Stream it:
|
Own it:
|
With: Joan Collins, Peter Cushing, Roy Dotrice, Richard Greene, Ian Hendry, Patrick Magee, Barbara Murray, Nigel Patrick, Robin Phillips, Ralph Richardson
|
Written by: Milton Subotsky, based on stories by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, William M. Gaines
|
Directed by: Freddie Francis
|
MPAA Rating: PG
|
Running Time: 92
|
|
Date: 03/09/1972
|
|
|
|
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
Fatal Claus
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Perhaps the earliest example of a Christmas-themed horror film, Tales from the Crypt (1972) is an anthology film (with only one Christmas segment), based on the old EC comics that once drove parents nuts. In an old catacombs, five tourists get lost and meet the Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson), who tells each of them a spooky story. In the first one, Joanne (Joan Collins) murders her husband on Christmas Eve, but as she prepares to dispose of the corpse, she learns that a homicidal maniac, dressed as Santa Claus, is on the loose. As in the comics, there's a brutal twist ending. Directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Freddie Francis, this English movie feels like a first-class production, and yet never shies away from drive-in levels of shock and gore, and the five segments are fairly well balanced in quality, which is a rarity for anthologies. Peter Cushing (Star Wars) and Patrick Magee (A Clockwork Orange) co-star in two of the other segments.
|
