Shown again on the Horror channel last night,
this British horror film (known as House of
Crazies in America) was the fifth anthology
feature from Amicus Productions.
Prolific award-winning author and screenwriter
Robert Bloch (Psycho) adapted four of his own short stories here (as portmanteau tales Frozen Fear, The Weird Tailor, Lucy Comes to Stay and
Mannikins of Horror).
The feature was directed by Roy Ward Baker
(A Night to Remember, Quatermass and the
Pit), and produced by Max Rosenberg and
Milton Subotsky.
Released by Cinerama in 1972, the film
featured regular Amicus lead and genre
legend Peter Cushing (as Smith), Robert Powell, Britt Ekland, Charlotte Rampling, Herbert Lom, and nine other Doctor Who cast and crew connections:
- Richard Todd (Walter) played Sanders (pictured) in Kinda
- Sylvia Syms (Ruth) was Mrs. Pritchard in Ghost Light
- Geoffrey Bayldon (Max) was Organon in The Creature from the Pit, then later voiced Big Finish's first Unbound Doctor for both Auld Mortality (2003) and A Storm of Angels (2005)
- Sylvia Marriott (Head Nurse) was Lexa's Follower in Meglos
- John Franklyn-Robbins (Stebbins) was a Time Lord in (part 1 of) Genesis of the Daleks
- Tony Wall (Houseman) was Napoleon Bonaparte in The Reign of Terror: Prisoners of Conciergerie
- Anthony Waye (assistant director), Pamela Davies (continuity), and Gerald Larn (titles designer) all worked on Aaru's Dalek movies
