From Beyond the Grave

Amicus Horror Anthologies Part 4

Amicus Prooductions’ series of horror anthologies ended in 1974 with From Beyond the Grave. It went out on a solid, if unspectacular note.

The stories in From Beyond the Grave were adaptations of short stories by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes. Chetwynd-Hayes was a popular English author of horror and ghost stories and took over editorship of the important anthology series Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories from Robert Aickman.

The framing story stars Peter Cushing as a proprietor of the very familiar trope of a curiosity shoppe, wherein clues to visitor’s fates can be found. Each character steals or cheats Cushing in some way, which opens the door for their downfalls. Considering how terrible this justice turns out for most of them, it seems kind of petty.

Cushing’s character is a sinister version of Arthur Grimsdyke from Tales From the Crypt and, of course, he is delightful.

The first story, The Gatecrasher, features David Warner as a dilettante who purchases a mirror from Cushing. At a party, he and his guests conduct a seance, which unleashes the evil spirit locked within the mirror. It’s a close copy of ‘The Haunted Mirror’ from 1945’s Dead of Night, the film that inspired Amicus to begin its series of horror anthologies. It’s suitably creepy and Warner does a good job of showing a man disintegrating under the malign influence of the spirit in the mirror.

The second segment, An Act of Kindness, stars Ian Bannen as an unhappy office manager married to harpy (and former blonde bombshell) Diana Dors. He strikes up a friendship with a down on his luck veteran (Donald Pleasance) who is selling matches and shoelaces on a street corner. This leads to Bannen meeting and falling for his daughter (Angela Pleasance), with tragic results. It’s wonderfully weird and the Pleasance clan provides suitably weird characters.

From there, the movie sort of peters out. The third story, The Elemental, just never takes hold, and the last, The Door, is nearly a direct repeat of the first segment.

Fortunately, Cushing saves the day with a conclusion to the framing story that is short, sharp, and nasty. It’s sealed with him winking at the audience in farewell. That moment is the perfect ending to the series, as Cushing starred in all but one of them, and was often the one of the best things in each.

From Beyond the Grave was director Kevin Conner’s first directing job; he wisely carries forward Freddie Francis’ style of close ups, fish-eye shots, and colorful photography. He would go on to helm Amicus’ Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations starring Doug McClu;re (“You may remember me from such films as At the Earth’s Core and The People That Time Forgot”) and the cult classic Motel Hell.

So how did my re-watch of the series change my previous impressions? Sadly, my first Amicus movie, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, for which I carried a great deal of fondness, was disappointing. But Tales From the Crypt, which I had enjoyed on its initial release, turned out to be even better than I remembered. On balance, it was an enjoyable watch, with some wonderful high moments and a few snoozers. It was fun, which is something that a lot of modern horror movies seem to have forgotten how to deliver.

Here’s how I ranked the series:

1. Tales from the Crypt

2. Asylum

3. The House That Dripped Blood

4. From Beyond the Grave

5. Torture Garden

6. The Vault of Horror

7. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors

Here’s my ‘Best Of’ list:

• Best Framing Story

  • Asylum

• Best Framing Host

  • Burgess Meredith

• Best Episode

  • Poetic Justice, from Tales From the Crypt

• Runner-Up

  • Frozen Fear, from Asylum

• Most Valuable Actor

  • Peter Cushing

If you were going to try and replicate the formula of these movies today, I would recommend three things:

• Get someone who can ham it up and have fun as the ‘host.’ Nicholas Cage? William Dafoe?

• Adapt quality source material with nasty endings. How about some EC stories that weren’t adapted by the TV show?

• Hire as many good actors as you can

Since they are in the PG or PG-13 realm and contain minimal gore, they could also serve as ideal introductory movies for young horror fans.