After a strange week, it is good to return to some normalcy. The free-streaming Program brings me yet another '70s Anthology Film, this time from outside the usual Companies.
It's time for the original...
A man leaves the woman he's cheating on his wife with, but gets lost in the City on a rainy night.
A Coroner (thankfully not Grampa Joe this time!) welcomes him in...and proceeds to tell him some tales about his recent 'clients.'
To be fair, they are Children.
That night, what looks like kids in Halloween Masks show up...but they're actually monsters.
There's something at least- the Film never explains it.
In the second Story, a guy sets up a Camera in his Living Room and kills people.
That's it. Moving on...
In the 3rd Tale, two Detectives- one from the Police and one visiting from Scotland Yard) work together to solve a planned/announced murder.
You can see the twist coming from literally that summary, but it's still pretty entertaining.
In the final Story, a rich douchebag ends up in a Building, gets abused and ends up looking like a Homeless Drunk.
It's basically A Christmas Carol (by way of Jigsaw).
Naturally, it all ends with a final bit involving our Hero.
I bet you all guessed that he was dead the whole time (which is a common twist in these).
Nope.
He was about to die. So different. The End.
An alright Anthology Film. Like many of these, it is all over the place in both tone and quality. Starting at the beginning, we get a solid, if short tale. The Actress playing the Teacher is playing it *a bit* broad, but is still fun. The 'kids' are a curious and somewhat unique menace. I still don't know what they are. Any guesses?
*
The second tale is just a bad, shortened version of Peeping Tom. The way they intercut the murders and him being pushed through a line of Reporters post-arrest is odd and amounts to nothing. I was hoping for something- anything- to spice that one up. Here's a way too late suggestion: cut to him waiting to be interrogated. We see two Cops enter past the Security Camera (which is filming all of this). They remove their hats to reveal that they are women and they proceed to choke him to death in the room.
*
The third tale is fine on its own, but doesn't quite fit the Horror Anthology feel here. That said, it is the best of all four.
*
The finale tale is an odd one that leaves alot of questions unanswered. Who did it? How? Why does he not just go home, rest and move on with his life? Why was nearly skewering him a key part to making him look/act like a drunk Hobo?
*
The wrap-up was unsurprising in pretty much every way, but was otherwise fine. Not much else to say here as this faces stiff competition both before and after.
That said, I want to see the return of the 'killer wears a Little Orphan Annie' Mask.
The House of the Dead is a pretty nonchalant Film that doesn't really stick to any theme. It's also pretty light on the obvious things you'd expect, save for the twists.
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