Frozen Fear
Walter (Richard Todd) wants a life with his mistress, but his wife will not allow it. She insists that they remain together, but Walter has another plan. He leads his wife to the basement, where he chops her up into pieces and puts the body parts into his new deep freezer. Although it’s slightly laughable how obvious the crime considering that each piece that he wraps up looks remarkably like a body part. The legs, the arms, and even the head would are easy to recognize.
Walter’s plans to runaway with his mistress are interrupted when his wife’s body comes to life and attacks. It is pretty creepy to see the head, wrapped in paper, breathing. The dismembered body gets revenge and that is the story of the first inmate. A great tale.
The Weird Taylor
Smith, a tailor is about to have his shop closed down. If he doesn’t have the rent by the weekend, he will be homeless and the shop will be closed down. A stranger, “Amicus” (Peter Cushing), appears and seems to save the day. He has a strange material that he wants turned into a suit for his son and agrees to pay top dollar. This was going to save Smith, but when he brings the completed suit to the stranger, he realizes that the suit is for the dead son of this man in hopes that it will raise him from the dead. He doesn’t get the money and a scuffle breaks out, leaving the stranger dead, and no buyer for the suit.
Smith’s wife elects to put the suit on a mannequin in the store and that’s when this story gets really strange. Overall, this is a really interesting tale, just as the last one was.
Lucy Comes To Stay
Barbara (Charlotte Rampling) is another inmate with a story. She contends that she is unjustly imprisoned and is far from insane, claiming that the murders that she was accused of was actually done by Lucy (Britt Ekland), a woman that she knows. Her brother had taken her in, but his motives are questionable, and when her buddy Lucy shows up, you don’t know if she really exists. Is she there to help Barbara, or is she a figment of her imagination?
Well, Barbara’s brother ends up dead and so too is the housekeeper, but Barbara contends that she is completely innocent and that it was Lucy who was the one that murdered the two. In the end, it is a predictable twist, but it is still an interesting tale. It pales in comparison to the first two, but it is still very good.
Mannikins of Horror
Dr. Byron is now a patient of the mental home and has constructed a bunch of little dolls that are half robotic and walk around, but he has a bigger plan for them. He believes that he can transfer his soul into the doll to get revenge on the doctor that had him committed. Well, he is right and he sends his soul into the doll to kill. Now even though this doll walks very and I mean VERY slowly, he still kills rather well. Then again, he’s killing a wheelchair bound doctor, so it’s not that hard to believe…especially if you believe that souls can go into robotic little dolls. This tale is very good too and the only bad thing about it is that you realize that it’s the last tale in this movie.
This anthology is outstanding. From start to finish, it is entertaining and creepy, blowing away most other anthologies that I have seen. There is one more twist at the end of this flick that doesn’t add much but doesn’t take away either. The look of this film, the look of the asylum, and the great acting make this movie a winner. I truly enjoyed this anthology and I highly recommend it.
Scared Stiff Rating: 8.5/10 Very good anthology
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