Despite the presence of screenwriter Robert Bloch (PSYCHO), this is one of the weaker anthology horror films from Amicus, the company that previously gave us Dr. Terror's House of Horrors and Torture Garden. The problems are two-fold: Bloch's screenplay utilizes perhaps the weakest linking device of any Amicus anthology (i.e., the titular house), and first-time director Peter Duffell, though competent, shows none of the visual flair the Freddie Francis brought to the earlier films, failing to imbue them atmosphere even when the stories fell short. As was sometimes the case with Amicus productions, the strongest episode is one played for laughs: "The Cloak," starring John Pertwee as arrogant actor Paul Henderson, starring in a vampire film, who gets a little more than he bargained for when he tries to add a little authenticity to his costume by purchasing a cloak at a mysterious antique shop.

Things start promisingly enough with Detective Holloway (John Bennet) searching for the missing Henderson. Real estate agent A.J. Stoker (John Bryans) tells the detective that this is not the first mysterious incident to occur at the house where Henderson was staying. Previously, Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott) was driven mad after being haunted by the appearance of a fictional character he created (actually, the whole thing was staged by his wife and best friend to get rid of him). Philip Grayson (Peter Cushing) was killed in a local wax museum after he became obsessed with one of a beautiful female figure there, driving the jealous museum owner to murder. John Reid (Christopher Lee) fell afoul of his foul offspring, an innocent-looking young witch who tosses a wax effigy of him into the fireplace. Dismissing the stories as nonsense, Detective Holloway heads out to the house to search for Henderson, whom he finds in a casket in the basement. Holloway manages to stake the actor-turned-vampire, but Henderson's vampire bride (Ingrid Pitt) survives to put the bite on the detective. Afterward, real estate agent Stoker explains the moral of the story directly to the viewer: the house dispenses justice to those who inhabit it, giving each occupant the fate he deserves.

The insurmountable problem with this rather silly moral (even worse than the clumsy way it is simply spoken to the camera) is that none of the stories really supports it. Denholm Elliot's character is the innocent victim of a conspiracy by his wife and her lover; he does nothing to deserve his fate. Peter Cushing meets his demise not in the house but in the nearby wax museum. Paul Henderson runs into trouble not because of the house but because of the cloak. Only the "Sweets to the Sweet" episode comes close to illustrating the alleged moral: Christopher Lee is actually destroyed by his daughter (who is a witch), but at least his cruel treatment of her almost makes him seem to be upon the receiving end of a fate he asked for, if not actually deserved.

Although they have a few nice moments, the stories themselves are mostly lacking in fear. As is often the case with Robert Bloch, the characters are not particularly sympathetic, and the plots are clearly contrived to inflict some horrible demise upon them; consequently, the audience feels little need to invest emotionally in the on-screen events, instead simply sitting back and waiting for the expected gruesome outcome. "Sweets to the Sweet" comes closest to generating some real suspense, thanks to the hopeless predicament of the father and to the contrast between his daughter's evil actions and her innocent appearance.

The standout episode by far is "The Cloak," thanks in large part to some funny lines and to Pertwee's scenery chewing performance as the hammy actor Henderson, who despises the paltry production values of his current opus, "Curse of the Bloodsuckers." The voluptuous presence of Ingrid Pitt (as a vampire sent to bring Henderson into the fold, because she and her brethren have enjoyed his cinematic portrayals of vampirism) certainly helps.

TRIVIA

In "The Cloak," horror movie star Paul Henderson (John Pertwee) laments the dismal quality of current horror films and years for the classics like FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, adding "The old one with Bela Lugosi -- not that new fellow." The "new fellow" is clearly a reference to Christopher Lee, who played the Count in HORROR OF DRACULA. Although the script was written by Robert Bloch, producer Max J. Rosenberg took credit for this an inside-joke, during a Q&A session after a screening of the film at the American Cinematheque in Hollywood in 2002. This certainly seems possible, since Bloch wrote his scripts for Amicus productions in America, before the films were cast, and never visited the studios in England where they were shot.

The role of Paul Henderson was supposedly offered to Vincent Price. The character of a hammy, scenery-chewing actor certainly seems tailor made for the late great horror star, who often adopted a tongue-in-cheek attitude when stuck in below-par productions