Tales from the Crypt

Tales From the Crypt / Vault of Horror (Double Feature)

Disc 1: Tales from the Crypt (1972) Disc 2: Vault of Horror (1973)

Tales from the Crypt - The Complete First Season

Based on the legendary and gruesome EC Comics from publisher William Gaines this horror anthology featured stories of murder the super natural gore and humor and always had a twist ending of sorts. Some of Hollywood's biggest names took part either working in front or behind the camera. Hosting duties fell to everyone's favorite decaying corpse the Cryptkeeper. The success of this series spawned a Saturday morning cartoon series (Tales From the Cryptkeeper) a short-lived Saturday morning game show on CBS (Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House) and lots of merchandise. Two feature films (Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood) were also produced and released in the late 90's. The TV series originally aired on HBO but was later syndicated to Fox the Sci-Fi Channel and most recently AMC. Despite being a short season (only 6 episodes) Season 1 enjoyed the highest ratings in its HBO airings.Running Time: 168 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 012569682894

Here's some grisly good news for fear fans: the first season of HBO's long-running TV horror anthology Tales from the Crypt, based on the notorious '50s-era E.C. comic books, emerges on DVD in a two-disc set that's sure to have 'em shrieking (with joy, of course). Shepherded by a host of top Hollywood producers and directors (including Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, and Walter Hill), the Tales from the Crypt series brought together major talent both in front of and behind the camera to give life to E.C.'s over-the-top stories of gruesome revenge and ghastly terror. Season 1 offers six star-studded spooktaculars, including Donner's "Dig That Cat… He's Real Gone," with The Sopranos' Joe Pantoliano as a carnival performer with a knack for surviving horrible endings; Zemeckis's "And All Through the House," with Larry Drake as a homicidal Santa Claus terrorizing a woman who has just killed her husband (this story was also adapted in the 1972 theatrical version of Crypt); and Hill's "The Man Who Was Death," featuring a topnotch performance by William Sadler as a jailhouse executioner who takes the law into his own hands. Comic purists may decry liberties taken by updating the original stories (and current audiences may find elements in some episodes out of date, most notably Mary Lambert's "Only Sin Deep"), but the blend of gore and black humor should keep most horror heads happy, as should the chattering presence of the animatronic Crypt Keeper (well-voiced by John Kassir), who serves as the show's ghost host.

The two-disc set's chief extra is an interesting documentary about the original comics, featuring interviews with co-editor Al Feldstein and legendary artist Jack Davis, as well as directors and authors inspired by the comics like George Romero, John Carpenter, and R.L. Stine. The Crypt Keeper also weighs in with a new intro for the DVD, as well as his reminiscences of the first-season episodes, complete with plenty of behind-the-scenes production photos. In short, pleasant screams are ensured for all. --Paul Gaita

Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Seventh Season

Greetings fiends! The last time you saw the Crypt Keeper...wait this is the last time. So turn out the frights the party's over. They say all ghoul things must end. But first let the ghoul times roll one gleeful last time with these 13 terrorific tales based on those classic moldy-but-goodie horror comics from back when. Among the die-lights: Natasha Richardson is a lawyer planning a Fatal Caper Ewan McGregor gets down and zombie for a Cold War and Daniel Craig finds out how the sneaky freaky ad biz really works in Smoke Wrings. Well time's up. Past our deadtime. Never say die kiddies (although we just did). It's the final season!Running Time: 337 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 012569754096 Manufacturer No: 75409

Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Second Season

Two scary! Welcome fiends. Back for more deadtime stories hmm? Then settle in with these devious die-monds of die-abolical delight - all 18 uncut (but variously stabbed electro-volted haunted twisted incarcerated incarnated voodoo-ized and even vampirized) episodes from two-riffic Season 2 of Tales from the Crypt! The Cryptkeeper is again your gleefully macabre host for a frightfest of classic E.C. Comics stories involving a for-the-money honey (Demi Moore) hoping for a big fat inheritance; a cartoonist (Harry Anderson) whose creations come to life (and death); a ventriloquist (Don Rickles) and an idolizing wannabe (Bobcat Goldthwait); and poker players for whom a losing hand could mean exactly that. Ante up for these and more tales. We think you'll agree they're absolute monsterpieces.Running Time: 486 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 012569682900

