jimpayne1967 This is I believe the first of the Amicus portmanteau films and like all of the others I have seen it is flawed and variable in quality but a couple of the stories are pretty good and another two are real curios.The linking story is probably the weakest aspect of the film. Peter Cushing as the mysterious Dr Terror meets the five central characters of each of the five stories in a railway compartment - not a house at all so the title of the film is a misnomer- and shuffles his tarot cards and encourages each man to take his cards and see the story which will unfold. At the end of each sequence the man is to take a final card which will show what he must do to avoid what has happened in their tale and each chooses the death card. This is not a great device and from my memory of Tarot the death card is to signify the end of a particular phase of life or the end of a story not the death of the person who draws it. Even allowing for this misuse of Tarot symbolism the death of each of the five seems a bit harsh on at least two of the five are hardly the causes of their own misfortune. Cushing, normally one of my favourite actors, looks a bit silly too.The first story, Werewolf, stars the now largely forgotten Neil McCallum and it is pretty routine stuff whilst Creeping Vine is just a rip-off of Day of the Triffids though it does have one or two spooky moments with good performances from the dependable Jeremy Kemp and Bernard Lee whilst the often slightly kooky Ann Bell is fine as the increasingly scared young wife of the central character Bill Rogers. The curio of this segment though is that the central character is played by Alan 'Fluff' Freeman the Anglo-Australian disc jockey whom I had forgotten had also been an occasional actor in the 1960s until I saw this film for the first time in decades six or seven years ago. He is okay but he was a better DJ.Voodoo is the worst tale of the five featuring as it does Roy Castle at his most irritating - which is considerable- but there is a real bonus for fans of British Modern Jazz with the Tubby Hayes band doing a couple of pretty strong numbers. Castle himself was a jazz trumpeter but I am not sure whether he plays on the soundtrack of these scenes and certainly at one point when he is blowing away like a hurricane there is no sound of trumpet. The tale itself is hackneyed and more than a touch racist.Disembodied Hand is the best of the five stories and is so by some distance. Christopher Lee plays Franklyn Marsh who is a narcissistic art critic. During an exhibition of the Avant garde artist Eric Landor- played by Michael Gough- Marsh produced several pithy phrases to rubbish Landor's work to the delight of the critic's sycophantic acolytes before the artist trumps his sternest critic by showing that work praised by Lee's character was actually done by a chimpanzee. Marsh is stung by this public humiliation and eventually runs over Landor causing the artist to lose a hand. Unable to paint Landor kills himself and possibly tormented by guilt Marsh is haunted by the disembodied hand which follows him everywhere. Eventually the hand causes Marsh to crash his car causing and the accident leaves him blind- and unable to work. It is a neat enough morality tale and the brief appearance of the delightful Isla Blair would lighten a wet November morn but the real highlight is Lee who is brilliant here –possibly his best performance until The Wicker Man. The arrogance of Marsh is one of Lee's trademarks but he does snivelling fear really well here too. The final tale, Vampire, stars Donald Sutherland as Bob Carroll a doctor returning to practise in the US after marrying a glamorous young French woman played by Jennifer Jayne (who was English I think). Prompted by the advice of his older colleague Dr Blake (Max Adrian) it begins to dawn on Carroll that his lovely wife is in fact a vampire causing havoc in her new hometown. Eventually after some bidding by his colleague, Dr Carroll carries out the old stake through the heart trick on his wife and is arrested by the police who believe he is a madman as Blake dismisses the notion that he has had anything to do with the slaying. It is a bit corny that Blake turns out to be the vampire himself but it is slickly done – Freddie Francis directs all the 5 stories rather well in fact- and Sutherland is, as he usually was, very good whilst Adrian is good too.The final scene where those on the train/house are revealed to be already dead became something of an Amicus trademark and it is not particularly well done here – certainly in comparison with the generally superior Tales From The Crypt- and is a rather bland ending to a film that is short on gore but strong on atmosphere.

FlashCallahan Five men enter a train carriage in London bound for Bradley, and are joined by a sixth, the mysterious Doctor Schreck whose name, he mentions, is German for "terror". During the journey, the doctor opens his pack of Tarot cards, which he calls his "House of Horrors", and proceeds to reveal the destinies of each of the travellers........Anthology films are always a mixed bag of nuts, but it doesn't matter if there is a poor segment of the anthology (there usually is), the fundamental part of the film, in order for it to work, is the wrap around story.Surprisingly, the wrap around story, involving the six in a train carriage, is the most sinister and haunting part of the film, and this is because of the wonderfully restrained performance from the titular doctor himself, Peter Cushing.Any other horror film made around this time would have the main 'villain' mugging and playing up to the camera, but the thing that makes Cushing's portrayal so eerie, is that he appears to be just as normal as the other five passengers.The stories, as I've already said, are something of a mixed bag, we have one about a werewolf and an old house with a curse, a wonderfully over the top story about Roy Castle stealing some Voodoo song, a woeful story about a killer plant, and another featuring Donald Sutherland who is tricked into killing his wife, whom is a vampire.But the stand out has to be the Christopher Lee story, about a dismembered hand following him, looking for revenge. It sounds silly, but the punchline is pretty grim, considering its a PG rated film.All the stories have something whimsical about them, one breaks the fourth wall, one features Kenny Lynch, and they all have that 'it was so much safer back then' feel to it.It's not for everybody, but for fans of Amicus and Hammer, this will really fit the bill.

Jeff Wagner The first horror movie i ever watched at the Drive-In on the big screen and to this day is the one movie that still makes me turn my head to look behind when i am alone and hear a noise, scary no, horrifying memories yes, the very night we returned home from the movie i went up stairs to my shared bedroom with my brothers, i was the first one to get in bed and was laying on my stomach not much later than maybe couple minutes later and felt a tap on my back shoulder, i turned to look and there was an old black winter glove, i scrambled out of bed and downstairs from the attic bedroom tripping down the stairs in sheer panic and horror, my brothers and everyone else was still down stairs and came rushing to find out what happened from the noise i made, it was a real haunting experience, we all went up stairs soon after and nobody could find that glove, many other things happened to other members of my family over time in this house we had only rented a short time before this period of things going on, we moved shortly there after, i don't know what this movie had to do with it if anything except for the glove and story in the movie about the guy who lost his hand, and everything i just wrote is 100% true, ask anyone in my family that was there.

ArchieIsCool This film takes me back to my teenage years watching it on the TV when all we had was hammer horror films to watch and staying up late to watch it.I love Peter Cushing his voice and acting he just made the film, the stories were not all good my least fave was the plant one with Alan Freeman not at all scary just silly.My favourite was the vampire one which stuck in my mind because I love vampires, Jennifer Jayne was a good vampire even if you did not see her fangs or biting anyone it just was the allure of her going into the night as a bat, granted not good effects but for the time OK. Poor Donald Sutherland was made to kill his wife by his doctor friend who told him she was a vampire only to be a vamp himself and get Donald arrested for murder.Another good one was the werewolf story predictable but fun. Christopher Lee's story of the jealous critic aqnd the severed hand was OK too. Roy Castles's voodoo tale a bit lame really.It takes me back in time and thats why I love it warts and all.