Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Dreaded Crypts of Horror

April officially kicks off with the first eerie story from Web of Evil #15, about an evil man with a very evil collection. If you’re a fan of Fritz Lang’s awesome film Secret Beyond the Door (’48), then you’ll immediately know where this idea probably sprang from.

From the June 1954 issue of Web of Evil #15









11 comments:

Anonymous said...

AWESOME POST TO BEGIN THE NEW MONTH! THE IDEA OF A MAN WHO COLLECTS EVIL ROOMS IS BRILLIANT. I'VE NEVER SEEN THE LANG FILM BUT IT SOUNDS GREAT, I'LL DEFINITELY CHECK IT OUT.

The Vicar of VHS said...

Ah, the old "invite your ungrateful spawn to spend a night in a haunted house and gain your fortune" plot. It's usually good for some grim laughs, and this is no exception! Great art, cool story!

And the moral is--when your guest bed has huge menacing arms sticking out on all sides...SLEEP ON THE FLOOR. :)

The Vicar of VHS said...

And of course the best known version of this type of plot is The House on Haunted Hill--the Vincent Price version, naturally. :)

Mr. Karswell said...

>the old "invite your ungrateful spawn to spend a night in a haunted house and gain your fortune" plot.

This one feels a little more than just the old dark house / reading of the will plot to me... the collection of evil rooms is what I was referring to mostly.

>the best known version of this type of plot is The House on Haunted Hill

That one probably did set the bar. I really liked ARNOLD ('73) starring Rody McDowell and Elsa Lanchester. Very funny black horror comedy with some truly great murders.

Anonymous said...

Killer post! And I mean it literally. I like how you tie a story in with an old forgotten movie occasionally, those of us not familiar with alot of classic cinema now have something else to look forward to discovering. Thanks Karswell!

Anonymous said...

Wow!this is the William Castle film William Castle never made,although i do see the Lang influence.love the atmospheric art,with it's implied violence rather than gore.the splash though,is it my filthy mind,or does the god seems to be getting a little "touchy" with Thaxter?.

Mr. Karswell said...

>something else to look forward to discovering. Thanks Karswell!

Your welcome!

>is it my filthy mind,or does the god seems to be getting a little "touchy" with Thaxter?

Implied violence, but full-on filthy touchy!

Anonymous said...

The Filthy Touchy Crypts of Horror!

Anonymous said...

Do you suppose we're intended to think that the vulture pecked out the villian's eyes?
His eyes are bandaged...and the vulture swooped down...

Great story.
Thanks.

Mr. Karswell said...

>think that the vulture pecked out the villian's eyes?

That's what I got out of it too. You can see the vulture still hungry and swooping around outside the window in the very last panel too.

Unknown said...

Eeee. Most of these are not truly horrifying, but this was.