From Beyond the Grave

There is an antiques shop. The owner receives his customers and the shop's motto promises more than it gives. Four customers come. Each takes something and none of them behaves honestly: one talks down the price, one lies, one steals. What they take then enters their lives. A mirror, a medal, a snuffbox and a door. Four separate stories are told and all of them begin in the same shop. Kevin Connor directs. Peter Cushing, David Warner, Donald Pleasence and Ian Ogilvy are in the cast. The source is stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes. The film is one of the portmanteau horror productions made by the Amicus studio, which used the form regularly in the seventies. The register of the four sections differs; one is straight horror, one is almost comedy and one is a psychological thriller. Peter Cushing ties the sections together as the shopkeeper and his character is never explained. The section with Donald Pleasence is the most cited part, and his daughter plays in it as well. The rule the narrative builds is simple: those who behave honestly come to no harm. The film applies it to the end. It belongs to the late period of British horror and is counted among the last examples of that line. Who it is for: viewers who like seventies British horror and portmanteau films. Who it is not for: the sections are of unequal quality, the effects are old, and the narrative is formulaic.