As Good As It Gets

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Decent entertainment and I do enjoy short story segments because they have to get right to the point of which these stories do. This may not be premium movie watching but it is fine story-telling especially around camp fires and sleep-overs. They had done several of these at one point because they became popular as matinée movies. Remember those days? Two movies for a reasonable price and then add popcorn, drink and a candy to it. Go with a friend and its a nice day out. This is what you can expect if you catch this at home only you bring the food and the friend as they don't do these in the movies anymore. Too bad too. I miss the audience reaction to the stories an added bonus. Watch as each story presents ordinary people getting into extra-ordinary and some "horror" circumstances and how they handle it all. There is a nice little touch here too. Each segment is kick-started by a shop-keeper who sets up the episode and how it will go depending if you are an honest person or not. In other words, you wont be spared the horror but allowed a different outcome. You catch on to this toward the last two episodes but they should have made it plain from the first one. I have done so for you. Please enjoy the efforts of these people to entertain and to try to scare you....popcorn and snack with drink recommended

Kevin Connor directed this anthology film, the last in a series from Amicus studios. Four stories adapted from author R. Chetwynd Hayes and starring Peter Cushing as an antique shop owner who sells items with supernatural curses to deserving customers: 'The Gate Crasher' - A mirror with an evil inhabitant drives a man to murder for sinister reasons. 'An Act Of Kindness' - An unhappily married man becomes involved with a charity case who has a dutiful daughter. 'The Elemental' - A mischievous spirit has attached itself to a married couple, and a medium tries to help. 'The Door' - An old door contains a great evil that must be closed forever. Superb film with a wonderfully atmospheric opening and score, a fine cast(especially a most droll performance by Cushing) and a strong set of stories, especially the first and last, which are quite memorable and effective. A gem, and quite underrated.

"You strike a hard bargain," Peter Cushing's proprietor chides a haggler in 1973's From Beyond The Grave. "But things being what they are, it's yours." Given the year in which Kevin Connor's directorial debut was released, "things being what they are" is anything but a throwaway aside; the film's depressed, moth-balled ambiance echoes the malaise of a nation then besieged by industrial action, three-day weeks, IRA atrocities and Jonathan King hits. It's little wonder everyone here is so utterly hacked off, especially Cushing's small businessman, prepared to take that in-store warning "We always prosecute," to the most extreme lengths. No caution, no fine, no bail.From Beyond The Grave follows the trusted formula inaugurated by Ealing's Dead Of Night and furthered by Amicus and Tigon Studios throughout the 1960s and early 1970s: a quartet of variable scares, including a dodgy comedy for light relief, stuffed with top British talent (where the budget went), the whole harnessed to a slight linking narrative; in this case, featuring Cushing's antiques dealer as ersatz crypt keeper. Adapted from tales by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes and produced by the legendary partnership of Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, this not only represents a benchmark for Amicus Studios, it's a cracking little horror on its own terms. In the atypically gory opener 'The Gate Crasher', (featuring a downstairs neighbour who likes to read horror stories to his cat), David Warner makes off with an antique mirror he's haggled down to one-tenth of its actual price. He is subsequently hassled by a séance-conjured mirror demon who orders Warner to offer up blood sacrifices, enabling the demon to walk our world. Warner is soon waking up every morning with a wrecked flat, dead prostitutes under his floorboards and his pyjamas caked in gore.The second, strongest and strangest story, 'An Act Of Kindness', sees Ian Bannen's frustrated family man befriending street peddler Donald Pleasence and real-life daughter Angela (who, disquietingly, looks exactly like her dad). Together, they help him do away with his fishwife (a wonderfully horrible Diana Dors) through witchcraft, leading to an unexpected twist in the tale.'The Elemental' (to all purposes, the joker in the pack) has Ian Carmichael unwittingly plagued by a "sprit of air, fire and water," until Margaret Leighton's psychic-for-hire Madam Orloff ("half price on Thursdays") utters the immortal line, "You have an elemental on your shoulder." According to Orloff, it's a "killer, a real stinker, lusting after the pleasures of the flesh and sucking up the juices of the soul like a babe at his mother's breast". Unfortunately, her exorcism isn't quite as successful as it might have been.In the final and weakest chapter, Ian Ogilvy purchases an antique door which occasionally grants passage to a deadly 'Blue Room' from the seventeenth century, inhabited by a bewigged servant of the occult with designs on Lesley Anne Down. From the exuberant performances to the atmospheric photography, there's strong stuff here, overlooking that three out of the four stories rehash the same theme of inter-dimensional crossings. Leighton, especially, turns in a show-stopping comic turn as the batty Madam Orloff, and the joy from the cast is palpable; they're obviously having as much fun as the audience.But the main reason From Beyond The Grave has endured in the memory is down to 'An Act Of Kindness'. Often glowingly described as Pinter-esquire, and possessed of a near-European art-house sensibility, it seems to belong to another movie and genre entirely; had the remainder of the film availed itself of such dazzling writing and performances (or just merely consisted of this story strand) From Beyond The Grave would now be regarded as a paid-up genre classic in the Rosemary's Baby vein, instead of an uneven fun cult curio.Father-and-daughter act Donald and Angela are so ridiculously disturbing they must have frightened the crap out of a young audience who caught it the second time around when it was occasionally shown on British TV during the 1980s, the period in which its cult status was forged. It can also be viewed as a satire of English class and mores, with Bannen's downfall precipitated by his theft of a military medal of merit to convince Pleasence's ex-serviceman peddler that he was once a Somebody, and not the henpecked civil service desk-jockey he's become. For his part, Pleasence is happy to put on airs and graces for someone he perceives as a superior officer, while secretly plotting his downfall."She's a deep one," he observes of his incredibly weird daughter. "She reads books with jaw-cracking words. Read something out of a book, Emily." The fact it's leavened with Donald's oddball humour just makes it more distressing. Bannen's son Stephen, incidentally, is played by John O'Farrell, who went on to write for the likes of 'Spitting Image', 'Have I Got News For You', and penned the best-selling memoir 'Things Can Only Get Better'.Released in insecure times, From Beyond The Grave deals in moral absolutes: the price-switching customers who fleece the deceptively gentle, Northern-accented dealer of Temptations Ltd are middle-aged, middle-class, avaricious, frustrated, impotent, weak-willed and untrustworthy; the same kind of arrogant old bores who, for many, were then engaged in selling England down the Thames or undermining the national identity following Britain's entry into the Common Market. As such, they must be punished: bludgeoned, strangled or stabbed (and banished to another dimension for good measure). "I hope you enjoy snuffing it," Cushing dryly remarks to Ian Carmichael as he scurries away with his purloined box of snuff.In this context, it's telling that only Ian Ogilvy's character, a herald for the emerging young, trendy, house-buying lower middle-class is allowed to live, by dint of his essential honesty and goodness (he simply can't afford the full asking price). From Beyond The Grave's message appears to be: the old establishment can go to hell. For, to paraphrase George Orwell, if there is any future here, it lies with the C2s.

FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE is the seventh in a series of anthology movies produced by British company, Amicus, from 1965 to 1973. It is the final entry in the series, although a later movie, THE MONSTER CLUB, is considered by many to be also part of this series.I look upon the Amicus anthologies with great memories as I used to love them when I was in my teens. Naturally, I am pleased to realise that Amicus anthology movies are today looked upon as minor classics of the horror genre. Amicus is now considered to be as good a production company as its rivals at the time - Hammer and Tigon.FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE is easily the best of the Amicus anthologies as I shall demonstrate.There are four stories to be found in FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, neatly connected by a riveting linking story involving an antique shop. Each story begins with someone visiting the antique shop to purchase something and usually with the intention to con the proprietor. In fact the main message of the movie is - be careful who you con or you may pay the ultimate price.The late great Peter Cushing gives what is easily one of his best performances as the antique shop proprietor. I thought his performance here was better than those he gave in the Hammer Dracula series as Van Helsing or the Hammer Frankenstein series as Baron Frankenstein. In my opinion his only better performance outside of this movie was his portrayal of Grimsdyke in TALES FROM THE CRYPT.The first story sees David Warner purchasing an antique mirror. He invites some friends over to hold a seance and unleashes a demon who has spent centuries waiting for his release. Warner's character then has to murder people to give the demon human sacrifices necessary to release him. I won't spoil the more precise details but I will say that this first story has the darkest tone and is perhaps the best of the four. David Warner gives a superb performance as the tormented men who has unknowingly released an imprisoned demon. Marcel Steiner also delivers an equally great performance as the demon, who is very scary, menacing and merciless.The second story sees Ian Bannen befriend a shoelace and matches peddler, played by Donald Pleasance. The peddler gets the false impression that Bannen is a war veteran. Bannen then decides to steal a medal from the antique shop and keep up the pretence. Bannen's character is easy to sympathise with because of his marriage to a domineering nagging wife, played perfectly by Diana Dors. Bannen is naturally fed up of listening to his wife's constant nagging and decides to meet the peddler's family. I won't spoil any further details but I will say that this story is the quirkiest with a twist ending that you'll never see coming the first time. Ian Bannen and Donald Pleasance give superb performances. Donald Pleasance's daughter, Angela, also has an excellent role as the peddler's daughter. Her character is one of the creepiest seen in a British horror movie and the story is worth viewing just for her performance.The third story sees Ian Carmichael purchase a silver snuff box. On his way home, he encounters an eccentric spiritual medium, played perfectly by Margaret Leighton. Leighton's performance has to be seen to be believed. Anyway, she tells Carmichael that he has a demon resting on his shoulder that is eating away at his soul. Naturally, no one else can see it. Predictably, an exorcism is performed to get rid of the demon. But will it really go so easily? I won't spoil further details but I will say that this story has a lighter comic tone that provides a perfect backdrop for the final story. Ian Carmichael gives the performance who anyone familiar with him would expect. Special mention should be given to Nyree Dawn Porter, who plays Carmichael's wife. Her role is pivotal to the ending of this story and she plays it straight, ensuring the story ends with the necessary quirky twist. Nyree Dawn Porter's role is massively underrated here and in my opinion is one of the best in the movie.The final story sees Ian Ogilvy purchase a antique door. Although the door is only intended to be for a small stationery cupboard, Ogilvy finds an entire 17th century room behind it. It transpires that someone from that time period is using the room as a gateway to the future and his plans are not exactly pleasant. I won't spoil further details but I will say that this story has a lovely Gothic feel and is massively underrated by those who have commented on this page. Lesley Anne Down provides excellent eye candy as Ogilvy's wife.The ending of this movie is one that I won't spoil. I will admit that I never saw this coming as I anticipated an abrupt end. I was pleasantly surprised with the final result.Kevin Connor's direction is based almost entirely around a single objective - arousing the audience's curiosity of the various sinister characters to be found. He ensures camera-work makes use of quirky angles and focuses on various unexpected shock moments that genuinely make the audience jump. The relevant editing is razor sharp to add full impact. The opening credits showing a slow panning around a graveyard feature some superb quirky camera angles that give us a small taste of what is to follow. Each story closes with the camera focus on a still image, which then closes in and re-opens with focus on an antique in the shop window, making a perfect connection between the stories.Overall, FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE is a must-see for fans of the Amicus anthologies, fans of other Amicus movies or fans of portmanteau horror movies. If my summary provides the movie with enough appeal in your eyes, check it out. You'll enjoy it!