Here are 18 more eye-popping episodes from HBO's shiver-shudder-and-shriek anthology series, adapted from the pages of E.C. Comics' legendary horror comics. Season 2 of Tales from the Crypt doesn't back down from the promise made by its debut season: some of the biggest names in Hollywood do their best in front of and behind the camera to deliver the gory goods, with a healthy dash of Tales' signature coal-black humor. There's Demi Moore as a classic E.C. femme fatale in Howard Deutch's "Dead Right"; Desperate Housewives' Teri Hatcher co-stars with a reanimated corpse in "The Thing from the Grave"; Iggy Pop and the voice of Sam Kinison are featured in a sinister story of music and murder in "For Cryin' Out Loud"; and Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his directorial debut with the macabre "The Switch." Series co-producers Walter Hill and Richard Donner also contribute creepfests, as do horror vets Jack Sholder, Tom Holland, and special effects designer Chris Walas; other performers facing fearsome fates include Patricia Arquette, Don Rickles, Bobcat Goldthwait, Lance Henriksen, and Harry Anderson. The three-disc set definitely delivers a triple treat of terror, but unfortunately, the supplemental features are a little (ahem) anemic, especially in comparison to the solid extras in the first-season set. Here, fans only get a short behind-the-scenes featurette that focuses mainly on actor John Kassir, who provides the Crypt Keeper's voice, and a glimpse at a Tales episode done for radio with Tim Curry. --Paul Gaita

Tales From The Crypt Presents - Demon Knight

Ernest Dickerson, one-time cinematographer for Spike Lee and director of Demon Knight, said during the initial release of this film that he chose the project because he was a lifelong fan of the horror genre. Other horror fans should be thankful, because without Dickerson's enthusiasm and visual sense, this derivative gorefest wouldn't come close to the entertainment level that it ultimately achieves. The film was the first big- screen adaptation of HBO's Tales from the Crypt series, a show based on the EC comic books of the '50s. Like Creepshow before it, Demon Knight blends fair amounts of blood, sex, and knowing comedy with a paper-thin plot that doesn't leave a bit of room for subtext. Dickerson understands this, so instead he pumps the flick full of eye-popping visuals and gorgeous camerawork, and populates it with terrific character actors (especially Billy Zane, who really has fun, and William Sadler) who don't seem to care that their characters have little identity. Everyone seems to be giving this tiny project everything they've got, while never taking it seriously for a minute. We've seen the story before: A diverse bunch (a hooker, the town drunk, the ex-con, etc.) is locked in a rundown hotel and is forced to battle the Legions of Evil massed outside and determined to get in. Regardless, Dickerson, shooting with as little light as possible, manages to create some tense moments. There's a lot wrong with Demon Knight's shallow premise, and you could make a checklist of the movies it gleefully steals from (Night of the Living Dead and The Evil Dead are two of many), but thrill-seekers who prefer laughs with their grisly special effects and gratuitous nudity should have a mindless blast watching it. --Dave McCoy

Tales From The Crypt: Bordello of Blood / Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight (Double Feature)

BORDELLO OF BLOOD Wisecracking private eye Rafe Guttman (Dennis Miller) investigates some strange happenings at a titillating bordello on the edge of town. It seems owner Madam Lilith (Angie Everhart) and her luscious cohorts want more than money-they want blood! Soon Rafe finds himself up to his neck in a den of hungry vampiresses and battling the Reverend Jimmy Current (Chris Sarandon), a slick televangelist with an unstoppable talisman. Brimming with blood, lust and wicked laughs, this is one brothel you'll visit again and again! DEMON KNIGHT A mysterious drifter known as Brayker (William Sadler) possesses the last of seven ancient keys that hold the power to stop the forces of darkness and protect all humanity from ultimate evil. But the human race is safe only so long as Brayker can evade the demonic Collector (Billy Zane), who has gathered the other six keys. Armed with automatic weapons, sacred blood and sadistic humor, Brayker and the strong-willed Jeryline (Jada Pinkett-Smith) must lead the inhabitants of a run-down hotel in a gruesome battle against the Collector and his evil horde of ghouls. Infested with a talented cast and thrilling special effects, Demon Knight delivers diabolical fun and a body of frights.

Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Sixth Season

It's that time of fear again! So if you've been missing the Crypt Keeper here's a chance to improve your aim. But be warned: It'll be a fright to the finish. The cadaverous cut-up is your host for a 15-episode die-gest based on classic horror comics from back in the day and featuring a parade of characters who are variously merciless clueless topless and headless. Hank Azaria Shelley Hack Isaac Hayes Richard Lewis John Lithgow Wayne Newton Isabella Rossellini Rita Rudner and Humphrey Bogart (you read that right) are among the stars. And vampires mad doctors killers ghosts and adulterers are eager to come out and play. We could tell you more but that would be wrong. You do know rot from wrong don't you?Running Time: 370 min.System Requirements:Running Time: 370 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 012569754010 Manufacturer No: 75401

Tales from the Crypt - The Complete Fourth Season

Monsters. Madness. Mayhem. BAD PUNS! What kind of bonehead would do this? Oh that kind of bonehead: the Crypt Keeper. Yes four the beast in humor and horror this is it: all 14 complete uncut Season 4 episodes hosted by that netherworld naughty boy the Crypt Keeper. Offered four your warped amusement are Split Personality with a lounge lizard getting more than he bargains four when he marries identical twins; Werewolf Concerto with Timothy Dalton on the hunt four a lupine fiend; Beauty Rest with Mimi Rogers as an actress who'd kill four a part. Plus Brad Pitt Treat Williams and Cathy Moriarty are here four more fright-'n'-fun tales. Did we mention these are all in Season 4? Go four it!Running Time: 376 min.System Requirements:Running Time 376 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569753853 Manufacturer No: 75385

The Cryptkeeper dusts off another set of horror yarns in this fourth collection of Tales from the Crypt, featuring more semi-big-stars, a handful of name directors, and a bevy of excruciatingly bad puns. There are some goodies here if you're nostalgic for 1950s-era comic-book scares (or for vintage 1992 late-night pay-cable), but this fourth season represents diminishing returns for the franchise. The 14 episodes get off to a poor start with the first installments, including "None but the Lonely Heart" (directed by Tom Hanks, who cameos), about a Lothario (Treat Williams) who marries and kills rich old ladies, and "This'll Kill Ya" (directed by Robert Longo), about a nasty drug researcher (Dylan McDermott). The series' very sporadic nudity is provided here by Sonia Braga.

Of the famous directors represented, best in show is John Frankenheimer, whose "Maniac at Large" makes sinuous use of a single set, a large library; Blythe Danner plays a meek librarian in fear of a serial killer, and Salome Jens (star of Frankenheimer's "Seconds") is her shrewish boss. Elsewhere, William Friedkin should be embarrassed by "On a Deadman's Chest," an extremely silly rock & roll thing about a tattoo with a life of its own. And Richard Donner's "Showdown," while providing a welcome bit of Western atmosphere, is either an existential puzzler or an unfinished production. The directorial novelty must be "Split Personality", a story of a con man (Joe Pesci) seducing a wealthy pair of twins. It's one of the more entertaining episodes, and it marks the sole directing outing for Hollywood mega-producer (and Tales exec producer) Joel Silver. For sheer perversity, few segments top "Beauty Rest", in which aspiring actress Mimi Rogers ends up regretting a successful audition (with Buck Henry, of all people).

The biggest rising-star find is probably Brad Pitt in "King of the Road", a lame tale of hotrod racers. Timothy Dalton, then fresh from his James Bond run, stars in one of the better shows in this set, "Werewolf Concerto," a clever piece about a werewolf hunter staying at a lodge terrorized by a lycanthrope. Perhaps the most sustained episode--nailing the series' blend of campy humor and gory fright--is "What's Cookin'," in which Christopher Reeve, the owner of an all-squid restaurant, revitalizes the business by switching to a different kind of meat.

The minimal extras are a commentary track for the Chris Reeve episode (including the voice of the Cryptkeeper, John Kassir) and a perfunctory montage about the season's stars. The show has a loyal following that will be happy to own this set, but for anybody else it must be noted that season 4 is a year of decline, and not the place to start for horror-curious boils and ghouls. --Robert Horton

Tales from the Crypt - The Complete Third Season

What's sinew weirdos? All of you who say "This fabulous third-season collection of Tales from the Crypt" go to the head of the crass. And take your best fiend with you! Yes that die-abolical punster and bone-a-fide ghoul of your dreams the Crypt Keeper is back to host this scare-rific collection of all 14 complete and uncut episodes from Season 3 of the series that ran seven memorably spooktacular seasons. Among the tales spilling out of the vault are Loved to Death with Mariel Hemingway; Top Billing starring Jon Lovitz; and Dead Wait with Whoopi Goldberg. Doo yourself a favor and dig into this merrily macabre mix.Running Time: 368 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 395 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569733626 Manufacturer No: 73362

