gridoon2018 As in any anthology in any genre, every viewer will have his/her own favorites. For me, the weakest (and most predictable) story is the first, while the outstanding one is the last, with Tom Baker (cleverest touch: Baker suffocates along with his self-portrait, which is locked up in a vault!). The common recurring theme is evil and/or corrupt people getting their just desserts by means either natural or supernatural, but there is sufficient diversity in the neatly plotted stories, and the ending succeeds in bringing it all together. The all-star cast helps. **1/2 out of 4.

BA_Harrison Five strangers enter a lift that takes them to the wrong floor—the sub-basement—where they find comfy chairs and drinks waiting for them. With no exit from the room, they settle down and begin to tell each other about the recurring dreams that they have been having (as you do).In the first story, Midnight Mess, Rogers (Daniel Massey) travels to a strange town in order to murder his sister Donna, who has inherited all of their father's money. After doing so, he visits a restaurant where he is served a most unusual meal, and finds himself providing refreshments for the rest of the clientèle, who only come out after dark.The next dream, The Neat Job, is relayed by neat freak Critchit (Terry Thomas), who constantly berates his wife Eleanor (Glynis Johns) about being tidy. After a stressful afternoon, Eleanor eventually snaps, and shows Critchit just how organised she can be when she wants to.Dream number three is titled This Trick'll Kill You and stars Curd Jürgens as a magician who, with the help of his wife, finds a trick that is guaranteed to wow the audience. Shame they don't get the opportunity to try it out in front of one.Bargain in Death, the penultimate story, has author Maitland (Michael Craig) devise a life insurance scam that involves him being buried alive after taking a drug that induces a death-like state. Unsurprisingly, things don't go quite as planned.Tale number five is Drawn and Quartered, in which struggling artist Moore (Tom Baker), residing in Haiti, discovers that he has been exploited by three men. A quick visit to the local voodoo man gives him the power to exact revenge through his paintings.Based on the EC comics of the same name, The Vault of Horror is a rather uninspired collection of tongue-in-cheek tales of the macabre that are neither scary nor all that shocking; a decent cast can do little to make this mediocre material shine. There is, however, some fun to be had from the occasional spot of garish comic-book gore, so if you do decide to check the film out, be sure to watch the unedited version to get the full ghoulish effect.Oh, and no prizes for guessing that all of the men in the lift are actually dead.

GL84 Disembarking an elevator, five men find themselves in a small room and proceed to tell their dreams to each other to pass the time until they are rescued.The Good Stor(ies):This Trick'll Kill You-Traveling to India, a magician looks to find a new trick to bring into his act. His assistant wants to leave, but after agreeing to another night, he happens upon a local performing a special rope trick. Wanting to know how it works, he tries to get the secret of the act but it soon resorts into something that none of them saw coming. This is a really interesting one that is quite fun. The central premise is quite fun and there's a central air of mystery to be had as it takes place in a foreign country with a seedy underside. There is one particularly gruesome effect when a fakir manages to push a knife right through his cheek, and the scene where his assistant climbs the rope, sees something at the top, screams and disappears, leaving nothing but a swiftly spreading pool of blood on the ceiling is particularly gruesome. Even the rope attack at the end is done well, and the only real part that isn't all that terrific is the long sequence where they try to figure out the trick. It goes on a little too long, but is the only thing wrong with it.Drawn and Quartered-Living in Haiti, an artist finds that his agent has been ripping him off by informing him his paintings are worthless while actually being sold for a lot of money in London. Meeting with a local witch-doctor, he finds that whatever he paints happens in real life. Traveling to London, he threatens revenge but it gets laughed at. Remembering his deal, he sets out to paint their futures for him to decide upon. This one here isn't anywhere near that bad, and is quite fun. The central premise is incredibly original and intriguing, and the fates suffered by the victims are fun to watch unfold. These are great ones and do get a few chills watching them, especially the gunshot one which is really suspenseful. Even the lead-up to the final twist has a few good parts going for it. The ending is a little predictable, but that's all that this one has against it.The Bad Stor(ies): Midnight Mess: Looking for his sister, a man arrives in a small town and finds her living alone. Warned away from going out at night, he decides to venture to the only open restaurant in town. Waiting to be served, he comes across a terrible secret that is particularly shocking. This one here is particularly uneven. Despite the strong central image of vampires planting spigots in a victim's jugular just like a wine cask or the most effective one where the curtains are pulled back to reveal a dining hall filled with reflection-less vampires, this one isn't that spectacular. The twist comes rather quickly, the whole thing is rushed out and this never once takes the time to build up to anything worthwhile. As well, the image of the incredibly fake vampire teeth protruding from the mouths is purely laughable. It's decent, but not that spectacular.The Neat Job-Moving in together, newlyweds quickly realize that his tidiness is a major source of irritation. As they spend more time together in the situation, it soon becomes even more irritable and distressful, and eventually she tries to make things right, to no avail. When it finally becomes too much to bear, she resorts to special means to get it solved. Simply put, this one is dull. It's not that horrific, nothing terribly shocking happens or anything at all, the twist is seen coming from a mile away and as a whole, the idea isn't that terrifying. This is the weakest of the stories and is easily forgettable.Bargain for Death-After realizing he's broke, a horror writer decides to fake his own death to collect the insurance money. As it works to perfection, he awakes in his casket and is soon dug out by medical students who want to bring him back to practice on. When it turns out that the cadaver isn't what they wanted, they resort to other means to get away. This one pretty much plays out like the first one, it's too rushed and doesn't have the time to build up to anything. Nothing is really remarkable about it, and it ends up not really making an impact on anything. The comedy in here is really dreadful and not that funny. It's only real bright spots are the nasty car crash and a pretty gory spade in the head death, but these here are the only things worthy about it.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence.

Lee Eisenberg Although it has essentially the same plot as the earlier "Tales from the Crypt", "The Vault of Horror" still holds its own. A group of men get trapped in a room and tell each other their dreams, all of which seemed...so real. Probably the most interesting segment was the second one, in which Terry-Thomas (the Englishman in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World") and Glynis Johns (the mom in "Mary Poppins") play what turn out to be the opposite kinds of roles with which they're usually associated. It's just fun to see the twists that occur in each segment, and then the twist at the end of the movie. It's a good time the whole way through.So yes, there is no trick. AND DON'T TRY TO PROVE OTHERWISE!