The sinister/lovable proprietor of an antiques shop (Peter Cushing) sends various folks home with items that end up bringing about doom for his not-so honest customers. In The Gate Crasher David Warner takes home an antique mirror through dishonest means. A séance amongst friends is had and the mirror proves to house the decaying spirit of a serial murderer. The tall nightmare gets its psychic fingers into Mr. Warner and forces the well-off man to “feed” him. The mirror monster’s food of choice is the blood of young women because no mirror-dwelling entity is ever happy with a plate of nachos. Murder and madness follow and it’s all a solid opening yarn for our anthology and an interesting spin on vampirism. An Act of Kindness has an unhappy family man partaking in some stolen valor by going the five finger discount route with a military medal from the shop. He desperately needs it after claiming to be a decorated service man to a veteran (Donald Pleasance) who sells matches on the corner. The match salesman invites the man over for tea with he and his daughter (Angela Pleasance) and the man falls for the strange woman. It would appear father and daughter are practitioners of the dark arts and there’s plans afoot for the false soldier. The Pleasance family has some good fun portraying oddballs and add some sparks to a predictable, middling tale. The Elemental involves a snobbish man who switches price tags to get his hands on a snuffbox for a steal. Unbeknownst to him, along with the snuffbox comes an invisible entity. While on the train home, an eccentric medium lets him know that an elemental is following him. He naturally assumes it’s all bullshit but when the entity attempts to kill his wife, he tracks down the psychic for help. Margaret Leighton is a genuine treat as the batty psychic who gets called in to perform an exorcism which, of course, goes to hell. The most fun this flick gets and a treat relying on an excellent performance and an interesting threat. Just lovely. Finally The Doorhas an honest customer (Ian Ogilvy) picking up a monstrous antique door that he replaces his cupboard door with. Instead of opening up to stationary, it magically opens up to a blue-tinged room where our hero begins to spend his time reading a spell book he’s found there. He runs into problems when the foppish sorcerer who called the place home shows up looking to collect the souls of the curious lad and his lovely wife. A good time for sure that may not offer up anything all that fresh but utilizes a fine cast and never really sticks around long enough to bore. Highlights include David Warner’s style, intense door abuse and Peter Cushing’s bow tie.
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