Summary
Horror anthology television has been one of the most intriguing genres since it was first introduced. One of the best of these series isTales From The Crypt, based on the 1950s comic of the same name. In each episode, the Crypt Keeper gives previews of the upcoming story and delivers a pun about the fate of the main character in that story.
Despite being an HBO-exclusive television show, it still managed to find a devoted following for all 93 episodes of its initial existence. While not every episode is a winner,Tales From The Cryptstill delivered some of the best horror and comedy mixtures on television during its run.
8Forever Ambergris
Two war photographers are vying for attention, but one, Isaac, is better than the other, Dalton. So, Dalton comes up with a plan to get rid of Isaac both for his photography career and due to Dalton’s attraction to Isaac’s wife. Dalton forces Isaac into contaminated lands where he catches an illness that destroys his body.
Dalton returns to Isaac’s life but quickly finds his efforts for not, as he has contracted the same illness through Isaac’s wife. Starring Steve Buscemi and Roger Daltrey, this episode provides a gruesome tale of body parts just falling off.
7And All Through The House
Happy Holidays meets harrowing horror in the very second episode of the series. It’sChristmas Eveand a woman named Elizabeth has killed her husband. However, a psychiatric patient, dressed as Santa, has escaped a hospital and is on a murder spree with an axe.
Elizabeth is unable to call for help because her husband is dead, and she doesn’t want police coming to the house. But she ends up in much worse danger when her daughter happily lets the psychiatric patient into the home.
6The New Arrival
A radio psychologist,played by David Warner, puts himself, his producer, and his boss in danger to meet a bad child and to save his radio show. Dr. Alan Goetz takes a call from a distressed mother and goes with his team to meet her daughter. However, they find out the mother is in a state where she believes Gen. Douglas MacArthur is set to return from war.
Meanwhile, the child ends up killing the show’s producer and boss before chaining up the psychologist. Eventually, Dr. Goetz is left alone with the child who is revealed to be a zombie.
5Abra Cadaver
In this episode, an often bullied man and research assistant, playedby Beau Bridges, is still reeling from the prank played by his brother who is a highly respected surgeon. The research assistant decides to get back at his brother by giving him an experimental serum. That serum makes the brain believe the body is dead, even though it doesn’t kill the drinker.
As the research assistant does things that make his brother freak out in his brain, the assistant reveals that his surgeon brother is actually okay. However, the event has been too much and the surgeon still dies of a heart attack. Essentially, the research assistant pranks his brother to death.
4Death Of Some Salesmen
Tim Curry carriesthis episode as he plays many roles in this story. In the episode, Ed Begley Jr. plays a con man pretending to sell cemetery plots and goes to the homes of recently deceased people’s families in hopes of making a sale. Begley meets a family, all played by Curry, and ends up in a very odd situation.
He is knocked out and marries the family’s daughter thinking he’ll get money. After being convinced the family is dead, Begley digs his own grave before the family reveals they were conning him and kill him.
3Yellow
This episode uses the terrors of war and adds an unexpected scare factor. Set duringWorld War I, Lt. Kalthrob serves under his father, Gen. Kalthrob but requests to be discharged from the army as the military life is not cut out for him. The Lieutenant demonstrates cowardice on the front lines and his father orders his execution.
This leads to the Lieutenant facing a firing squad, and his father refusing to show him mercy. Plus, there’s an extra scare factor in the choice of actors as the father and son characters are played by father and son actors, Kirk and Eric Douglas.
2What’s Cookin'
This is one of the most disturbing episodes of television, taking its cue from the filmSoylent Green. Set in a diner, a busboy takes it upon himself to kill the diner owner’s landlord and serve his body as meat. Once the owner learns about the human meat, he decides to still serve it.
In the end, the busboy meets the same fate as the landlord he killed. It’s a horrible cannibal tale starring some all-time great actors includingChristopher Reeveand Judd Nelson, plus the landlord is played by, the ironically named, Meat Loaf.
1Television Terror
In this season two episode, a tabloid journalist and his crew investigate a haunted house. Expecting to produce cheap and manufactured scares on camera for the tabloid, the journalist finds a lot more than he bargained for.
The episode becomes a found footage type show similar to whatThe Blair Witch Projectwould try to emulate years later. It leads to genuine jump scares and a bleak atmosphere in the house. It’s easily one of the most terrifying television episodes ever.
