Sometimes known as "portmanteau movies," anthology movies tell three, four, or five separate stories, often encompassing them or alternating them with a frame tale that ties them together.
From the beginning, anthology movies have been associated with horror. The very first was probably
Tales of Hoffman (Austria, 1911, apparently lost). The second was
Eerie Tales (a.k.a "Tales of the Uncanny," Germany, 1919).
I've never been a big fan of anthology movies because viewers inevitably like some stories better than others. It's virtually impossible for any movie to give us multiple tales that we will enjoy equally.
It feels like every anthology movie has a weak link.
It's also traditional to make one story comical or partly comical. This can add complexity to an anthology film, but it can also dilute the total emotional effect.
Yet some viewers love these films. Like EC comic books (a direct inspiration for several of the films), anthology films entertain us by surprising us - with hooks, cleverness, poetic justice, and pleasing shocks.
A few lesser-known anthology films don't fit the horror pattern, including
Dreams that Money Can Buy (USA, 1947, a surrealist film with episodes based on separate dreams),
The Illustrated Man (USA, 1969, a sci-fi film with episodes based on Ray Bradbury stories),
Tales of Hoffmann (UK, 1951, a musical fantasy), and
The Decameron (Italy, 1970, a bawdy comedy with episodes based on medieval poet Boccacio).
But the vast majority of anthology films are horror films, even if mixed with occasional fantasy or humor.
I'll begin with the first widely-distributed anthology film,
Destiny, below. Then I'll move through the decades into the early 1980s where my territory ends. I count nearly 30 films total, which means it will take me three columns to cover them all!
In this first installment, I cover anthology films up until 1963, before the British production company Amicus reinvented the subgenre.
Read more »![]()
