Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

A good horror anthology movie has to keep a lot of plates spinning. It has to find a good blend of stories that are distinct from one another, but also hang together. The framing story has to have some substance to it, but be able to be told in snippets. The stories can’t be too in depth, given the constraints of the anthology, but they need some meat on their bones. And the pacing of the overall package has to be maintained. This movie mostly gets it right. I mean, it’s hard to get much wrong when you have Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Donald Sutherland (among others) leaving no scenery unchewed in the best possible way. The best stories (the one with Lee is tops, naturally) don’t wear out their welcome, and there’s variety in the stories, from classic monsters to killer plants. And while not all of the stories are great (the voodoo music one is meh), but nothing is outright bad. The two main flaws here are the pacing and the way the framing story wraps up. The former is an issue of having five stories plus the framing story. It’s just a little too much. Cut one story, and this movie is a breeze. But five stories makes it feel overstuffed, and some of the stories have some logic gaps that can’t be waived away (the last story, especially, feels half-baked). But it’s the framing story’s wrap-up that is most annoying, as it renders the stories pointless. I won’t spoil it, but it’s a bit maddening. Still, it’s a fine 100ish minutes. No real clunkers, and lots of 60’s British horror actors just being awesome. It doesn’t need to be the best thing ever. Pretty good is just fine. Hooptober 2022 movie #3/31