With Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Amicus delivers five fun-filled tales of horror to regale and entertain the audience, not to mention gifting the audience with Peter Cushing who plays Death himself.

The premise finds five men sharing a cabin on a train with Cushing’s Dr. Schreck looking to join them. It is soon found out that Schreck has a deck of tarot cards from which he can predict each man’s future. Each one of them agrees to let the man read the cards for them and thus, the five tales contained within this picture, the first of which is called Werewolf and is not so much about the werewolf in question but about a curse. Architect Neil McCallum is renovating a house when he discovers a coffin behind a fake wall and from there, learns of a werewolf, a curse, a murder and his own fate which sees him placed within the coffin he previously found with the late Count Cosmo Valdemar returned to life.

The second outing is called Creeping Vine which is perhaps the silliest tale of the bunch. It stars Ann Bell, Bernard Lee and Alan Freeman with the story consisting of a vine which is growing out of control and which seems to have some sort of sentience about it. It would most likely be quite scary if it were real life but seeing it on film takes a bit of the punch out of it. The third story called Voodoo starring Roy Castle would find the man heading to the West Indies for his job as a jazz musician. While there he decides to steal a bit of music and add it to his show from his observing a voodoo ceremony and once he does, things go exceptionally wrong for him. The best of the lot and the fourth of five tales is called Disembodied Hand starring Christopher Lee and Michael Gough, a winning combination if there ever were one. Lee is an art critic, Gough is an artist, and the former does not like the latter. This leads to Gough tricking and embarrassing Lee and then continually embarrassing him to the point where Lee lashes out and runs Gough down with his car. While Gough does not die, at least at first, when he kills himself his hand gains a life of its own and seeks vengeance against the man that did it wrong.

The final story presented within is called Vampire and it stars Donald Sutherland who is made to believe that his wife is one of the undead by his fellow doctor as played by Max Adrian. All clues point to her being one and soon enough, Sutherland finds himself killing her so that others might be spared. As it turns out, he has made a fatal mistake. Vampire and most of the tales in this film were quite good with a few chills here and there and filled with the perfect atmosphere to pull it all off. The only exception would be Creeping Vine which was the weakest of the bunch but by no means all that bad. The talent was there, it was just not as creepy or as horrific as it could have been. There was a lot of promise on the screen and it did set itself apart due to subject matter but it needed to be just a little stronger to stand among the rest.

Best of all perhaps, was the conclusion of the film and while it was quite short, it and the rest of the story that tied all of the shorter tales together was the strongest and most enjoyable part of the movie. Cushing was in fine form and his interactions with the rest of the main players would enrapture the audience more than anything else. The last scene was perfect with its moody atmosphere and shock reveal and the best way to send it all off, a true surprise that left viewers wondering if it could have gone any other way.

With a steady hand, courtesy of Freddie Francis, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors was a great bit of horror and a strong first outing for Amicus, paving the way for more to follow in its wake.

3.5 out of 5