I saw most of the 70s films in theaters when they were brand new. Even she loved them, and she didn't much like horror movies. I've been watching this one on TV since I was a boy. It's always looked rather cheap and drab, but wow the restoration is fantastic and the atmosphere of the movie vastly improved. Yes, the hand segment is my favorite with the werewolf second. Loved your video!
I was born in ‘72 and it seemed there was always one of these films on the tv late at night at weekends when I was 10 or 11. I can’t think of a genre of film that warms me up so with nostalgia than British portmanteau horror. Sounds like you had one cool mother!
I loved this one. It's always good to see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing side by side. I wish they would've done more with Cushing's character. They could've done a series with that character, with him meeting different people, him telling them their fortunes. Loving that Dracula shirt. Scars of Dracula is one of my favorites. Clove was a glutton for punishment.
Daniel you did it again. A video right up my alley. What I love about the Amicus anthologies is there is so many great ones. I have seen fans list their favorite and there is never 1 film that is listed over an other. Except for Torture Garden all the others could be individual favorites at one time. Asylum, Beyond the Grave and House that drip blood could be individual fans top choice. Personally, I know I often change my mind on my favorite. Love this video and your last few videos really are up my alley. Thank u sir
Loved watching all the Amicus Anthology Movies as a child......as well as other classics like The Beast Must Die and The Monster Club "Monsters Rule Okay...."
If I'm not mistaken , the 'Voodoo ' segment also served as a Boris Karloff / 'Thriller ' episode . In the earlier version John Ireland played the ill-fated musician that made the unfortunate mistake of popularizing sacred voodoo music after being warned not to.
This was the first Amicus anthology I saw back as a kid, and it blew me a way at the time. Others have sense supplanted it as a favorite and I haven't seen it in quite a while, but it will always hold a special place for introducing me to classic British horror. I can't wait to see the rest of this series. 🙂
I'm positive VinSyn knocked this one out of the park and I hope they do Asylum and Tales From the Crypt. This one, however, I find pretty weak overall. The anthology horror genre is a deep well though! Good stuff.
I'm so psyched that you're going to Amicus anthologies! I watched all of them a few years back and really enjoyed them. Also, I just want to say it's great to find a horror movie channel that's dedicated to classic horror, which is my favorite. So many of the other horror movie channels out there don't seem to cover films any older than SCREAM. Happy to be a subscriber!
My favourite Amicus anthology is probably ‘Vault of Horror’. For me Amicus can be a mixed bag. Some I really dig and some are a slog and then some have hidden gems. Will have to give this one a watch!
I think 'Vault of Horror' is the most underrated one, most people have it low on their list but I think it's definitely Top 3. Equally I find 'Asylum' a bit overrated, it has a fantastic wraparound but the stories are not the best.
I love these movies! Was thinking of writing a book in this style. I'm definitely not ready for a novel yet. LOL. However a book of three or four novellettes with a wrap around story might be right up my alley.
Good review. I find it odd when many people rate this one near the top of their list when I think the stories are clearly fairly weak overall. I have this one and 'Torture Garden' as the bottom two.
Vampires being spirits is semi-folklore correct. There's "recorded cases of true vampires" from the past that involve vampires attacking people even after the vampire had been dispatched because it was done incorrectly. (Basically, they forgot to scatter the ashes or even burn the body and the ghost of the vampire started attacking and killing people via their dreams.) One vampire story from Serbia involves a yellow butterfly flying out of a newly slain vampire's mouth and into the mouth of another who instantly turned into a vampire herself.
"Vampire" is my favorite segment. I remember the ending from when I saw this as a kid. The segment with the vine is my second favorite. "But if they should ever overcome their fear of fire." Cut to: the vine using a newspaper to put out the fire. Yikes!
I definitely got Twilight Zone vibes from Roy Castle's segment. It brings to mind the episode, "The Jungle." Spoilers ahead for the "Werewolf" segment... In the "Werewolf" segment, the architect was none other than the previous owner of the home. This is a key plot point since it is the only reason why the widow summoned him at all. The renovations were a complete ruse. He knew Valda, the female servant and her uncle well. Her death alone would have been enough motivation to take up arms. He was also raised from birth on the family lore which is why he so easily accepted the existence of werewolves. Selling the ancestral home and moving to the city may have distanced him from those beliefs. It all came rushing back once tales handed down for centuries appeared to have been confirmed. I do enjoy your reviews and the material is right up my spooky alley. Thanks!
