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Rating:  -
If you love horror, you will love this season f the Crypt. I really enjoyed it. (Kelis's Grandma)
Rating:  -
There are a couple of episodes here that are really only average, but there are also some excellent ones (Death of a salesman, House of horror) that hold up well even now, more than ten years after they were made. The Fifth Season has all the shocks and suspense and humor you'd expect from the series as well as some fun performances and interesting casting.
Rating: -
TALES FROM THE CRYPT had to have been a guilty pleasure for all the actors, directors, writers, and others involved in the production of the series all seven years it was on HBO. The series was a chance for everyone who had grown up on the old EC Comics horror magazines that were jam-packed of the grossest black-and-white illustrations to ever corrupt young minds to work with those stories and bring them to life -- or unlife.
I remember coming across some of those old magazines in the swap shop where I bought my paperback books for 15¢ apiece. Since there was no tax on those piddling amounts back then, I could buy seven books or magazines. Sadly, it wasn't often I had a whole dollar to spend, nor could I get someone to take me there very often.
But when I went, it was always agony. So much to choose from, and so little I could walk out with. Even sadder, some of those magazines a pickup for 15¢ are probably worth hundreds of dollars by now - and I no longer have them!
Thankfully I have the memories. I remember opening those magazines and being totally grossed out. My mother would've had a cow if she'd known what I was reading. I was always very careful to keep those magazines hidden away under superhero comics. And if she knew I'd watched the HBO series even after I was grown up she wouldn't have been very appreciative.
HBO did a magnificent job of delivering 30 minutes of gross-out horror with a twist at the end (and even though you were expecting a twist, you did and often figure it out).
In this set, you get a mixed bag of high-powered talent, emerging talent, semi-retired talent, and even a porn star princess turned legit. Oh, and did I mentioned Tim Curry? You get Tim Curry!
In fact, Tim Curry leads off this collection in an episode called "Death of Some Salesmen". He gets to play three roles that really twist the plot on a gender bender. Ed Begley stars as a conniving salesman who gets his comeuppance at the end of the story.
Adam West and Hector Elizondo head up the cast in "As Ye Sow". It's really weird watching West play this role, since I remember him so much as Batman from the 1960s television show. If you're familiar with the EC Comics, you'll probably see the end of this one coming. But it's still neat to see these actors in these parts.
"Forever Ambergris" has a traditional kind of plot of the old master (a combat photographer) jealous of a new kid on the block. Steve Buscemi does a great job here, but the plot just isn't sparkling. It was refreshing to see Patsy Kensit, the hot blonde from Lethal Weapon 2, who had seemed to drop off the face of the earth after that movie.
Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) plays Zambini, a circus psychic with the power to control others in "Food For Thought". This is a role we haven't seen Hudson in before, and he does a good job. But, again, this is one of those episodes that has a predictable ending for anyone who's become familiar with the twists and turns of the plots. Jealousy plays a part in many of the episodes.
A pair of brothers, played by Bill Paxton and Brad Dourif, try to get revenge on an old boss in "People Who Live In Breast Hearses". This episode is really well done, mixing just the right amount of gore with tongue in cheek humor. But Paxton is one of those underrated actors that's truly gifted enough to pull off any role.
Admittedly, in this day and age of terrorist paranoia, the plot of "Two For The Show" just wouldn't fly. There's no way a man could get onto a train with a suitcase full of his wife's chopped up body. However, ignoring that for 30 minutes isn't hard. Traci Lords turns in one of her better performances in this episode.
"House Of Horror" is another one of the standards from the old EC Comics days. Here we have a supposedly haunted house and a group of fraternity guys to get drunk enough to try to prove those old legends and superstitions are bunk. Kevin Dillon, Michael DeLuise, and Wil Wheaton head up the cast. Despite the old plot, chills are a-plenty and the twist is on the button.
