Tales from the Crypt: Three Somewhat Good Episodes from a Generally Terrible Series

Tales from the Crypt ran seven seasons. Most of the stories had potential, but were ruined in translation by bad television tropes: overacting, lowbrow "black" humor, boring production design and music cues, and the gratuitous violence and language audiences demanded in the early days of the premium cable TV series. It had no sense of atmosphere, in other words. This is perhaps best exemplified by two things: Danny Elfman's typically carnivalesque theme song, and the Cryptkeeper, who looks about as scary as Count Chocula, and has the voice and dialogue of an abusive lounge comedian. Oh lord, how I hate the Cryptkeeper. It's no wonder that he became a Saturday Morning franchise. Anyway...


So with these three episodes that I consider to be exceptional with a grain of salt, credit mostly goes to the writing team of William Gaines and Al Feldstein, creators of the original comic stories. These are all fairly successful translations of the originals' Eisenhower-era comic book vibe, without too much of the stylistic awfulness that defined most of the series.

Dead Right (Season 2, episode 1)



This was one of my favorite stories from the original Shock Suspenstories comic, since I read it in a reprint when I was 12. You can see the end coming from a mile away if you have any familiarity with E.C. plotting. But it has a cool period atmosphere and nice comic book art direction and pacing. The young Demi Moore looks like she was drawn by Jack Kamen, holy smokes.
(sound mutes for a short time in the middle, due to a music copyright)

Abra Cadaver (Season 3, episode 4)



Variations on this have been done better in film, dating back at least to Vampyr (1932). But it's suspenseful, and it takes a couple of unexpected turns.

Three's a Crowd (Season 2, episode 5)



A tragic and horrific story of marital jealousy, miscommunication and self-hatred, the kind Gaines and Feldstein specialized in (was there ever a single E.C. story that ended with a happily married couple?) Be warned, this one has especially upsetting content, and use discretion in general with the whole series: no episodes of this show are family-friendly or work-friendly. Violence, swears, tits, etc.