I grew up watching these on tv as a kid in the 80’s. Love them and that old spooky nostalgia. I’d go.. Werewolf - 6. Creeping Vine - 6. Voodoo - 6. Disembodied Hand - 9. Vampire - 7. Wraparound - 10.
Yes! Disembodied hand is by far the best. Vampire is second place. Cushing and Lee are outstanding. The first three stories are weak. To me, Asylum is the best Amicus anthology film, with House That Dripped Blood in second place.
House is my favorite. The framing device and stories are excellent, and even the vampire story, silly as it may be, is entirely worthwhile due to the presence of Ingrid Pitt and Jon Pertwee.
His accent is supposed to be German, and it may not be entirely authentic but it’s certainly entertaining! This is one of the better portmanteau horrors, definitely my favourite one from Amicus, mainly because of the excellent cast and the outstanding segment with Christopher Lee and Michael Gough, and the super fun voodoo segment with Roy Castle and Kenny Lynch, which help make up for the comparatively weak vampire, werewolf, and killer plant segments. It definitely owes a huge debt to its predecessor Dead of Night, which remains my pick for the best portmanteau horror film ever made and has the most effective and most successfully integrated wraparound story of them all.
I saw Dr. Terror's House of Horrors in the theatre when first released in 1965. I enjoyed it very much. While I didn't remember most cast except Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Roy Castle. I had seen Roy Castle on 'The Garry Moore Show" in the early 60's and I think he may have guested on 'The Carol Burnett Show' in the late 60's, early 70's. I hadn't rememberd Donald Sutherland in the cast and was suprpised to find that out here, as the only other really early film I had seen him in was "Die, Die My Darling' also1965 with Stephanie Powers and Tallulah Bankhead. Guess I have not seen Dr. Terror since 1965! Thanks for this review. It was quite informative and nostalgic.
This film was good. I was only bored during one of the stories-Creeping Vine; otherwise, this is a fun collection of shorts. Voodoo was my husband's favorite segment. Disembodied Hand was hands down (lol) my favorite. Peter Cushing was such a creepy presence though, and I loved Christopher Lee playing the skeptic/critic.
Oh wow, you’re right! He looked close enough to Subotsky that I didn’t even realize I had the wrong picture. My mistake, and thank you for the correction.
The guy showing Christopher Lee the panting is Michael Gough, he was Alfred in the Tim Burton Batman films, and in Batman Forever, and Batman and Robin.
Im a new subscriber here from Vermont. I just happened to stumble across your channel and absolutely LOVE it!! Ive been binging your videos and looking forward to new ones. Not to mention you're pretty easy on the eyes. Keep up the great work!!
The Amicus anthology movies definitely improved in the seventies, Had to start somewhere but the likes of this and Torture Garden were toned down a lot for a younger PG type audience.
I've always loved anthology horror movies, and Amicus made the best. I don't know if you're aware that the studio has recently been revived and their first new anthology movie is currently in pre-production. Maybe sometime next year you'll review "In The Grip Of Terror"?
The endings to the segments are ambiguous because they are what could happen to them. The only way to escape their possible fates is death. Of course we know that the doctor is death and they are already dead. One might even imagine that the stories end at the time of the train wreck. Just musing… ❤️ from 🇨🇦
Poor Alan Freeman. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing were such great actors. Even when they had a bad script, they could make the best of it. Freeman, not being an actor at all, then being juxtaposed with those two.. He didn't have a chance.
I recently watched this one. Disembodied hand is the best one! I do like Werewolf, although it does end abruptly. Vampire had too many inconsistencies to work well. I don't want to spoil things, but too many issues to make the twist work. Voodoo did have a lame ending, felt unsatisfying, but it was decent overall. Creeping Vine was just not very good at all. It doesn't work for me for many reasons.
No,many folklore interpretations state, when a corpse rises as a vampire it isn’t the person but a demon that possessed the person during life that stalks the earth. This individual is in hell.
The chimpanzee painter thing was a real prank that had been pulled on art critics the previous year so it would have a real ripped from the headlines vibe at the time. Although in real life it was a Swedish journalist not an embittered artist pulling the prank and the critic publicly stuck by his (hilarious) opinion. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Brassau Also if you're a 70s-90s kid from the UK you'd know Roy Castle from his tv show Record Breakers which was more or less what you'd expect with Castle himself setting the world record for speed tapdancing. It's weird seeing him act in films.
