Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Freddie Francis

Writer:

Milton Subotsky (writer)

Release Date:

28 February 1965 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Acclaimed as "THE FEAR OF THE YEAR"

Plot:

Five strangers board a train and are joined by a mysterious fortune teller who offers to read their Tarot cards...

Plot Keywords:

Wraparound Story | Tarot Card | Giant Plant | Revenge | Vampire

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Franklyn Marsh
Max Adrian	...	Dr. Blake
Ann Bell	...	Ann Rogers
Michael Gough	...	Eric Landor
Jennifer Jayne	...	Nicolle
Neil McCallum	...	Jim Dawson
Bernard Lee	...	Hopkins
Roy Castle	...	Biff Bailey
Peter Cushing	...	Dr. Sandor Schreck
Alan Freeman	...	Bill Rogers
Peter Madden	...	Caleb
Kenny Lynch	...	Sammy Coin
Jeremy Kemp	...	Drake
Donald Sutherland	...	Bob Carroll
Harold Lang	...	Shine

Also Known As:

The Blood Suckers
5 mellothanatoi, Oi (Greece) [el]
5 profiteies, Oi (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Cinque chiavi del terrore, Le (Italy) [it]
Gabinet grozy doktora zgrozy (Poland) [pl]
Kauhujen juna (Finland) [fi]
Taxeidi ton zontanon nekron, To (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Todeskarten des Dr. Schreck, Die (West Germany) [de]
Train des épouvantes, Le (France) [fr]

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 (1965) | Finland:(Banned) (1966) | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) (2004) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:Unrated | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Amicus Productions

Trivia:

'Tubby Hayes' was booked to write the score but did not write anything and so was replaced by Elisabeth Lutyens.

Goofs:

Plot holes: Franklyn Marsh does not touch the deck three times as is necessary according to Dr Terror around the beginning of the movie.

Quotes:

Dawson: Schreck? That's a German word isn't it? Means fear or horror.
Dr. Schreck: A more exact translation would be terror. An unfortunate misnomer for I am the mildest of men.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Christopher Lee/Meat Loaf (#3.15)" (1978)

Very atmospheric Amicus compendium

This was the first Amicus film and it's anthological style was to become their trademark.

It's a wonderfully atmospheric film, with the linking story and the subsequent tales mostly taking place in the dark.

Peter Cushing is brilliant; his portrayal of Dr. Shreck is perfectly judged in that he gives his character a mysterious aura without going "over-the-top".

The 1st story involving a werewolf is efficiently eerie. However, story 2 (killer vine) and story 3 (voodoo) are disappointingly silly, whilst story 5 about a vampire (with a baby-faced Donald Sutherland)is good and has a nice twist at the end.

The best story of the lot (by far) is Story 4 with Christopher Lee as a savage art critic and Michael Gough as a sensitive artist - watch out for the disembodied hand! This story is worth watching the film alone!

Freddie Francis battles against some cheap looking sets to maintain the film's eerieness throughout and essentially, it's a film I would recommend to anybody.

As would happen later, Amicus found it very difficult to put a decent linking story and four or five consistently effective tales together in one film. Never mind....