From Beyond the Grave | |
---|---|
![]() Belgian theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Kevin Connor |
Screenplay by | Raymond Christodoulou Robin Clarke |
Based on |
|
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 |
|
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £203,941 [1] |
From Beyond the Grave (also known as The Creatures 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. [2]
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). [3]
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. His friends remark that the mirror looks like something out of a ghost story, inspiring him to hold a seance in his flat. The ritual puts Charlton in contact with a genuine ghost residing in the mirror, who wishes to "feed" on human blood. Falling into the creature's power, Charlton becomes a recluse, luring people to the flat and murdering them. His girlfriend Pamela becomes alarmed at his withdrawal from the world and goes to check on him, just after the ghost tells him one more victim will suffice. Charlton controls himself enough to send her away unharmed, then kills a neighbour who has come to complain about his strange behaviour. The ghost leaves the mirror and takes human shape, declaring that it has achieved immortality. If Charlton will now kill himself, he will free the ghost to walk abroad, and get his own chance to go "beyond the ultimate". Persuaded, Charlton impales himself on a knife. The flat is cleared out and rented to new occupants, and years pass without incident 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, bullied by his wife Mabel and shown no respect by his son. He befriends Jim Underwood, an old soldier scratching out a living selling matches and shoelaces. Lowe's military service was in the Pay Corps, but to Underwood he claims to be a decorated soldier. In Temptations Ltd he sees a Distinguished Service Order medal that would lend credibility to his lie, but the proprietor will not sell it without documentary proof that Lowe was given such an award. Lowe steals the medal and uses it to impress Underwood, who invites him home for tea. There Lowe meets Underwood's daughter Emily, who has supernatural powers. Emily and Lowe start an affair, and he eventually accepts her offer to kill Mabel using an effigy. Emily and Lowe subsequently marry, with Lowe's son and Jim Underwood present at the wedding and reception. The wedding cake topper, a sculpture of a bride and groom, is another enchanted effigy; Emily cuts open the head of the groom and 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 an elemental— a malevolent spirit desperate to break into the corporeal world— has settled on his shoulder. She offers to perform an exorcism if the elemental becomes troublesome. At home, Warren's wife Susan remarks on the repulsive smell that he has brought into the house, and their dog disappears. After the elemental briefly takes control of Warren's body and attacks Susan, he calls in Madame Orloff. She wages a house-shaking supernatural battle with the creature, and leaves satisfied that it has been expelled. In fact the elemental has only changed hosts, possessing Susan. Angry that Warren tried to thwart its plans, it kills him and goes forth into the world.
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".
Kevin Connor says that he got the job as director after Milton Subotsky read some scripts he had adapted with some friends. Subotsky took four of them, liked them, and offered Connor the job. Connor pointed out that he had never directed a film before, but Subotsky argued that editors made the best directors. Connor says that the film's budget was "miniscule" [sic].
It was one of a number of horror movies starring Diana Dors. [4]
Allmovie's review of the film is generally favourable: "The last of the Amicus anthologies is a fun, old-fashioned example of the form." [5]
Tales from the Crypt is a 1972 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis. It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on short stories from the EC Comics series Tales from the Crypt by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, and Bill Gaines. The film was produced by Amicus Productions and filmed at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England.
Dead of Night is a 1945 black and white British anthology supernatural horror film, made by Ealing Studios. The individual segments were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes and Michael Redgrave. The film is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Redgrave and an insane ventriloquist's malevolent dummy.
Dr Terror's House of Horrors is a 1965 British anthology horror film from Amicus Productions, directed by veteran horror director Freddie Francis, written by Milton Subotsky, and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.
Kevin Connor is an English film and television director based in Hollywood.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. The Ghost is the last of the three spirits that appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption.
The Monster Club is a 1981 British anthology horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Vincent Price and John Carradine. An anthology film, it is based on the works of the British horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes. It was the final film from Milton Subotsky, who was best known for his work with Amicus Productions; Amicus were well known for their anthologies, but this was not an Amicus film. It was also the final feature film directed by Baker.
I, Monster is a 1971 British horror film directed by Stephen Weeks and starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It was written by MIlton Subotsky, adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with the main characters' names changed to Dr. Charles Marlowe and Mr. Edward Blake. It was produced by Amicus.
Leonard Swindley is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street. One of the original characters created by Tony Warren, he was played by actor Arthur Lowe between 1960 and 1965. The character of Mr. Swindley also appeared as the central figure in two spin-off series following his departure from the Street—Pardon the Expression and Turn Out the Lights—making him a unique character in British soap opera.
The Skull is a 1965 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus Productions, and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Patrick Wymark, Jill Bennett, Nigel Green, Patrick Magee and Peter Woodthorpe. The script was written by Milton Subotsky from a short story by Robert Bloch, "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade".
Mabel Van Buren was an American stage and screen actress.
Asylum is a 1972 British anthology horror film made by Amicus Productions. The film was directed by Roy Ward Baker and produced by Milton Subotsky. Robert Bloch wrote the script, adapting four of his own short stories.
Aaron P. "Pat" Boyette was an American broadcasting personality and news producer, and later a comic book artist best known for two decades of work for Charlton Comics, where he co-created the character the Peacemaker. He sometimes used the pen names Sam Swell, Bruce Lovelace, and Alexander Barnes.
Milton Subotsky was an American film and television writer and producer. In 1964, he founded Amicus Productions with Max J. Rosenberg. Amicus means "friend" in Latin. The partnership produced low-budget science fiction and horror films in the United Kingdom.
The Uncanny is a 1977 British-Canadian anthology horror film directed by Denis Héroux, written by Michel Parry, and starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, Ray Milland, Joan Greenwood, Donald Pilon, Samantha Eggar, and John Vernon.
They Came from Beyond Space is a 1967 British Eastman Color science fiction film directed by Freddie Francis and starring Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Mohyeddin and Bernard Kay. It was produced by Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky. The screenplay was by Subotsky, based on the 1941 novel The Gods Hate Kansas by Joseph Millard.
Sanho Kim is a South Korean comic book artist, considered the first artist working in a manhwa style to be published regularly in the United States. The bulk of Kim's American work was for Charlton Comics' horror comics, as well as the Kung fu title House of Yang.
Grave Tales is a British anthology horror film made in 2011 at Pinewood Studios by FGS Productions and Ivory Tower Entertainment. It was directed by Don Fearney. It premiered on 30 April 2011 at Southend on Sea Film Festival, however an earlier premiere took place on 30 October 2010 at Cine Lumiere in South Kensington, London SW7. The film was released as a DVD in August 2012.
The Copper, or The Grasper, is a 1930 British-German crime film directed by Richard Eichberg and starring Hans Albers, Charlotte Susa, and Margot Landa. It is the German-language version of the British film Night Birds, which was also directed by Eichberg but with an English-speaking cast. Both films were made by British International Pictures at their Elstree Studios at a time when such multiple-language versions were common.
Frankenstein is a British horror-adventure film series produced by Hammer Film Productions. The films, loosely based on the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, are centered on Baron Victor Frankenstein, who experiments in creating a creature beyond human. The series is part of the larger Hammer horror oeuvre.