The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but no one ever will do portmanteau movies quite like Amicus. This 1971 offering claims that “TERROR waits for you in every room in The House That Dripped Blood” and it’s directed by Peter Duffell, who mainly worked in British TV. All four stories are based on the words of Psycho author Robert Bloch.

Movie star Paul Henderson bought a country estate where every previous tenant has died or disappeared mysteriously. Now, a Scotland Yard inspect is here to get to the bottom of things.

In Method for Murder, a horror writer (Denholm Elliott, Marcus Brody from the Indiana Jones films) and his wife are haunted by the villain of the novel he’s currently writing.

Then, in Waxworks, Peter Cushing and Joss Acklund (the bad guy from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey) all in love with a mannequin.

Sweets to the Sweet is all about a widower (Christopher Lee!) battling a governess over how to best raise his daughter, who may or may not have evil powers.

Finally, in The Cloak, we learn that Paul Henderson (Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor Who) found an evil cloak that transformed him into a vampire. Ingrid Pitt shows up, which delights me more than words can say.

Despite its title, there’s no blood in this one. There is, however, plenty of fun. If you’re bored by a story, just hang out for a bit. And if you like what you’re seeing, there are plenty more Amicus films we can recommend.

You can get the blu ray of this movie from Shout! Factory or watch it on Amazon Prime.

You can listen to our podcast about this movie right here!