From Beyond the Grave | |
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Directed by | Kevin Connor |
Screenplay by | Raymond Christodoulou Robin Clarke |
Based on |
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Produced by | Max Rosenberg Milton Subotsky |
Starring | Peter Cushing Donald Pleasence Ian Bannen Diana Dors David Warner |
Cinematography | Alan Hume |
Edited by | John Ireland |
Music by | Douglas Gamley |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros |
Release date |
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Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £203,941 [1] |
From Beyond the Grave is a 1974 British anthology horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by Kevin Connor, produced by Milton Subotsky and based on short stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes.
It was the last in a series of anthology films from Amicus and was preceded by Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972) and The Vault of Horror (1973). [2]
Prologue
Four customers buy or steal items from Temptations Limited, an antique shop whose motto is "Offers You Cannot Resist". A nasty fate awaits those who cheat the shop's proprietor.
The Gatecrasher
Edward Charlton buys an antique mirror for a knockdown price, believing that he has tricked the proprietor into accepting that it is a reproduction. Charlton holds a seance at the suggestion of his friends and falls into a trance. He finds himself in an other world where he is approached by a sinister figure who appears to stab him. Charlton wakes up screaming. Later the figure's face appears in the mirror and orders Charlton to kill so that he can "feed". Charlton butchers people until the apparition is able to manifest himself outside the mirror. The figure then explains that Charlton must do one more thing before the figure can walk abroad and join others like him. The figure says he will take Charlton "beyond the ultimate" and persuades Charlton to kill himself by impaling himself on a knife. The mirror stays in Charlton's flat for years after his death, until the latest owner also decides to hold a seance. Charlton's hungry spectre appears in the mirror.
An Act of Kindness
Christopher Lowe is a frustrated middle-management drone trapped in a loveless marriage with Mabel. Bullied by his wife, and shown no respect by his son, he befriends Jim Underwood, an old soldier scratching out a living selling matches and shoelaces. Lowe tells Underwood that he is a decorated soldier, and subsequently attempts to persuade the proprietor of Temptations Ltd to sell him a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) medal, which is awarded to officers for meritorious or distinguished service, typically in actual combat, even though Lowe was merely a sergeant in the Pay Corps. The proprietor asks Lowe for the certificate that would prove that he has received the award, and Lowe steals the medal. Underwood is impressed by the medal, and asks Lowe to come to his house for tea. There Lowe meets Underwood's daughter Emily. Emily gradually seduces Lowe and they start an affair. Emily then produces a miniature doll of Mabel, and Lowe agrees that she should cut it. Lowe dashes home to find Mabel dead. Underwood and Emily then appear at Lowe's home, and walk in to the sound of the wedding march. Later, Emily and Lowe are married. Lowe's son and Jim Underwood attend the wedding and the reception. Rather than cut the cake, Emily cuts into the head of the effigy of the groom on top of it. Lowe falls onto the table, dead. Underwood and Emily explain to Lowe's son that they always answer the prayers of a child "in one way or another".
The Elemental
Reggie Warren, a businessman, enters Temptations Ltd and puts the price tag of a cheaper snuffbox in the one he wants to buy. The proprietor sells him the box at the lower price and says, "I hope you enjoy snuffing it." On the train home, a psychic, Madame Orloff, advises Warren that he has an elemental on his shoulder. After Warren's dog disappears and his wife Susan is attacked by an unseen force, he calls in Madame Orloff, who exorcises the elemental from Warren's home. Later, however, the Warrens hear noises upstairs. Reggie is knocked down and falls to the foot of the stairs, unconscious. When he wakes up he finds Susan possessed by the elemental, which tells Reggie that he has tried to deny it life, and then kills him before smashing through the front door.
The Door
The writer William Seaton persuades the proprietor to sell him an ornate door for less than the asking price. The proprietor goes to a back room to write out a receipt, leaving the till open. After Seaton leaves the proprietor starts counting the money in the till. Seaton's wife Rosemary thinks that the door is too grand for the stationery cupboard where he installs it; when she touches it she has a vision of a sinister blue room. Seaton discovers that the door sometimes becomes a magic portal into the blue room, which he eventually finds the courage to explore. Inside he reads a manuscript by Sir Michael Sinclair, a seventeenth-century occultist who created the enchanted room with rites involving human sacrifices. Periodically Sinclair lures people through the door so that he may take their souls and live forever. Sinclair himself appears and abducts Rosemary for his latest victim, but Seaton has an inspiration and hits the magic door with an axe. Wounds appear on Sinclair's body and his chamber begins to collapse. Seaton fights with the undead magician and rescues Rosemary, who helps him destroy the door. Sinclair and the blue room crumble into nothingness. Back at the shop the proprietor finishes counting the money and finds that none is missing.
Epilogue
Between the segments a shady character is seen casing the shop. At the end he enters and tries to rob the place, but finds that the proprietor is supernaturally invulnerable to gunfire. Terrified, the thief staggers back, trips, and lands fatally in a large box lined with spikes. The proprietor reflects on the trouble caused by people's greed for money. He then speaks to the audience as though they were his next customer, saying that the shop caters for all tastes, and that each purchase comes with "a big novelty surprise".
Allmovie's review of the film is generally favourable: "The last of the Amicus anthologies is a fun, old-fashioned example of the form." [4]
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