Playing off the jealousy angle again, this time a professional jealousy, Martin Sheen stars as Zorbin the Magnificent. When he finds the younger magician who has a whole lot more talent than he does, Zorbin decides to kill the other man and steal his secrets. Of course, we know it isn't going to be that easy. Unfortunately, neither is pulling off this aged plot.
Anthony Michael Hall (Dead Zone) plays a true college cad in "Creep Course" when he lures an unsuspecting student to a professor's house and locks her in a mummy case. The professor kills his accomplice, but things don't turn out the way he thought they would.
Brooke Shields stars in "Came The Dawn", and she definitely doesn't get typecast because she plays a thief. Suffice to say this one gets a lot of its chops from one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous movies. But it pulls them off well, and Brooke Shields is surprisingly good. Just goes to show the good material can make nearly anyone good as well.
"Oil's Well That Ends Well" is one of the two stinkers in this set. There's no polite way to put it. Even the surprising presence of Priscilla Presley and Lou Diamond Phillips can't save this one. The plot is just too predictable and the whole effort comes across as very wooden.
We have another premature burial in "Half-Way Horrible", which may have been a clue for future episodes: don't do premature burials. Cheech Marin is in this one. Marin has been in a lot of movies and television before and has done exceptionally well. His part here is small, so saving this one isn't his job. But they did have the talent. The episode just didn't come together.
The series ends on a somewhat weak note. John Stamos (Full House) plays a male escort who has agreed to marry an older woman who's insanely jealous. I hate stories where everything is "just a dream!" Have mercy!
Overall, this collection of the fifth season of TALES FROM THE CRYPT is definitely worth adding to the home library if you're a horror fan. You get a large accumulation of actors at different points in their career, who bring a lot of different takes to various roles, and get to see the final visions of a lot of directors that worked on the series. Anyone interested in film scripting, directing, or acting might be interested in picking this up, too. There's not that many places we can get this much talent for such a small price. And there's a lot of entertainment here for the horror aficionado.
Rating:  -
Let me start off by saying that I am a huge horror movie fan and a huge Crypt Keeper/Tales From The Crypt fan. This show was a part of my childhood and makes me feel like a kid again! I love the Crypt Keeper and his sometimes-bad jokes and I usually love the show and find that most episodes have a pretty high "rewatch" value. However, as a kid I never made it to this season of Crypt because we no longer had cable by the time this season was on TV.
That being said...I find this season to be rather disappointing, mainly because it seems the show has gone from showing suspenseful, sordid stories with good old black humor, true scares, gruesome imagery with a nice "and the moral of the story is" type endings to a show that is primarily just serving up pure, raunchy, no holds barred gore and violence with far less focus on the stories themselves and atmosphere. That is not to say that the episodes here are completely lacking what I listed as the great factors of the previous seasons but the main focus has certainly shifted to gross-out imagery that can make the strongest of stomachs turn. Rather than covering my mouth in shock from the characters' words, reasoning and actions I now find myself covering my eyes because I anticipate not being able to handle what I am surely going to see from minute to minute. Rather than lying in bed at night being scared to look out the window for fear of seeing a deranged, axe-wielding Santa looking in at me I lay there feeling utterly barfy from seeing a gorilla eating brains out of a human head or eyes exploding from their sockets. I'd rather be creeped out than disgusted, but that's just me.
As I said I am a huge horror fanatic who normally can stomach most anything in movies except vomit and anything related to teeth yet I couldn't even handle watching more than a couple of episodes at a time in this season due to feeling so nauseated by what was shown!
I suppose I would still recommend this season but certainly it's not the season I would recommend starting off with if you're not a seasoned TFTC viewer.
Rating: -
...it can lose some of its bite. I watched all of the episodes contained on here, some of them could be considered shockers, but some are a little ho-hum and outrageous even for this show's standards. Still, I like them for just the nostalgic value and the fact it can be considered in my mind, a family show. Always a good buy for a collector or a real fan.
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