"Something came out of that coffin tonight, something evil and strange."

When Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were paired as creator and creature in 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein, they re-invigorated gothic horror and stole the screen back from the space aliens and giant, radioactive bugs that dominated genre cinema of the 1950s. The fight scene at the end of 1958's Horror of Dracula cemented their place as an iconic horror duo. So who wouldn't want to see them bickering on a train?

This week's Thursday Thriller is Dr. Terror's House of Horrors.

This 1965 anthology film by Freddy Francis casts Cushing in the role of Dr. Schreck, a fortune teller who boards a train and reads tarot cards for his fellow passengers. Four cards lay out their destinies, and the fifth card tells how they can escape their fate. In each case, the answer is same -- death.

The first two fortunes include an OK werewolf story and a silly bit about a killer plant. They serve as decent warm-ups for the rest of the movie.

The third story stars Ray Castle as jazz musician Biff Bailey, who takes a trip to the West Indies to do a little cultural appropriation. Despite a voodoo priest's warning not to steal the sacred music of the local deity, Bailey does it anyway, and who can blame him? It really swings, man! It's a fun piece with some cool music and I liked it even though Bailey's comeuppance wasn't as bloody as I might have hoped for.

Lee plays haughty, skeptical art critic Franklyn Marsh who spends most of his time during the framing story flapping his newspaper and warning the other guys on the train that Dr. Schreck is an obvious fraud. He eventually acquiesces to Schreck's offer of a reading, if only to prove he isn't afraid.

In his fortune, we see Marsh heaping scorn on the work of painter Eric Landor (Michael Gough). Landor gets his revenge by tricking Marsh into praising a painting by a chimpanzee. Humiliated, his reputation in ruin, Marsh takes the first opportunity to run over Landor with his car. Landor loses his hand and can never paint again. Despondent, he commits suicide, but his severed hand lives on to haunt Marsh. It's probably the most satisfying bit of the film, but it ain't over yet.

The fifth and final story finds a young Donald Sutherland playing Dr. Bob Carroll, who just moved to a new town with his hot French wife Nicole (Jennifer Jayne) and has to come to terms with mounting evidence that she is a vampire.

It would be my favorite story of the set, except for the bat. Had technology not yet advanced enough to give filmmakers a halfway convincing rubber bat by 1965? Seems like something someone would have worked on since 1896. I can't remember ever having seen a good one, but I guess it's something I'll have to look out for from now on.

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is not a perfect movie, more silly than scary, but I did enjoy it, stupid bats and all.