Horror anthologies have made a resurgence in recent years with films like V/H/S (2012) and Southbound (2015), but their true glory days were in the 1960s and 1970s when noted European directors Federico Fellini, Louis Malle and Roger Vadim got in on the trend with Spirits of the Dead (1968), based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. That was perhaps a more elevated attempt than the commercially successful series cranked out by various American and British companies: Tales of Terror (1962), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), The Vault of Horror (1973) and, generally considered the best of the batch, Tales from the Crypt (1972).
The latter four of those titles were released by Amicus Productions, a British company in operation for about 15 years between the early 60s and late 70s. From Beyond the Grave was the seventh and final anthology in the company's history and, although not as well regarded as Tales from the Crypt, it was a marked step up from its predecessor The Vault of Horror.
Like most anthology films, the four stories in this one have a common link that ties them together loosely. The link here is that great staple of British horror films of the period, Peter Cushing (1913-1994), making his tenth of twelve appearances in an Amicus production. He plays the proprietor of an antiques shop called Temptations Unlimited, whose motto is "Offers You Cannot Resist." What the four patrons depicted in this story should have resisted was the temptation to swindle Cushing. The "treasures" they gain by dishonest means soon turn their lives into nightmares.
In the first story, an old mirror leads its new owner into a violent place literally "beyond the grave." In the second, a stolen Distinguished Service Order medal leads a browbeaten husband to murder and remarriage into a family with dark powers. A third customer purchases a snuff box he has retagged with a cheaper price and becomes possessed by a supernatural entity. In the final episode, a customer who buys an ornate old door is suspected of stealing money from the proprietor's till. When he installs it in his home, he finds it opens into a mysterious blue room that harbors a murderous occultist. The film is wrapped up with a short coda in which a would-be robber meets a horrible end in the shop.
What distinguishes From the Beyond the Grave from cheesier films of its kind - not that there's a lack of substantial cheese on hand here - is an interesting visual style thanks largely to cinematographer Alan Hume (Return of the Jedi, 1983; A Fish Called Wanda, 1988; and many of the British "Carry On" series of comedy pictures) and art director Bert Davey (also a "Carry On" vet, as well as The Dogs of War, 1980, and Aliens, 1986).
These British horror films of the period frequently attracted well-known and accomplished actors, albeit some of them in the doldrums of their careers or at the ends of them. This picture features Diana Dors, England's Marilyn Monroe; Donald Pleasance, most famous as Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series and the dastardly Bond enemy Blofeld in You Only Live Twice (1967); British stage and screen actor David Warner, who became a star at 24 in Morgan! (1966) and later treated Leonardo DiCaprio quite shabbily in Titanic (1997); and English beauty Lesley-Ann Down of The Great Train Robbery (1978) and TV's Upstairs, Downstairs.
The most distinguished cast member, Margaret Leighton, appears as a medium in a semi-comedic role in what some reviewers considered the film's best sequence (the snuff box story). Leighton (1922-1976) made her feature film debut in Anthony Asquith's The Winslow Boy (1948) and appeared in such Hollywood productions as The Sound and the Fury (1959), The Best Man (1964), and John Ford's last movie, 7 Women (1966). She received an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA award for The Go-Between (1971), won an Emmy as Gertrude in an NBC television production of Hamlet (1970), and received Tony Awards for her Broadway work in Separate Tables (1957) and Night of the Iguana (1962).
The four episodes are based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, who published 200-plus short stories and more than a dozen novels over a 30-year period from the 1950s into the 1980s. At one time, nearly every library in the United Kingdom housed his collections of ghost stories and humorous horror, and he was presented with Life Achievement Awards by both the British Fantasy Society and the Horror Writers of America. Although widely read and even somewhat respected in Britain, his work remains relatively unknown in the U.S. His 1976 book, The Monster Club (adapted by Amicus for a 1981 film that bears little resemblance to the author's original) features a filmmaker character called Vinke Rocnnor, an anagram for Kevin Connor, the director of From Beyond the Grave.
Producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky enjoyed a good run of success with the horror films they made for the company they founded. When Amicus closed its doors, they went their separate ways. Rosenberg had a hand in Paul Schrader's remake of Cat People (1982) and the Spanish crime horror movie Dance with the Devil/Perdita Durango (1997). Subotsky went on to produce a string of successful Stephen King adaptations: Cat's Eye (1985), Maximum Overdrive (1986), Sometimes They Come Back (1991) for TV, and The Lawnmower Man (1992).
Director: Kevin Connor
Producers: Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky
Screenplay: Raymond Christodoulou, Robin Clarke, based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes
Cinematography: Alan Hume
Editing: John Ireland
Art Direction: Bert Davey
Music: Douglas Gamley
Cast: Peter Cushing (Proprietor), Ian Bannen (Christopher Lowe), Ian Carmichael (Reggie Warren), Diana Dors (Mabel Lowe), Margaret Leighton (Madame Orloff), Donald Pleasance (Jim Underwood), Nyree Dawn Porter (Susan Warren), David Warner (Edward Charlton)
By Rob Nixon
