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the audience applauded

A lot of fun.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A cheating husband (John Ericson) gets caught in a rainstorm. He's invited into a mortuary to dry off. While there the mortuary owner shows him four bodies and explains their stories. One is a teacher who hates her students. She's killed by a bunch of deformed kids. The second is a guy who films all his dates with women. Trouble is he kills them all too. Third is about two competing detectives trying to solve who sent a threatening letter. Last is about an obnoxious executive who is mentally and physically tortured. it sounds better than it plays.Boring, VERY PG rated (next to no violence or blood), and full of bad acting. The stories are dull and the total lack of any violence at all makes it sleep-inducing. The wrap around story is kind of interesting but it's a small part of the movie. You can easily skip this one.

An adulterous businessman gets lost in the rain and a mortician gives him shelter in his funeral parlour, who shows the man some of the corpses being embalmed on the premises. Each one has a tale about how they met their untimely demises: a school teacher who hates children is frightened to death; a predatory photographer who kills his unwitting subjects on-camera is eventually caught and executed; a self-inflated criminologist meets his British rival and in trying to out-do each other, discovers his nemesis is prepared to kill to be the best; and finally a selfish office worker is lured and held captive by an unseen assailant for an extremely long time but soon dies after he is inexplicably suddenly released. The man is told they all were victims of their own errant ways. When he asks about a final empty coffin, the mortician replies it is for him!The individual stories and the main framing story are written in a very comic-book or pulp-novel way. The second one about the photographer is probably the worst one but is fortunately brief enough not to be a problem. Despite some really awful music, ropey acting, and what appears to be lighting supervised by a blind man, this collection of shorts is fairly well directed enough to be entertaining. I am confused with the movie's original title of 'Alien Zone' - there are no aliens at all in it! Clearly they were actually going for something like 'The Twilight Zone' and were meaning 'Alien' in a more literal sense, as in "unknown" rather than "being from outer-space"! Even still, it's not such a great title; 'House Of The Dead' makes more sense.

Throughout the mid 60s and early 70s Amicus Productions churned out a series of wonderful little horror anthologies. TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972) is my all-time favorite horror anthology! Watching THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, definitely took me back to my "horror roots." It is included in the 50 Movie Pack, Chilling Classics, DVD collection.I enjoyed all of the stories, although none of the plots were very compelling. I enjoyed the acting, even though none of the performances really stood out; and, some were quite over-the-top. I even enjoyed the locations and settings. The score was fine, if forgettable, except for the one annoying song in the last story.Amicus really defined the horror anthology form for me. But, this was a good effort by an American production company and director. It was a lot of fun to watch while traveling. As such, I gave it a very high rating, even more than it deserved."A" for effort, on this one.

"A man in town for a convention gets lost while trying to return to his hotel room, after seeing a woman, and ends up being taken in by a mortician to wait out a storm. To pass the time, the mortician shows the man four recently deceased people and begins to tell him how each person ended up as an occupant of one of his coffins," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.John Ericson (as Talmudge) is the man who finds refuge with mortician Ivor Francis, during the rainstorm. Mr. Francis' four stories aren't as enthralling as his characterization is appealing. Bernard Fox (as McDowal) is featured in the, passable, third story. Mr. Fox was, perhaps, most memorable the delightful witch doctor first called upon by "Samantha Stevens" on "Bewitched"; but, even "Dr. Bombay" can't save this plodding film. Charles Aidman (as Toliver) banters well with Fox."Alien Zone" was appropriately re-titled "House of the Dead". Steve March, vocalizing the theme song "The Sound of Goodbye", sounds a little like his famous father.