Basement of Doom! (Vault Of Horror (DVD))

Member Name: byblox

Product:	Vault Of Horror (DVD)
Date:	10/08/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vastly entertaining 70's spookiness

Disadvantages: Dated ... but that's half the appeal

Vintage horror compilation.

Five strangers meet in an elevator in an office block in London. They find themselves taken to the basement level, although none of them appears to have pressed for that location. Once there, they discover a comfortable room set out as a private club, they find that the elevator door has closed behind them and they can't get out. After initial concern they settle down with some drinks and discuss their lifelike recurring nightmares, each one tells his story....

There are five stories, Midnight Mess, starring Anna Massey and some very unconvincing fangs. The Neat Job, starring Terry Thomas and a superbly hammy Glynis Johns. This trick'll kill you, about a magician scouring India for new ideas, Bargain in Death, a 'waking up in a coffin' story that gave me nightmares for years! and Drawn and Quartered starring Tom Baker as a gifted but underappreciated (or so he thinks) artist.

Hammy acting, clunky dialogue, fantastic 70's interiors, daftly entertaining horror, what's not to love? It would be hard for me to single out the best story as I enjoyed them all. It would be easy to think this was a Hammer production as it is very much in that vein, made in 1973 by Amicus, a short lived British studio that made the well known 'The house that dripped blood.' (1970)

The sort of film that comes on at 2am, it is for the fan of the genre only, anyone wanting a real horror fix should look elsewhere. As for me, I loved this and wish tha Amicus had made more for our entertainment.

Available only as a double dvd with Tales from the crypt as a US import on Amazon, I rented from Lovefilm. Cert 15.

Summary: Nightmares? I'll tell you about nightmares.........