A Blast From My Past

Tales From The Crypt (1972) -An anthology of short movies based on classic 1950s horror magazine stories. Five people find themselves trapped in a catacomb where the crypt keeper has stories to tell them.

Directed by Freddie Francis

Starring – Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Ralph Richardson

Why I Liked It – Good old-fashioned cheesy horror fun.

I first saw this movie as a freshman at college. The Student Union offered a wide range of movies for our amusement. This was long before the days of the internet, and even video cassettes were just beginning to take off. So, the student body had to gather to watch the only TV in the building, or to see movies. This process introduced me to everything from Ralph Bakshi (“Wizards”) to “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” (a movie that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch again). They’ve all stayed with me to one degree or another, but I had memories of this one, but couldn’t remember the title. When it popped up on one of my streaming services, I had to re-visit it!

It is every bit as a low budget, horror film cheesy as I remember. I admit the star actors in the cast surprised me. Peter Cushing pushed for the role of the grieving widower (as he himself was at that point), and took less than his usual salary to be in the movie. It was a bit of a “drive-by” job for Ralph Richardson as the Cryptkeeper. He did all of his scenes in a single day. Joan Collins (billed as “Joanne Collins”) was in her second decade as an actress at this point. She’d had success with 20th Century-Fox in the 1950s, then did mostly television for a decade before returning to England. She worked steadily and then hit the big time in the 1980s with her role in “Dynasty”. All that means that several of the core roles are handled capably.

There are two items that stuck with me through the years. One involves a death’s head faced motorcycle rider (still find that scene a bit chilling), and a wish to bring a loved one back from the dead. That scene changed my mind on the subject forever. A movie doesn’t need lots of effects or a big budget to have an impact. Yes, there are parts that will make a modern viewer roll their eyes, but my advice is to sit back and just enjoy the fun. There’s plenty of that here.

It would be difficult to go into each of the five stories without dropping spoilers, so I’ll just leave it at that. This is perfect fun, pretty much fit for most of the family. Little ones may find it a bit much.

You can find “Tales From the Crypt” on Roku, Plex, Tubi, Crackle, fuboTV, Xumo Play

Rating – *** Worth A Look