It was great to discover this Horror anthology film. I had no previous knowledge of it. This movie is comprised of four stories, loosely tied together by a wraparound starring none other than Vincent Price. The wraparound is the only bad thing about this anthology. I was surprised by the shocking content of these stories.

I'm not going to spoil the four tales, but will try to relay my thoughts without giving the endings away because three of the four truly surprised me. None of the stories are titled, so I'll refer to them numerically.

The first entry is the most demented. It features a social oddball who falls in love with a beautiful woman where he works. He somehow manages to secure a date with her, even though he is weird and unattractive. Let's just say the date doesn't go well. There is also a very uncomfortable relationship with his live-in, sickly sister. He very reluctantly gives her nightly sponge baths. On one occasion, she dresses up for him, complete with poorly applied makeup that is disturbing. Add to this story some implied necrophilia and an out-of-left-field conclusion and this one makes me feel guilty about how much I enjoyed it.

Story two focuses on a greedy loser who lives in the South, nearly dies, but is saved by a man that practices voodoo. I am not a fan of black magic, voodoo story lines, but the ending of this is grotesque, dark and absolutely merciless.

The third entry features a man who can eat glass, metal, razors and not suffer a single scratch. He works as a circus freak. A circus that is run by a practitioner of witchcraft or some sort of black magic. The witch claims ownership of everything in the circus. When the man falls in love with a woman and they try to escape the big top/freak show together, well, I'll just say things come apart for them. This is another story with an overwhelmingly dark finish.

The fourth and final tale features some Civil War soldiers that come upon a band of self-sufficient children at a dilapidated plantation. This was the weakest story of the group but still packs a brutal punch. "Children of the Corn" this ain't.

One other note...I watched this on YouTube and it was an absolutely awful rip of the movie. I think the grainy, dark quality of this stream may have actually embellished the creepiness of it.