Been dying for another dose of chills from your old poison pal, the Crypt-Keeper? Then pull up a slab and revisit all the repulsive goings-on in the third season of Tales from the Crypt, the over-the-top TV anthology inspired by the classic E.C. horror comics of the '50s. All 14 episodes of the 1991 season are compiled in this three-disc set; as with previous seasons, the shows serve up gruesome tongue-in-cheek fables adapted from the original comics (and spiced up with some liberal nudity and impressive special effects), and with a host of Hollywood talent in front of and behind the camera. Series producers Robert Zemeckis and Walter Hill each contribute a creepshow apiece (the impressive season closer "Yellow," with Kirk Douglas and Dan Aykroyd, and "Deadline," with CSI's Marg Helgenberger, respectively), while Michael J. Fox stars and directs the season opener "The Trap" (which co-stars Teri Garr and Bruno Kirby). Elsewhere, Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) gets gruesome with Whoopi Goldberg in the voodoo vengeance story "Dead Wait," while action veterans Russell Mulcahy (Highlander), Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers), and Steven De Souza (screenwriter on Die Hard) each unleash their inner spook engines on an episode, with Hopkins's bizarre "Abra Cadaver" (with Tony Goldwyn and Beau Bridges as dueling doctor siblings) a perfect summation of the Crypt spirit and the season highlight. The third-season set is rounded out by a trifecta of extras: A Tall Tales Panel is a 14-minute look at the season, with comments by a panel of series participants recorded at Comic Con in San Diego. A Tales from the Crypt Reunion is the complete half-hour panel discussion, and Crypt Jam is a frothy music video composed of clips from the season. --Paul Gaita

Tales from the Crypt - The Complete Fifth Season

Tomb it may concern. Yes you. No one else is reading this right? Besides you're the ideal person for this happily haunted collection of scares and silliness someone warm and bleeding. Sorry breathing. The Cryptkeeper delivers more keepers (and terrorific Spookcial Feartures) with this atmosfearic Season 5. Ready to delight your feverishly warped mind are Forever Ambergris with Steve Buscemi and Roger Daltrey portraying war photographers; Two for the Show with Traci Lords David Paymer and Vincent Spano embroiled in a tale of wife and death; Well Cooked Hams with Martin Sheen and Billy Zane putting hocus pocus in focus as rival magicians; plus 10 more eerie encounters of fate fiends and flat-out funniness. Lullaby and good fright kiddies!Running Time: 380 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 012569753938 Manufacturer No: 75393

What's that? You say there's not enough fright in your life? Well, let your old fearsome friend, the Crypt Keeper, put some pep into your tired blood with another lucky 13 episodes of Tales from the Crypt, the shock-show series based on the infamous E.C. horror comics of the 1950s. As with Crypt's previous seasons, the gruesome formula in the 1993 Season 5 remains the same: Half-hour episodes rife with murderous spouses, the walking dead, and horrific twists of fate, liberally spiced up with gallons of gore and nudity, and featuring some of Hollywood's most famous faces behind and in front of the camera. The season's hellacious highlights are probably Gary Fleder's "Forever Ambergris," with Steve Buscemi and the Who's Roger Daltrey as rival combat photographers whose competition comes to a sticky end courtesy of exposure to chemical weapons; and the season opener, "Death of Some Salesman" (by Gilbert Adler, who later helmed the Crypt theatrical feature Bordello of Blood), with Tim Curry in three roles as a rural family with a big surprise for a duplicitous con man (Ed Begley Jr.). Elsewhere, actor Kyle MacLachlan directs Hector Elizondo and Patsy Kensit in the noirish "As Ye Sow"; Highlander's Russell Mulcahy oversees Bill Paxton and Michael Lerner in the grisly revenge tale "People Who Live in Brass Hearses"; and Kevin Hooks unleashes Traci Lords and David Paymer in "Two for the Show," a classic E.C. story of henpecked husbands and overheated wives, with a splattery switcheroo at its conclusion. Entourage's Kevin Dillon, Martin Sheen, Brooke Shields, Lou Diamond Phillips, John Stamos, and Cheech Marin are also featured in the ghoulish goings-on, with Gregory (Rescue Me) Widen, the late Jeffrey Boam (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.), and Uli Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn) among the other directors orchestrating the on-screen mayhem. John Kassir, the voice of the Crypt Keeper, returns to provide narration for the set's sole extra, a "virtual comic book" that features the original comic on which "Salesman" was based. -- Paul Gaita