Review of From Beyond the Grave

Fun portmanteau from Amicus featuring a superb cast including Peter Cushing, David Warner and Donald Pleasance.
Four stories intersperse scenes set in a creepy antiques store run by Cushing himself, where all customers buying items meet unexpected and often violent ends.

The first and second stories shine in particular with David Warner's ghostly mirror forcing him to commit vicious murders in his flat in the former. It stands out as both unsettling and superbly told with unflinching brutality. The second story with Donald Pleasance and his real life daughter as voodoo practitioners is also clever and brilliantly acted with a real eerie feel, and has a delightfully unexpected twist.

The third instalment is a silly affair featuring an OTT medium battling an evil elemental bothering a city man, and the fourth where an ancient door conceals a hidden room from the past that houses a ghost who eats souls is too ambitious in too short a section and falls flat.

Despite the uneven tone and occasional iffy effect, the film as a whole works so well that you easily forgive its faults.