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Undescribable Perfection

A Disappointing Continuation

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

As in any anthology in any genre, every viewer will have his/her own favorites. For me, the weakest (and most predictable) story is the first, while the outstanding one is the last, with Tom Baker (cleverest touch: Baker suffocates along with his self-portrait, which is locked up in a vault!). The common recurring theme is evil and/or corrupt people getting their just desserts by means either natural or supernatural, but there is sufficient diversity in the neatly plotted stories, and the ending succeeds in bringing it all together. The all-star cast helps. **1/2 out of 4.

Horror anthology film by Amicus. A follow-up of sorts to Tales From the Crypt as it, like that film, takes its stories from the great EC horror comics from the 1950s. The film starts with five strangers entering an elevator and being taken to an empty sub-basement room, despite the buttons they pushed. While they wait to find out what's happening, they tell one another about their strange dreams.First story is "Midnight Mess," about a man (Daniel Massey) murdering his sister (Anna Massey) for her inheritance. Afterwards he finds himself in a strange restaurant where all of the patrons are vampires. It's cool to see Raymond Massey's kids acting opposite one another. This is a somewhat amusing story, but nothing exceptional. Second story is "The Neat Job." A newlywed wife (Glynis Johns) gets fed up with her neat-freak husband (Terry-Thomas) and his constant nagging. Johns is a treat to watch, as always. But again, an unexceptional story.Next story is "This Trick'll Kill You," about a magician and his wife (Curd Jurgens, Dawn Addams) who go to India in search of new tricks and wind up murdering someone. Not bad story with some halfway decent effects. Fourth story is "Bargain in Death." A man (Michael Craig) fakes his own death for insurance money. But things don't go as planned when his accomplice (Edward Judd) double-crosses him. Probably my least favorite story. No real tension to speak of and the payoff is predictable.Final story is "Drawn and Quartered," about an artist (Tom Baker) living in Haiti who seeks voodoo power to take revenge upon those who cheated him. The best (and longest) segment in the film. The story is interesting and Baker is terrific. After the final story, the five strangers realize where they are and why. If you saw Tales from the Crypt (and really, even if you haven't), this ending will come as no surprise. Overall, it's an OK anthology film but a step down from Tales from the Crypt.

I recently saw this film for the third time! Each time I enjoyed it! It had a good cast of stars in it, even though it didn't have Peter Cushing in it like all the other Amicus Anthologies! I liked all the stories except the second one because the woman in it was so annoying! Many fans of this film say the forth story was the weakest but it was pretty good, even though confusing! It was at less better than the second story! The first, third, and most of all last were, to me, very good! I also like what I didn't here and see in this film! Although made in 1973, when most horror films were adding "adult" material into their scripts, "Vault of Horror" (as with all Amicus Anthology movies) had no gutter language, blasphemies, nudity or sex in it! It also had a good moral theme to it that says we must take account of the evil deeds we commit sooner or later(as does "Tales From the Crypt)! I rank this film perhaps number 3 to "Tales From The Crypt" and "Asylem" as my favorite of Amicus films!

An interesting horror anthology, with a more original approach than other similar movies."Midnight Mess" is a slightly odd story with a fun vampiric twist."The Neat Job" sticks out from all five for the simple reason that it doesn't have an evil protagonist who snuffs it, hence the only real flaw TVOH has. Terry-Thomas gets killed by his wife, his only "sin" having been that he occasionally lost his temper when she misplaced things around the house or wasn't neat enough. That's hardly a reason to throw him in the same egg-basket with the other four guys.An (un)intentionally amusing bit was when Terry-Thomas's "young wife" shows up. None other than Glynis Johns! Aged 50 anno 1973. Terry-Thomas was 62 years old, i.e. not exactly a large age difference (especially in movie la-la-land), thereby certainly not a case of a dirty-old-man plucking an innocent dyevochka straight from her crib. It's bizarre that we were set up for a young, trophy wife (or something of that nature, after all it's his friend's daughter he's married), but then we get this woman way past her youthful days. My question to the producers/writers: did you do this as a gag, or did you actually believe Johns, cute as she was even at that age, could possibly pass off as "young Eleanor"? Goofier yet, she is referred to as "young" by a man nearly half her age, and this is done without a speck of sarcasm."This Trick'll Kill You": Curt Jurgens, an evil magician, kills in order to get a magic Indian rope. Solid story, somewhat unusual."Bargain In Death" is a more straight-forward story of insurance fraud, with one predictable twist and one that is less predictable."Drawn & Quartered" is yet another voodoo tale, but fun. The inclusion of this story is somewhat puzzling. The artist does murder three people, but he does it out of revenge. No reasonably-minded intelligent down-to-Earth non-pacifist could possibly blame him for taking out those three guys, hence why the artist doesn't quite belong to the same "category of evil" as the narrators of the 1st, 3rd, and 4th stories.The "we're all dead and in Hell" end-twist isn't particularly original, as it's been done at least once, in a similar vein in "Dr.Terror's House of Horror" for one thing, but it neatly wraps up the movie. Well, "neatly" would be the word if it weren't for the obvious fact that the narrator of story 2, Terry-Thomas, wasn't a wicked murderer at all, and that narrator no.5 only acted out of (very justifiable) revenge, not greed. Don't three people who deliberately destroy the livelihood of one man (story 5) deserve to die? Not according to Christian and Marxist hypocrites they don't. Those left-wing film-makers and their twisted sense of morality, won't they ever stop with their claptrap.