Director Roy Ward Baker’s horror anthology is based on several tales by master storyteller Robert Bloch (Psycho 1960) When Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) a psychiatrist looking for employment arrives at the asylum for the criminally insane he doesn’t know quite what he’s stepping into. Patrick Magee plays Dr. Rutherford who gives him the odd assignment of figuring out which one of the patients is actually a former psychiatrist gone mad. Martin is sent to talk to four separate inmates who then relate their own personal bizarre experiences of the macabre and how they ultimately landed in the asylum. This is one of the best Amicus productions with a slew of fantastic actors to fill out the cast. It’s cheeky and eerie and most definitely a contender for some of the Hammer horror anthologies with its horrific shock value and campy dark humor. The cast includes: Peter Cushing in ‘The Weird Taylor’, Britt Ekland and Charlotte Rampling in ‘Lucy Comes to Stay’, and one of my favs Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls 1967) Richard Todd and Sylvia Syms in ‘Frozen Fear. The last segment is entitled ‘Manikins of Horror’ with Herbert Lom!

TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972)

Five people get lost in a crypt and meet up with a strange crypt keeper who tells them stories of how they died. Another Amicus anthology this time directed by Freddie Francis. Stars Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Ian Hendry, Patrick Magee, Nigel Patrick, Robert Hutton, and Ralph Richardson as The Crypt Keeper.

4 Down, just 146 to go!-MonsterGirl