If you're looking for a horror movie that will make you laugh more than scream, look no further than Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. This 1965 British anthology film from Amicus Productions is a campy classic that features five stories of supernatural doom told by the mysterious Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing), whose name means "terror" in German.
The film begins with five men boarding a train in London and finding themselves sharing a carriage with Dr. Schreck, who claims to be able to read their futures using his tarot cards (which he calls his "House of Horrors"). He proceeds to reveal the destinies of each passenger, which involve werewolves, killer plants, voodoo drums, disembodied hands and vampires.
The stories are as follows:
- Werewolf: An architect (Neil McCallum) returns to his ancestral home in Scotland and discovers that it is haunted by a werewolf who was once his ancestor's enemy. He tries to kill the beast with silver bullets made from a family cross, but finds out that he has been duped by the new owner of the house (Ursula Howells), who is actually the werewolf's lover.
- Creeping Vine: A family (Alan Freeman, Ann Bell and Phoebe Nicholls) moves into a new house and notices that a strange vine is growing rapidly in their garden. They soon realize that the plant is sentient and hostile, and tries to kill them by cutting off their electricity, phone lines and gas supply.
- Voodoo: A jazz musician (Roy Castle) visits the West Indies and steals a voodoo tune from a local tribe. He returns to London and plays it with his band, unaware that he has invoked a curse that causes him to be stalked by an invisible drummer who wants revenge.
- Disembodied Hand: A snobbish art critic (Christopher Lee) insults and humiliates a painter (Michael Gough) who loses his hand in an accident caused by the critic's car. The painter commits suicide, but his severed hand comes back to life and seeks vengeance on the critic.
- Vampire: A young doctor (Donald Sutherland) marries a beautiful French woman (Jennifer Jayne) and moves with her to America. He soon suspects that she might be a vampire after noticing her aversion to garlic and mirrors. He consults another doctor (Max Adrian), who turns out to be her vampire master.
The film ends with a twist that reveals that Dr. Schreck is actually Death himself, and that all the passengers are already dead from a train crash. He tells them that they have just seen how they would have died if they had survived.
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is not exactly scary or realistic, but it is highly entertaining and amusing. The stories are full of cheesy special effects, over-the-top acting and hilarious dialogue. The film also boasts an impressive cast of horror icons such as Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Donald Sutherland.
If you're looking for some light-hearted horror fun with a touch of British humor, you can't go wrong with Dr. Terror's House of Horrors. It's one of those movies that are so bad they're good.
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