The Best Horror Anthology You’ve Never Seen, Stream Without Netflix

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors features five vignettes that occur during a singular wrap-around story that involves five passengers on a train that meet a mysterious man named Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing) in their train car.

Dr. Schreck pulls out a deck of Tarot cards and reads them for each passenger, the cards setting up the different vignettes.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors first story unfolds with passenger Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum), a Scottish architect in the process of restoring his family’s ancestral manor for its current occupant.

When he opens a false wall in the cellar, Jim discovers a coffin containing Count Cosmo Valdemar. The mystery of why his coffin was sealed off is quickly revealed when mysterious deaths begin occurring.

The second tale in Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors begins with Dr. Schreck reading the cards of Bill Rogers (Alan Freeman). It’s shown that Bill and his wife and daughter return home from a vacation to discover a rapidly growing and invasive vine taking over the outside wall of their home.

Bill soon comes to understand that this plant has a mind of its own and will do whatever it takes to survive.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors turns over the third round of Tarot cards for musician Biff Bailey (Roy Castle), who recently took a trip to the West Indies to perform with his jazz band.

Biff becomes enraptured by the local beats and steals them for his own performances, unleashing a horrific vengeance from the Voodoo priests that he offended.

Art critic Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee) gets his turn at the card in Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors fourth vignette. After a public beef with an artist leads to Franklyn’s humiliation, the critic ruthlessly attacks the artist by hitting him with his car.

The accident causes the painter to lose his right hand, an appendage that seeks revenge on Franklyn after its despondent host commits suicide.

The final installment in Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors follows Dr. Bob Carrol (Donald Sutherland) and his new wife after returning from their honeymoon abroad.

When locals are revealed to be drained of blood, Dr. Carroll becomes convinced that he has unwittingly married a vampire and sets out to stop her bloody rampage.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors gives horror audiences five solid mini movies that are a combination of original concepts and adaptations of horror literature. The fifth installment serves as a great retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, while the ill-fated jazz musician is a tale taken from the short story “Papa Benjamin” by Cornell Woolrich.

The remaining three tales are reminiscent of 50s pulp and pre-comic book authority horror comics, the first time of many that Amicus Productions uses these mediums as inspiration.

The film has wonderful performances in each of its vignettes and fans get to see on-screen rivals Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing together in one of the few non-Hammer Horror Films productions they share billing with.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors gives viewers a particularly great showing for the late Donald Sutherland in one of his earliest roles.

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The film’s settings were masterfully created, especially the ancient manor in the first vignette. Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors is well balanced horror with light comic relief, and also works to give audiences a good mix of character archetypes to root for (and against) within each turn of Dr. Schreck’s Tarot cards. The film gives a basic formula of different stories that all intertwine around a common theme that’s revealed in a twist ending, one that’s been copied many times over in the horror genre.

You can stream Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors for free with Tubi.