Come and join
the Crypt Keeper for a few stories of murder and mayhem.
CRITIQUE
Based on the old EC
comics and backed by Hollywood heavyweights Joel Silver, Richard
Donner, Robert Zemeckis, David Giler, and Walter Hill; the Tales
from the Crypt TV series combines humor and horror in wonderful
ways. Each half hour episode, hosted by the pun-filled Crypt Keeper,
spins a macabre story of murder which always ends with some ironic
twist. While all the episodes stay fairly true to their comic
predecessors, not all the episodes shine as brightly as others.
The highlights of
this six episode season include “And All Through the House” (which was
directed by series co-producer Robert Zemeckis) about a woman who,
shortly after murdering her husband, finds herself being stalked by a
psychopath in a Santa suit; and “Dig That Cat…He’s Real Gone”
(directed by co-producer Richard Donner) about a man who gains the 9
lives of a cat and turns his powers of resurrection into a side-show
attraction. Other episodes, such as “Lover Come Hack to Me” and
“Collection Completed” rely more on gore and lose a bit of the fun
that the old comics had.
THE VIDEO
The video quality
on the episodes is okay, but not perfect. Each episode does contain
grain, but it’s never to a point that is distracting.
THE AUDIO
Tales from the
Crypt is
presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. The mix isn’t anything to
speak of.
THE EXTRAS
Tales from the
Crypt: From Comic Books to Television: An hour long documentary about the history of EC
Comics, the rise and fall of the horror comics genre, and ultimately
the revival of Tales from the Crypt for TV. It’s a good documentary,
but feels somewhat lacking at times.
Crypt Keeper’s
History of Season One:
The Crypt Keeper talks briefly about the episodes of season one (in
the actual production order rather than airing order.) Nothing special
if you’ve already seen the episodes on the first disc.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s a shame that
there isn’t much on this set for fans of the series. The lack of
commentary (by either the producers or the Crypt Keeper himself) is a
shame and the documentary, while good on its own, could have been
longer and filled with more information about the television show, the
Tales from the Crypt films, the kids cartoon, and so on. It’s
not a bad set, just one that feels incomplete.
