[3] It is an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on short stories from the EC Comics series Tales from the Crypt by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig, and Bill Gaines.

Intro While viewing old catacombs in the English countryside, five strangers stumble into a room with a mysterious Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson), who details how each of them will die.

...And All Through the House The beautiful and glamorous Joanne Clayton kills her much older husband Richard on Christmas Eve to collect his insurance.

She sees the killer (who is dressed in a Santa Claus costume) outside her home, but cannot call the police without exposing her own crime.

After cleaning up the murder scene, Joanne attempts to phone the police (with the intention of making them believe the maniac killed her husband).

However, her young daughter Carol — believing the maniac to be Santa — unlocks the door and lets him into the house, whereupon he strangles Joanne to death by the fire.

He wakes up, having been thrown clear of the wrecked and burned car, and attempts to hitchhike home, but everyone he meets reacts with horror upon seeing him.

While both the Elliots are snobs who resent Grimsdyke as a blight on their neighbourhood, James strongly detests the old man enough to conduct a smear campaign against him: first having his beloved dogs taken by animal control (although one of them returns to him), then persuading a member of the council to have him removed from his job, and later exploiting parents' paranoid fears about child molestation.

His wife Enid notices, for the first time, the inscription on a Chinese figurine in the couple's collection, which grants three wishes to the owner.

Wraparounds: "And All Through the House": "Reflection of Death": "Poetic Justice": "Wish You Were Here": "Blind Alleys": Milton Subotsky of Amicus Productions had long been a fan of EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt and eventually persuaded his partner Max Rosenberg to buy the rights.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, saying, "It's put together something like the comic books, with the old Crypt Keeper acting as host and narrator.

There's something about Crypt that makes even jaded viewers feel like they're kids sitting in their rooms late at night with the lights out, telling eerie tales with the aid of a flashlight.

"[7] Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine rated it two-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that "the undercurrent of sternness is tempered by a truly bottomless roster of campy excess".

[8] Anthony Arrigo of Dread Central wrote, "The greatest strength in Tales comes not from the acting or directing – both of which are perfectly sound – but in the rich stories culled from the comics.

"[9] Chris Alexander of Fangoria wrote, "[F]rom its first frames to its invasive final shot, this classic British creeper offers an unrelenting study in the art of the macabre.