Vault Of Horror - 11:25pm, Film4 Mon 25 Aug

Vault Of Horror was made by Amicus Productions, lesser cousin of Hammer Studios, but with a style and history of its own. The 1973 film has a top line cast: Tom Baker, Denholm Elliott, Glynis Johns, Anna Massey and even Terry-Thomas. Vault is a portmanteau film – five stories linked by the fact that here are five people with tales to tell that deserve and get hell. These charming tales of crime and retribution were famously and roughly mutilated by the official censor, with the result that for the most part still frames were inserted to conceal moments of intolerable horror. But thanks to the survival of what is called an uncut “interpos”, a print made as a half way stage to making a “duplicating negative”, we can now see Vault of Horror uncut. The scenes in question are all to do with exuberant blood letting. First of all, vampires suspend their victim upside down, insert a tap into his neck, and use it to draw blood fresh. As a still the scene looks silly, as a moving image, it’s funny and unprecedented. Next, a hammer blow to a head was docked, along with sight of human organs packed and preserved in jars… With one jar containing a particular male organ labelled “odds and ends” – a joke too far for the censor of the time. Later on, hands are hacked off, only then to disappear for decades under the censor’s scalpel. Now all these snips and changes are history, and with funding from Channel 4 and Film4, a brand new uncut transfer in High Definition has been made, giving audiences the chance to revisit and appreciate the sheer charm of this really bloody and silly slice of perfectly formed 70’s British horror.