Am I the only one who upon reading the title of this movie thinks of SCTV and Dr. Tongue's Evil House of Pancakes? Also, as the framing story is set on a train, it really should have been titled Dr. Horror's Terror Train, or some such. But I digress!
Like most anthology movies, some stories work better than others. Five men on a train have their tarot read by a Doctor Schreck (Peter Cushing) and he proceeds to tell them what horrible fates await them. The first story, about an architect and a werewolf, I found pretty dull. The second, about a killer garden vine, was pretty silly, plus - spoiler alert! - it kills a dog. The third, about a jazz trumpeter that steals a song from a voodoo ritual, is, I think, supposed to be funny, but isn't.
The last two are the best. Christopher Lee is an art critic who is humiliated by an artist, takes some revenge, but then the artist gets his revenge. And finally the last story stars Donald Sutherland as an American doctor who thinks his French bride may be a vampire.
Ultimately, all of the stories are a little silly, purposely so, and I'm pretty sure that's not how tarot cards work. But it has a good twist, and all of the stories are short enough that if you aren't digging one, you don't have to wait long for the next.
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is streaming with commercials on Tubi, and there is also an OK copy on YouTube. I watched it on a Blu-ray from my library.
3 comments:
I totally thought of Dr. Tongues House of Pancakes.
So glad I'm not the only one.
I enjoyed this one well enough.
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