Dr. Terror’s House of Horror
Directed by Freddie Francis
Written by Milton Subotsky
1965/UK
Amicus Productions
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Dawson: Schreck? That’s a German word isn’t it? Means fear or horror.
Dr. Schreck: A more exact translation would be terror. An unfortunate misnomer for I am the mildest of men.[/box]
Amicus Productions seems to have bit off more than it could chew in the effort to shoehorn 5 stories into one average-length movie.
The gimmick holding the whole together is the character of Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing) who comes into the train compartment shared by five students and offers to read their fortunes in the tarot cards. Christopher Lee plays a skeptic and Donald Sutherland has one of his first big screen roles as the student engaged to a girl who just might be a vampire.
I think 5 stories are one or two too many to fit in a 98 minute movie. Omitting a couple of stories would have given the filmmakers some room to add depth to the remaining stories. As it is much of this feels rushed. Cushing and Lee are, needless to say, fantastic.
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