13

I have only very vague memories of this live-action horror movie:

  • I watched it in the 90s, or early 00s, on TV.
  • It had a "British" feel to it, though I most likely watched a German dubbing.
  • The movie was episodic in nature. The framing plot was that there is this antiquities shop run by some old guy. Customers would enter the shop and do something "bad" (I don't remember specifics, but think stealing an item or taking cash out of the register while the shop owner wasn't looking). In return, something bad (of a supernatural nature) would happen to them.
  • One male customer (I remember him being a stereotypical British Gentleman, though I might be conflating that with something else), long after leaving the shop, somehow ends up marrying. At the wedding, there is this typical tiered wedding cake with a couple figurine on top. Someone (I think the bride) cuts into the wedding cake with a large knife. When the knife edge hits the groom figurine, the real groom starts bleeding from his head and dies.
  • The final customers are a young couple. They are somewhere within the shop and open a scary black door with intricate designs and a brass lion knocker. Something spooky happens. I don't remember exactly what. Possibly whatever is behind the door tries to draw them through. In a final plot twist, the couple actually escapes. It is then revealed that the "bad" thing they were doing in the shop wasn't bad at all. (Again, sorry, I don't remember the details. It could be that the camera angle made it look like they were stealing something but then in the later scene it is revealed that they just picked something up and put it down again, or something.)
  • I'm sure there were more customers, but I have no memory as to what happened to them.

Does someone recognize this movie? Google results show me all kinds of very interestingly themed wedding cakes, but no clue towards the name of the movie.

1 Answer 1

24

Is this From Beyond the Grave (1974)...?

From Wikipedia:

Four customers buy or steal items from Temptations Limited, an antique shop whose motto is "Offers You Cannot Resist". A nasty fate awaits those who cheat the shop's proprietor.

This is a British anthology horror film containing four short stories revolving around a mysterious antique shop. The shop owner is played by Peter Cushing, who was about 60 years old at the time of filming.

In the second story, titled "An Act of Kindness," an office manager strikes up a conversation with a British Army veteran (played by Donald Pleasence) now earning a living as a street peddler. The protagonist pretends that he too was a combat veteran, even though he only served in the Royal Army Pay Corps, which dealt with administration. To corroborate his story, he attempts to buy a Distinguished Service Order medal from the shop, but the shop owner refuses to sell it to him until he can produce a certificate confirming that he'd genuinely been awarded the medal, so he ends up stealing it. In the final scene of the story, the protagonist has just married the peddler's daughter (played by Pleasence's real-life daughter, Angela) and when she cuts the head of the model groom on top of the wedding cake, it starts bleeding and the protagonist collapses and dies.

Image of the bride and groom at their post-wedding celebration from segment 2 of "From Beyond the Grave" (1974).

Image of a knife cutting into the head of the model groom on the wedding cake from segment 2 of "From Beyond the Grave" (1974).

From Beyond the Grave (1974)

In the fourth story, titled "The Door," a young-ish man buys an ornate door (visible in the background of the image below, along with the shop owner and the protagonist of this story) from the shop. The protagonist pays in cash and the shop owner puts the money in the till and leaves it open while he enters another room to get some paper to write a receipt on; it's initially left ambiguous as to whether the protagonist stole any money from the till or not. After the door is delivered to the protagonist's house, he uses it as the door to a stationary cupboard, but when the door is opened, it sometimes leads to a haunted drawing room in an old stately manor. A ghost from the room attempts to kidnap the protagonist's wife, but he manages to rescue her and vanquish the ghost and it's ultimately confirmed that he didn't steal any money from the shop owner's till.

Image of the shop interior, showing the shop owner protagonist and door, from segment 4 of "From Beyond the Grave" (1974).

From Beyond the Grave (1974)

1
  • 1
    Thank you, that's exactly it. I misremembered some details, sorry about that (e. g., when they opened the door it was not in the shop any more). Commented May 17 at 18:48

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.