The House of the Dead

During a heavy rainstorm, Talmudge seeks shelter and is invited indoors by a mortician. The mortician explains that he collects the bodies of people who die in interesting and unique ways, turning death into a spectacle. He shows Talmudge several caskets and hints at the fates contained within, drawing him deeper into the morgue's morbid world.

Miss Sibiler, a schoolteacher who dislikes children, is alone at home when a mysterious noise arises from another part of the house. She investigates and returns to a kitchen where the radio has mysteriously been turned off, heightening her anxiety. Upstairs, a silhouette appears behind the shower curtain as masked children reveal sharp teeth and maul her to death.

Growski, a man obsessed with cameras, films himself at home and invites a woman named Julie over for dinner. He manipulates Julie into removing her stockings under the pretense of a magic trick, then uses them to choke her to death. The camera keeps rolling as he carries out the murder and covers his tracks.

Later, Growski is shown with Carol, who notices the camera is still running. He subdues her with a chokehold and strangles her with a cable. Finally he encounters Mrs. Lumquist, stabbing her when she tries to call a taxi. The mortician notes that Growski was executed for his murders a year later, and that the state forbade photographs at his execution.

Detective Toliver, reputed as the United States' best investigator, and Inspector McDowal, the greatest in England, share a meal when Toliver receives an unsigned note predicting that someone he knows will die in three days. The note challenges Toliver to let McDowal shadow him and observe his methods, hoping to crown himself the world’s leading criminologist. Toliver agrees and invites McDowal to continue the case.

Toliver reveals that he is the intended victim and that McDowal is the killer, provoking a tense confrontation. McDowal shoots Toliver, but Toliver, wearing a bulletproof vest, survives and exposes McDowal's plan, even activating a hidden blade to impale him. Toliver then opens McDowal's briefcase to reveal a timed explosive, while the mortician reappears to claim McDowal's body, noting that Toliver's remains were too fragmented to bury.

Cantwell, an insensitive office worker, dismisses the plight of a homeless man before stepping into an empty store. He discovers the outside doors won't open to the street and begins to explore the vacant space. The absence of escape heightens his anxiety as he wanders the dim, silent corridors.

Cantwell becomes trapped inside the building and endures mental and physical torment, with only alcohol to dull his nerves. He faces near disasters, including the threat of being crushed in an elevator shaft. The isolation grinds him down as time seems to stretch on without rescue.

Cantwell finally staggers back into the outside world, only to be ignored by a businessman who passes him by without a second glance. The mortician later explains that Cantwell died in a gutter from a rotten liver, a grim consequence of his neglect.

A fifth casket sits empty and is explained to belong to someone who practiced infidelity. The mortician then reveals that he knows Talmudge's name and calls him a client, heightening the sense that his life is already claimed. Frightened, Talmudge flees the scene and tries to vanish into the city.

Talmudge is cornered in an alley and shot by the husband of a woman he slept with. He is then loaded into an ambulance, and the mortician is shown sitting in the passenger seat, continuing the grim procession as the night ends.