Tales from the Crypt: The Complete First Season

---

Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »

---

For those of you who are die-hard fans of the HBO series "Tales from the Crypt," as well as those of you that barely recall it, Warner Brothers is releasing the complete first season of the seven-year series on July 12th. "Tales from the Crypt" was a favorite show of mine when I was younger. Who can forget that eerie, raspy voice of "the Crypt Keeper," played by actor John Kassir? The punning horror series began in 1989 by filmmakers Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis, and ran until 1996. "Tales from the Crypt" started off on shoddy footing, however, as none of the studios wanted to pick it up. That is, until Zemeckis, Silver, Hill, and Donner came into the picture and started talks with HBO. The rest, as they say, was history.

As this series ended nearly ten years ago, and having not seen an episode in about that same amount of time, I jumped at the chance when DVD Town's Review Editor John Puccio offered me the opportunity to try my hand at reviewing it. As I sat back in the recliner in my home theater, pen and paper in hand, I couldn't help but be excited about a series I had completely forgotten about, but had loved! I reveled in nostalgia watching the opening theme music came up, and the intro takes us through the squeaky iron gate, down the unattended stone path, through the winding passages of the decrepit old house, and finally to the Crypt Keeper, as he sits up out of his coffin and cackles. Ah, the old days, back when this series was considered beyond the pale of standard TV, and cable for that matter, but was just right for HBO watchers. Today, by comparison, "Tales from the Crypt" would more than likely be right on par with most current, popular, prime-time TV shows, and possibly a little weak in some episodes. The first season contains six episodes, which consist of "The Man Who Was Death," "And All Through the House," "Dig That Cat…He's Real Gone," "Only Sin Deep," "Lover Come Hack to Me," and "Collection Completed." After watching the lot, I found a few of them cheesy, but the rest worth watching again.

Something I hadn't realized when this series originally aired was that "Tales from the Crypt" was seemingly a launching point for just about every supporting and up-and-coming lead-role actor in the industry! Not to mention big names like Richard Donner ("Superman," "Superman II," "The Goonies," "Lethal Weapon," and more); Walter Hill ("48 Hrs," "Aliens," "Red Heat," "Alien 3," and many others); Joel Silver ("Predator," "Roadhouse," "Demolition Man," "The Matrix," and others), and last but not least, Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future," "Forrest Gump," "Contact," "Cast Away," and many others), heading up the project.

While the performances and the scripts felt largely over the top or grossly overstated, after having watched the background story of "Tales from the Crypt," or "The Crypt of Terror" as it was known then, on the special features disc, the bad puns and horrible humor were not only taken directly from the comic books, but were intentional by comic book creator Bill Gaines and artist Al Feldstein of EC Comics in 1950. The idea was that since children and teenagers were largely their target audience, the puns and humor were a tool "to take the edge off of the horror" and "remind its readers that it was fiction and entertainment." Put yourself in a 1950's state of mind and think of what was considered "conservative" and/or "modest" back then, compare it to now, and you might get an inkling of why originally, the "Tales from the Crypt" comic book was banned by none other than our own U.S. Senate subcommittee back in 1954. Though the "Tales from the Crypt" comic was a top seller, it was deemed "a source for social deviants." After reviewing most of the special features' disc, the history of "Tales from the Crypt" brought to mind author Stephen King. I remembered watching some commentary with King, in which he mentioned growing up with these comics as well. If you remember, Stephen King made the movie "Creepshow," which was an adaptation of the EC Comics. I was born too late to have known about the original horror comics, but thanks to Stephen King's rendition of them in "Creepshow," I had nightmares for years about that stupid Baboon in the episode "The Crate."

There are many things to like in the "Tales from the Crypt" series, but if there's one thing I loved, it was that they kept it fresh, and with each episode you wondered how they were going to creep you out again, or gross you out! After watching these episodes, I did find them a bit predictable, but, then, I might just have a good memory. The level of blood, gore, and in some cases gratuitous nudity, was a bit surprising. Oddly enough, I don't remember it being that bad when the show was still airing. While this series was briefly picked up by the FOX network some years back, most of that content didn't fly on broadcast television and was edited for TV. Now you can watch them again in their original splendor.

Here is a small summary of each of the episodes. NOTE: For some odd reason, in the special features they tally the episodes differently than they are ordered on the DVD. As this could be a DVD production-house error, I'll trust the special features and list them in that order.

Episode 1: "Dig That Cat…He's Real Gone":
Guest star Joe "Joey Pants" Pantoliano ("The Matrix" as "Cypher," and more recently of the HBO hit series "The Sopranos" as Ralph Cifaretto) plays the part of "Ulrich the Undying." After having an experimental operation performed on him by a seemingly mad doctor, Ulrich has a portion of a cat's brain attached to his own, that will give him nine lives. The doctor employs Ulrich with a carnival, in which he is to die in various ways, which brings droves of crowds, and money as well. Ulrich soon finds out that dying isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I really liked this episode, not only because of Joe Pantoliano, but because it had a good storyline as well. It's classic "Tales from the Crypt," and why shouldn't it be? It's episode 1 after all.

Episode 2: "The Man Who Was Death":
Guest star Bill Sadler (AKA William Sadler, "Project X," "Die Hard 2," "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile") plays the part of Niles Talbot, a big-city prison executioner with a shocking personality. Having been fired after seventeen years working for the state prison, Talbot decides to take the law into his own hands and become judge and jury besides. Talbot attends the court hearings of various criminals charged with murder. When the judge finds any defendant not guilty on the grounds of "not enough evidence" to convict, Talbot decides it's his duty to exact justice on them. This episode also includes supporting actor Roy Brocksmith ("Tango & Cash," "Total Recall," "Arachnophobia," "The Hudsucker Proxy") as Vic, the bartender, who lends an ear to Sadler's woes. I thought he was worth mentioning, as he is one of the most memorable supporting actors I've seen.

---

---