One of the best of Amicus' anthology series, From Beyond The Grave isn't as campy as the average, and has some instances of genuine horror.
The camp is still there, of course, with a seemingly ad-libbing Peter Cushing as a Northern shopkeeper and Ian Carmichael breaking into an unscripted smile at Margaret Leighton's OTT turn as Madam Orloff.
But there's also some genuinely nasty stuff in there, most notably David Warner as a killer of prostitutes in order to feed a ghost, and Donald Pleasence and his real-life daughter as a family practising voodoo. (Interestingly Angela Pleasence would later go on to appear in 'Scream Satan Scream!', the first episode of Steve Coogan's short-lived spoof horror series 'Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible').
The first two segments and the framing story are definitely the strongest, and the memorable final two acts could perhaps have done with a fifth story to shorten their length and keep the momentum going, but this is a fine archive work.
The camp is still there, of course, with a seemingly ad-libbing Peter Cushing as a Northern shopkeeper and Ian Carmichael breaking into an unscripted smile at Margaret Leighton's OTT turn as Madam Orloff.
But there's also some genuinely nasty stuff in there, most notably David Warner as a killer of prostitutes in order to feed a ghost, and Donald Pleasence and his real-life daughter as a family practising voodoo. (Interestingly Angela Pleasence would later go on to appear in 'Scream Satan Scream!', the first episode of Steve Coogan's short-lived spoof horror series 'Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible').
The first two segments and the framing story are definitely the strongest, and the memorable final two acts could perhaps have done with a fifth story to shorten their length and keep the momentum going, but this is a fine archive work.