From Beyond the Grave

source: From Beyond the Grave

R Chetwynd Hayes is a good horror writer with a dark sense of humour . His stories are scary fun but don`t translate to the screen very well , THE MONSTER CLUB was very patchy and this film suffers from the same problem **** SLIGHT SPOILERS **** Story one : This involves a serial killer . I know they do exist but has anyone been compelled to murder lots of people by a mirror ? And there`s too much stuff unexplained . I don`t suppose the scene with neighbour reading a cliched horror story about " The wind whistling through the trees , the door creaking open and a werewolf creeping out " can be described as post modernist either , can it ? Story Two : This is very good and is typical of Hayes protestant ethics and hen pecked husbands . It is slightly ridiculous in parts but obviously the cast had enjoyed making it and I enjoyed watching it . If this was written last week all the critics would claim R Chetwynd Hayes was a pen name for Chelsea Clinton Story Three : Oh dear , this also has Hayes signature on it , but just like some of his written tales - THE COST OF DYING for example - the characters are slightly OTT . This may work on the printed page but in a visual medium like cinema it doesn`t . The story is also let down by some poor production values as you can quite clearly see strings holding up the leviating objects. Story Four : This is probably the weakest story since it revolves around a young couple so in love you can just tell nothing bad is going to befall them If you`re aware of the anthology format and not expecting too much you`ll probably be entertained . But if you`re a fan of R Chetwynd Hayes you`ll probably be disappointed . I also find it slightly surprising that no one has decided to adapt his story MANDERVILLE which in these days of shock twist endings like THE SIXTH SENSE and THE GIFT could very well be a big hit with cinema goers

This is an absolutely boring anthology, they dredged the bottom of the barrel for stories. Even Cushing couldn't save this pablum. So trite and weak, it's refried garbage. Cushing looks extra gaunt and moribund here, no doubt mourning his deceased wife and the rest of the cast mail it in. Donald Pleasance's daughter has the widest, most masculine face, she looks like a Roman statue of Caesar. Nothing charming or redeemable here. The Brits just can't scare like the Americans, keep away! Cheapie

4 Weak stories. Cheap. Low budged crap. Instead of 4 stories they should have concentrated on 1 story combining story #4 with #1. The acting all around sucked. The middle 2 stories sucked the worst. Music, cinematography, stories, acting, all crap. Hard to watch. Better luck next time. 4 Weak stories. Cheap. Low budged crap. Instead of 4 stories they should have concentrated on 1 story combining story #4 with #1. The acting all around sucked. The middle 2 stories sucked the worst. Music, cinematography, stories, acting, all crap. Hard to watch. Better luck next time.

The 60's and 70's horror movies out of England (along with the Hammer Films) were so dry that they take work to watch, but the payoffs are usually worth it. The humor seems misguided in this movie, particularly in the third story, but there is some good blood, especially during the scene with the wedding cake.

Amicus horror anthology film (the last of seven) starring Peter Cushing as the owner of an antique shop who sells items to different rotten people. Each of the film's stories are tied to these people. The first story features David Warner and is about a mirror which houses a creepy man (or spirit or whatever) who forces Warner to do bad things. The second story is about a man who is seduced by the daughter of a street peddler. Good lineup in this one: Donald Pleasence, Ian Bannen, Diana Dors. But it's just not that interesting despite its oddness. The third story features Ian Carmichael as a man who turns to a crazy old lady (Margaret Leighton) to get rid of an Elemental spirit tormenting him. Leighton is the whole show here. Lots of fun to watch. My favorite story in the film. The final story is about a writer (Ian Ogilvy) who buys a door through which he can step into a room inhabited by a weirdo from the past. This segment also features Lesley-Anne Down. The linking pieces with Cushing have another little story involving a shady man hanging around the shop. Overall, it's an entertaining movie. All the stories are enjoyable to varying degrees, although the second story is clearly the weakest. It's still watchable though. Cushing is pure class as always. Not the best of the Amicus anthologies but good.

Dismal fates befall various customers who buy items at a seedy antique shop run by a sinister proprietor (a splendidly creepy Peter Cushing). 1st and most chilling tale, "The Gate Crasher" - Edward Charlton (the always fine David Warner) purchases a mirror which has a murderous ghost residing inside of it who forces Edward to kill pretty young girls so he can live again. 2nd and most ironic vignette, "An Act of Kindness" - Wimpy former army officer Christopher Lowe (an excellent Ian Bannon) befriends amiable beggar Jim Underwood (a wonderfully quirky Donald Pleasence) and falls for Underwood's fetching daughter Emily (an extraordinary performance by the lovely Angela Pleasence, whose Donald's real life daughter). Diana Dors amuses as Lowe's blowzy spouse Mabel. Moreover, the punchline for this particular segment is fantastic. 3rd and funniest anecdote, "The Elemental" - A pesky demon terrorizes wealthy Reggie Warner (nicely played by Ian Carmichael) and his wife Susan (the solid Nyree Dawn Porter). Reggie hires eccentric clairvoyant Madame Orloff (a delightfully dotty Margaret Leighton) to rid himself of this troublesome fiend. 4th and most eerie vignette, "The Door" - William Seaton (the terrific Ian Olgilvy) acquires a door which acts as a portal to another past time. A wicked devil-worshiping nobleman from that past time wants to use William's wife Rosemary (the ravishing Lesley-Anne Down) as a human sacrifice. Capably directed by Kevin Connor, with a clever script by Robin Clarke and Raymond Christodoulou, crisp cinematography by Alan Hume, a spooky score by David Gamley, and uniformly sound acting from a stellar cast, this omnibus outing makes the grade as a real fun and entertaining affair.

