Customer Reviews
Don't go out at night! - By: DangermouseZilla, 27 Nov 2008 
Five men find themselves sat round a table talking about recurring nightmares - this is the way the film manages to shoehorn in 5 mini horror stories & link them together.
All the stories have their own merit & could perhaps form the basis of a very good extended version. But as shorts, some don't cut the mustard. The first one actuallly made me laugh (the vampire teeth are `so bad they're good'!). Apart from the last story (starring Tom Baker) the others don't reallly linger on the mind much after they've finished. The Tom Baker one was particularly gruesome, & thankfully not just in a gory way - although it is the goriest of the five.
In a nutshell: Fans of classic horror will not doubt love this. I'm not a massive horror fan though & I found it to be a bit too predictable. For me the main reasons for watching this were Terry Thomas & Tom Baker. Thomas is absolutely brilliant as the obsessive compulsive husband who drives his wife mad - it's such a departure from the cheery comedy characters I'm used to seeing him play. And as I've already said - Tom Baker's story provides the main horrorfest on this film. The others are thought provoking enough to be `okay' - but they didn't do much for me. The DVD picture & sound quality leaves much to be desired too, I know this was a low budget production - but I'm sure that more care could have been taken with the DVD transfer.
Five entertaining tales of horror and black comedy. - By: FAMOUS NAME, 19 Aug 2008 
A collection of tales where five men who committed evil during their lifetime spend an eternity re-telling their stories each night. Interesting stories, though two of them feature a little 'black comedy' thrown in for good measure!
Daniel & Anna Massey play side by side as brother & sister (as in real life of course) & they certainly seem to have enjoyed it! This movie has a galaxy of stars, including; Terry Alexander, Tom Baker, Michael Craig, Denholm Elliott, Glynis Johns & Terry-Thomas.
This has not been re-mastered.
Poor print but at least it's uncut unlike the American dvd release - By: Mr. D. New, 08 Sep 2007 
As the other reviewers of this film have said the print quality is awful & is full screen. Fox have just released a double disk containing this film & Tales From The Crypt. Both films are presented in 1.85 widescreen. However, before you throw your Vipco dvd away be warned the American dvd of Vault Of Horror is cut unlike the Vipco release. The scene is at the end of the first story Midnight Mess where the vampires drain Daniel Massey's neck like a beer tap. This scene just freeze frames in the American release but is intact in the Vipco dvd. How annoying is that! I should mention their print of Tales From The Crypt is totallly uncut. So you are left with the choice or either having a lovely widescreen print which is cut or a rather naff fullscreen print which is uncut. Talk about a no win situation.
A disappointing DVD release of an old favourite of mine - By: Jeremy W. Newbould, 14 Apr 2007 In the 1960s & 1970s Amicus were one of the main rivals of Hammer Studios, specialising in making horror films in the `Dead Of Night' portmanteau format.
One of my favourite Amicus movies has always been this one, mainly because of its superb alll-star cast. Like `Tales From The Crypt', made a year earlier, this film takes its inspiration from the old EC comics of the 1950s as well as from other Amicus productions such as `Dr Terrors House Of Horrors' & `The House That Dripped Blood'.
The set up is fairly simple: Five men congregate in an elevator but instead of stopping at each one's desired floor the elevator takes them down to a basement room where each man then tells the others their recurring nightmare...
The first story is callled Midnight Mess & stars real-life brother & sister Daniel & Anna Massey. A man callled Rogers tracks down his sister to a strange town & tells her that their father has died & that she will inherit everything. Unfortunately he then pulls out a switchblade knife & stabs her several times, thus ensuring that alll the money will go to him instead. To celebrate his impending wealth, the evil heir-sole then goes to a local restaurant but it is no ordinary restaurant...
The second story (The Neat Job) stars the late great Terry-Thomas as a man obsessed with neatness & tidiness. When he marries a clumsy & accident-prone lady it is inevitable that it is going to end in tragedy.
The third story (This Trick'll Kill You) stars future Bond villain Curt Jurgens as an unscrupulous magician who will go to any lengths to obtain new illusions for his latest act. Whilst in India he discovers a young lady with a magic rope that can be charmed like a snake & then climbed. When the girl refuses to sell the `trick' to him he kills her but soon regrets doing this.
The fourth tale (Bargain In Death) stars Michael Craig (best known to horror fans as the sadistic prison governor in Turkey Shoot, a.k.a. Blood Camp Thatcher) as a man who plans to fake his own death & then share the insurance payout with his accomplice (Edward Judd). This story features a double double-cross & also involves a couple of over-enthusiastic medical students. The end result is very messy.
The fifth, & best, story (Drawn And Quartered) stars Tom Baker as a struggling artist living in Haiti who invests in the power of voodoo to exact revenge on people in the art world who have conned & deceived him back in England. For me this segment contains one of the most shocking scenes in the whole film when an art dealer has an unfortunate `accident' with an office guillotine. This story also features Denholm Elliott as an art collector who ends up shooting himself in the head!
At the end of the film the fate of the five main protagonists will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Dr Terrors House Of Horrors or Tales From The Crypt but I still think that this is a satisfying conclusion.
Unfortunately, this DVD version of this entertaining film is terrible. It says `Digitallly Remastered' on the DVD cover but the picture & sound quality are just awful & do not do the film any justice at alll. Visuallly the film does not seem to be any improvement over the VHS tape version released by the same company in the early 1990s. The soundtrack is very hissy with lots of pops & glitches in it - a bit like listening to an old & scratched vinyl record. That is why I can only give this item a two star rating. This is such a pity because I reallly like this film & I am sure somebody somewhere can do a much better job of releasing it on DVD.
less effective than usual. - By: Mr. A. E. Ward Davies, 20 Aug 2006 most of the horror compendium films released by amicus are highly entertaining & imaginative. sadly, "vault of horror" hardly matches those requirements.
again, there are seperate stories that are linked by the main plot. in my opinion, only two stories are any good; the one with daniel massey is good if slightly restricted. the one with tom baker is by far the best & reallly good to watch more than once. the other ones are either boring, silly or both.
amicus only made one more film using this format & was somewhat improved.
the earlier ones are the best.
