CLASSIC BRITISH HORROR REVIEW - DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965)

** This comment contains spoilers**

Five strangers share a compartment on board an evening express train and are shown the future with Tarot cards by a sinister eccentric who introduces himself as Dr Shreck (Peter Cushing).

Werewolf: An architect called Jim Dawson (Neil McCallam) returns to his ancestral home in the Hebrides to discuss structural changes with the new owner, the wealthy widow Diedre Biddulph (Ursula Howels), who turns out to be a revenge seeking werewolf.

Creeping Vine: Civil servant Bill Rogers (Alan Freeman) returns home with his family from a holiday to discover a killer plant growing outside his house. After strangling a research chemist and the family dog, the plant grows to frightening proportions and traps the family in their home.

Voodoo: Jazz musician Biff Bailey (Roy Castle) steals a piece of music from the voodoo god, Dambala, whilst touring Haiti with his band. Despite warnings from his fellow band mates, Bailey goes ahead and incorporates the music into his act and on his return to London, Dambala seeks vengeance against the musician.

Disembodied Hand: A snobby art critic called Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee) is humiliated by artist Eric Landor (Michael Gough) at an art exhibition. Enraged, Marsh runs the artist down with his car and Landor has to have his hand amputated which means that he can no longer paint. Devastated, the artist commits suicide but the severed hand starts to torment Marsh wherever he goes and finally causes him to crash his car leaving the critic blind.

Vampire: A young American doctor called Bob Carroll (Donald Sutherland) returns to his home town with his beautiful bride, Nicole (Jennifer Jayne), whom he discovers is a vampire. He turns to his partner, Dr Blake (Max Adrian), for advice. Blake tells Bob that he must drive a wooden stake through her heart which he does. However, when the police arrive, Dr Blake refuses to back up the young doctor's story. As the police drag Carroll off to jail, Dr Blake transforms himself into a bat and flies off into the night - he is a vampire himself!

Dr Shreck turns the next card and it reads the same fate for all of them - death! The mysterious doctor disappears leaving only his Tarot cards behind. The five men realise that they have no future but death and expect their train to crash. However, the train suddenly pulls into a station. Thinking that they have arrived safely at their destination they alight from the train. But the evening breeze sends a newspaper flying down at their feet and it reads "Train Crash Leaves Five Dead". At that moment Dr Shreck reappears but now his face has taken the form of a skull, the five men realise that they have died and that their mysterious passenger was death himself!

Dr Terror's House Of Horrors was the first portmanteau horror film from Amicus, Hammer's only major rival horror film production company throughout the sixties. It is somewhat patchy because the Creeping Vine and Voodoo stories are poorly plotted, uninspired in their direction, lacking atmosphere and the standard of acting from non-actors such as DJ Alan "Fluff" Freeman and all round entertainer Roy Castle is only barely serviceable. Werewolf is admirably atmospheric whilst Disembodied Hand is a fun variation of The Beast With Five Fingers with Lee on good form as the pompous art critic who gets more than he bargained for and Gough is noteworthy as the ill fated artist. Vampire features a good performance from Donald Sutherland here making his first English language film and would subsequently go on to be a superstar with roles in The Dirty Dozen and Mash. There is a good joke at the end of this one where Max Adrian's Dr Blake turns to the camera at the climax after he has sent Sutherland to jail and says "This town was not big enough for two vampires and two doctors" before turning himself into a bat and flying off into the night. Director Freddie Francis displays his visual flair especially with the linking story and the climax is genuinely creepy gothic stuff with Cushing outstanding as the quietly sinister Dr Shreck, the dealer in death.

Overall, whilst the film is of a varying standard, it is good fun throughout and serves as a useful reminder of a generation of filmmaking that has long since gone and looks set never to return. But I would have preferred it if the stories had been a little tighter and without the Voodoo and Creeping Vine ones that slow the project down and distract from the stronger tales in the package. Such was the success of this film that Amicus went on to produce several more portmanteau horror films including Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Asylum and Tales From The Crypt (1972).