"From Beyond" is a great example of 70's horror, four short, supposedly spine tingling stories that hit and miss with varying degrees of success. The tales are all odd affairs, a scruffy man in a mirror that encourages homicide, a father and daughter team that remove unwanted parents, an invisible demon that attaches itself to people, and finally an old nobleman who lives inside a door. Yes, this is not this reviewer on LSD, the plots really are as such, and are enthusiastically acted by some big names that perhaps should have known better. "From Beyond" is great fun, a little dated and hardly scary, but the tales are so outlandish, and the script is so unintentionally humorous, that you hopefully will enjoy at least one of the stories. Best of all is the second tale. Donald Pleasance is excellent as the shifty peddler, his real life daughter Angela is wonderfully eerie in her role as his spaced out little girl, and a plumpish Diana Dors does a great turn as a battleaxe wife that still puts me off getting married to this day. The film also has some great quotable lines, maybe not in the Tarantino/Goodfellas league, but some lines ("Get on with your sweet"),are oddly amusing. In the main the acting and scenes are so over the top that its hard to believe this film may have been considered scary by some in the early 70's. But on the whole, 'From Beyond The Grave' is good fun and worth a watch if you like your horror served with a bit of dated hokum.

Four tales of terror revolving around an antique store owned by the grim-looking Peter Cushing where various characters secure objects without paying the correct price with possible doom awaiting them. The first shopper, Edward Charlton(David Warner)is a smug, narcissistic know-it-all who procures a creepy mirror from Cushing which houses an evil spirit awakened when a séance takes place in the young man's pad. This evil spirit requires blood and, through hypnotic suggestion, forces Edward to bring female victims back to his place for slaughter so that he can become whole leaving the eternal prison that has held him for so long. Christopher Lowe(Ian Bannen)is an office manager stuck in a loveless marriage to Mabel(Diana Dors)where she constantly humiliates him in front of his son. He passes by Jim Underwood(Donald Pleasence), a street salesman(peddler)using his participation in the war as a means to increase his sales. Chris pretends to be some kind of would-be war hero by stealing an Infantry medal from Cushing's shop and is invited to dinner where he meets Jim's darling daughter Emily(Angela Pleasence, Donald's actual daughter)..who just happens to practice witchcraft and is more than obliged to off his wife if Chris so commands. But, she works freelance and perhaps someone else would like to use her services.. Reggie(Ian Carmichael)switches price tags on these little cases so that he can pay smaller price for classier box of the two. On board a train he meets clairvoyant Madame Orloff(Margaret Leighton, playing her eccentric psychic to the hilt and beyond)who informs Reggie he has an "elemental" on his shoulder..this elemental must be removed before it takes over his host body. Not heeding to her warnings, Reggie returns home only to realize, after it tries to strangle his wife Susan(Nyree Dawn Porter), that what Orloff said was true. In a ruckus exorcism scene, Orloff removes the evil from his shoulder as the house is destroying itself. But, despite the Madame's great efforts, the evil spirit might just find someone else to cling to.. William Seaton(Ian Ogilvy)seemingly purchases a sinister door(the film sets up the possibility that William stole some of his cash back when Cushing was off to get a receipt)which is to cover a stationary cupboard in his home. What William and his beautiful wife Rosemary(the truly lovely Lesley-Anne Down)do not expect is that, at the stroke of Midnight, behind the ominous door is a blue "ghost" room created by a man with evil intent. This spirit will seek Rosemary's soul unless William can find a way to harm him. Before each story, a thief is planning to rob Cushing only to find that the proprietor of this antique shop isn't anyone to be trifled with. Entertaining anthology from the always-reliable Amicus studios. Good fun for a dark, stormy night.

I've never really been a big fan of most British horror movies but when I had seen on the back of the cover of this video that it was an all star cast I had to at least check it out, after all I am a fan of most of Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance's films but when I had finished seeing this one I felt like I had just watched a bad episode of "Tales From the Darkside". None of the sequences added any excitement to this movie and none of the casts that were so "all star" even gave me a reason to like this movie. It was another make of the movie "Tales From the Crypt" which also did not seem all that interesting just like this one was uninteresting as well. This movie proves that you can't judge a video by it's box cover. But I did like the part that Cushing played as the happy go lucky antique dealer and the mystique quality in which he carried.