IMDb RATING
6.5/10
6.5K
YOUR RATING
An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building.An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building.An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building.
- Awards
- 1 nomination
Curd Jürgens
- Sebastian (segment "This Trick'll Kill You")
- (as Curt Jurgens)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDespite the film's title, none of the stories showcased appeared in the EC comic "The Vault of Horror." The story "The Neat Job" originally appeared in "Shock SuspenStories," and each other story originally appeared in "Tales from the Crypt."
- Goofs(at around 57 mins) The first thing seen in the voodoo hut is a mask obviously meant to be of Haitian origin, though it's actually of Pacific Northwestern Native American origin.
- Quotes
Waiter (segment 1 "Midnight Mess"): Good evening. The table d'hôte is rather nice, sir. Juice, soup, roast, sweet, coffee.
Rogers (segment 1 "Midnight Mess"): That'll be fine!
- Alternate versionsThe original UK version, also originally shown in US theaters with an R rating, differs from the version used for the Nostalgia Merchant videotape and pay-TV showings as follows:
- Tale 1: Full-motion scene of Daniel Massey hung upside down with a tap in his neck, shuddering as the waiter pours glasses of blood and hands them out. In the cut version, entire section replaced by a still frame of same.
- Tale 2: After Glynis Johns hits Terry-Thomas on the head with a hammer, blood spurts out, and he falls backward out of frame. The cut version becomes a still frame when the hammer makes contact with the head. The ending shows four shelves of her husband's body parts neatly preserved in jars, including one labeled "Odds and Ends." The cut version shows only the first two shelves.
- Tale 5: When the publisher gets his hands chopped off by the paper cutter, the camera dollies in as he continues screaming, holding out his bleeding stumps.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987)
Featured review
Since I first saw photos of it when I was a little kid, I wanted to see this early 1970s horror movie from the same British who brought us TALES OF THE CRYPT. When I was like 7 or 8 years old, I was a little chilled by the photo of the man hanging upside-down and a vampire has connected a tap-fawcet to the unfortunate bloke's neck! Sadly, this scene happens in VAULT OF HORROR (1973) exactly as it did in magazine oldies like FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and THE MONSTER TIMES: It's a still shot! That's right, a single photo of the fanged villain and his victim! It's done this way for dramatic effect and seems to work, but I had already seen the exact same thing in printed form!
However, this is not to say I was disapointed. This series of stories is very interesting, with intriguing characters throughout. The ending is predictable to anybody who's already seen TALES OF THE CRYPT, but there's a nifty gore seen earlier in the film where a guy's hands get chopped off. As is often the case with British horror, the emphasis is more on drama than sheer terror-- but it's all pretty entertaining.
However, this is not to say I was disapointed. This series of stories is very interesting, with intriguing characters throughout. The ending is predictable to anybody who's already seen TALES OF THE CRYPT, but there's a nifty gore seen earlier in the film where a guy's hands get chopped off. As is often the case with British horror, the emphasis is more on drama than sheer terror-- but it's all pretty entertaining.
- damonfoster
- Jan 14, 2003
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