Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Vault of Horror Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 7, 2014

Note: This film is currently available as part of the double feature Tales From the Crypt / Vault of Horror.

That “usual gang of idiots” at the iconic Mad Magazine probably relished in the unintended irony that the company that published the self described “rag” had originally been called Educational Comics. For millions of Baby Boomers, Mad was indeed a major source of a certain kind of “education,” though by the time EC started making Mad its main focus, the “E” in its title had already been changed to represent “Entertaining” rather than “Educational.” That change was prompted at least in part by the company’s previous emphasis on typically whimsical horror outings like Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, brainchildren of William Gaines, the son of EC’s founder Max Gaines. The strictures of the early Eisenhower era ultimately brought the censor’s hammer down rather hard on EC and some of its publishing kin for supposedly contributing to the perceived delinquency of minors, which is when EC decided to promote delinquency in a different way by concentrating on Mad. But for kids who had at least a few years relishing in the delights of EC’s horror magazines, indelible impressions were made, and, later, when a new generation sought out old issues in a wave of kitsch collecting, early EC magazines attained a new (and at times considerably lucrative) luster. Another vaunted name in the annals of international horror, Amicus Productions, brought out two films in 1972 and 1973 which capitalized on the increasing fame of those early fifties’ comic books. Tales from the Crypt is undoubtedly a more generally entertaining film than its follow up The Vault of Horror, even if some might argue that the second film more adequately captures the sly combination of gross out gore and bizarre humor that made those early EC efforts so memorable.

When 1972’s Tales from the Crypt ended up doing surprisingly brisk business on both sides of the Atlantic, it didn’t take long for the bean counters at Amicus to realize they might have a new franchise cash cow on their hands, at least insofar as mining the inestimable archives of EC was concerned. The Vault of Horror retains Tales from the Crypt’s screenwriter Milton Subotsky, once again adapting a handful of stories from various EC publications, but this time the directorial reins were wrested from Freddie Francis and handed to Roy Ward Baker. This followup perhaps actually captures EC’s blacker than black humor better than Tales from the Crypt did, but it also plays in a bit more lackluster fashion than its predecessor, perhaps one reason that any dreamt of franchise withered on the bloody vine after this film failed to make box office lightning strike twice.

As with Tales from the Crypt, there’s a framing device providing bookends and interstitials as a quintet of sometimes darkly humorous horror tales spins out. This time the quintet of characters is all male and they meet not in a mysterious catacombs, but instead in a mysterious bunker of sorts that they get to in an elevator. This time there’s no inquisitor and/or host like the Crypt Keeper, and instead it’s shared conversations of various traumas that lead into the various vignettes.

One of the big pluses of this second installment is the wonderful casting. The first story features real life siblings Daniel and Anna Massey (children of Raymond) as a murderous brother and his victim sister. The second tale has a typically fussy Terry-Thomas as a harridan husband assaulting his wife (Glynis Johns) with nonstop complaints. Curd Jurgens is on hand with Dawn Addams in the third vignette, playing a scheming magician trying to get the secret of a mystifying trick by hook or by crook. The fourth sequence stars Michael Craig as an unwitting victim in a fraud scheme he himself concocted. The last vignette features Tom Baker as a Gaugin-esque painter who lives in Haiti (rather than Tahiti), and gets involved with voodoo after he’s cheated by some business associates.

Once again there’s a “moral to the stories,” but it’s the subtle but insouciant humor in at least four of the five stories that really give The Vault of Horror its distinctive flavor. This film was cut by just a few seconds for US theatrical release in 1974. Scream Factory has included both the uncut and the theatrical versions on the two-disc release of Tales from the Crypt/Vault of Horror.

Vault of Horror Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: The "main" disc of this two disc set features Tales from the Crypt and the uncut anamorphic widescreen version of Vault of Horror. A bonus Blu-ray disc presents an anamorphic widescreen theatrical cut as well as an open matte uncut version. Screenshots 1-5 are from the widescreen uncut version, 6-10 from the widescreen theatrical version, and 11-14 from the open matte uncut version.

The Vault of Horror is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The elements here are in similar shape to those found in the film's sibling Tales from the Crypt, though the overall look of this transfer is slightly less satisfactory from a sharpness and color space standpoint. While brightly lit scenes provide decent clarity and detail, there are recurrent issues with less than optimal shadow detail at times. The voodoo sequence has a couple of minor compression artifacts in the darkest scenes.

The theatrical widescreen version is similar though not identical in appearance to the uncut widescreen version. Colors are nominally more faded, and contrast is a bit less precise. The uncut open matte version is the most problematic from a color perspective, with a somewhat blanched appearance that lacks really vivid hues (compare even the yellows of the credits sequence between the three versions for example). All three versions retain an organic looking grain field and none appear to have been aggressively digitally tweaked.

Vault of Horror Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Somewhat oddly, the uncut versions of The Vault of Horror (i.e., both the widescreen and open matte presentations) feature DTS 2.0 mono audio, while the widescreen theatrical version features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. That said, there is frankly not a huge difference on display between the two options, other than a slightly punchier sound in some of the music cues in the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 iteration. Otherwise, dialogue and effects are very cleanly presented and well prioritized.

Vault of Horror Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:25)


• Alternate Title (1080p; 4:02) has no audio but presents the credits sequence for the film relabeled as Tales From the Crypt II.

Bonus Disc includes:

• Vault of Horror Theatrical Cut (1080p; 1:26:04) with DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono audio.


• Vault of Horror Uncut Open Matte Version (1080p; 1:26:47) with DTS 2.0 Mono audio.

Vault of Horror Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Vault of Horror doesn't quite have the momentum of Tales from the Crypt, but it does have perhaps a bit more of the sly EC combination of humor and horror. The cast is a lot of fun even if some of the storytelling is a bit rote. Technical merits aren't quite at the level seen in Tales from the Crypt, but are very good nonetheless. Recommended.