Tales from the Crypt | |
---|---|
Genre | |
Created by | William Gaines Steven Dodd |
Based on | |
Voices of | John Kassir |
Theme music composer | Danny Elfman |
Composers | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original languages | English French Spanish for Latin America |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes | 93 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | |
Running time | 22–39 minutes |
Production companies | Tales from the Crypt Holdings Geffen Television |
Original release | |
Network | HBO [1] |
Release | June 10, 1989 – July 19, 1996 |
Related | |
Tales from the Cryptkeeper Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House |
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series created by William Gaines and Steven Dodd that ran for seven seasons on the premium cable channel HBO, from June 10, 1989, to July 19, 1996, with a total of 93 episodes. The show's title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name, published by William Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein. Most of the program's episodes are based on stories that originally appeared in that comic or other EC Comics of the time, The Haunt of Fear , The Vault of Horror , Crime SuspenStories , Shock SuspenStories , and Two-Fisted Tales .
The series is hosted by the Cryptkeeper, a wisecracking corpse performed by several puppeteers and voiced by John Kassir. Filmmakers Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis formed the show's team of executive producers.
Because it was aired on HBO, a premium cable television channel, Tales from the Crypt did not have to be censored by the standards and practices of most networks. As a result, HBO allowed the series to include content that had not appeared in most television series up to that time, such as graphic violence, profanity, sexual activity, and nudity. Reruns of the series were still subsequently edited for basic cable, broadcast syndication, and when the broadcast networks Fox and CBS re-aired episodes in the late 1990s. While the series began production in the United States, the final season was primarily filmed in the UK, resulting in episodes revolving around British characters.
Each episode begins with a tracking shot leading to the front door of the decrepit mansion of the Cryptkeeper, the show's host. Once inside, the camera tilts down from the foyer to the hallways and stairways, finally descending into the basement. The Cryptkeeper then comes out from his coffin, cackling wildly; green slime pours down over the screen as the main title appears. The Cryptkeeper is depicted as an animated corpse, as opposed to the original comics in which he was a living human being. The wisecracking Cryptkeeper (performed by a team of puppeteers such as Van Snowden, [2] Mike Elizalde, Frank Charles Lutkus, Patty Maloney, David Arthur Nelson, Anton Rupprecht, Shaun Smith, David Stinnent, Mike Trcic, and Brock Winkless, and voiced by John Kassir) would then introduce the episode with intentionally stereotyped jokes and mostly puns, e.g., his frequent greeting to viewers: "Hello, Boils and Ghouls" or "Hello, Kiddies". Each episode was self-contained, and was bookended by an outro sequence, again involving the Cryptkeeper. Comic book cover art was created by Mike Vosburg and Shawn McManus.
The success of the series led Universal Pictures to make a three picture deal with the Crypt Partners to produce three Crypt-branded feature films.
The first Crypt-branded feature was Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight (1995). Directed by Ernest Dickerson from a screenplay by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Vorhis and Mark Bishop, it became a commercial success. Three weeks before starting prep on Demon Knight intended follow up - a psychological thriller called Dead Easy - Universal changed its mind, canceled Dead Easy and had the creative team make Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood instead.
The film Ritual (2002) was not produced as a Tales from the Crypt film, but is considered to be a third entry in the Tales series. [3]
In 1993, a Saturday morning cartoon called Tales from the Cryptkeeper was spun off from the HBO series. Produced by the Canada-based Nelvana for ABC in the United States and YTV in Canada, the violence of the prime-time series was substantially toned down and the gore was omitted. Nelvana employed a child psychologist to review the scripts to ensure the episodes would be suitable for young viewers. [4] The Cryptkeeper puppet was considered as the host for the series [4] but it was ultimately decided that it might frighten youngsters, so instead an animated version was created; John Kassir reprised his role. Kassir later stated "Nelvana created a kinder, gentler personality for the children's Cryptkeeper, and it feels a little uncharacteristic at times,". [4] In addition to the Cryptkeeper, EC Comics' mascots The Vaultkeeper and The Old Witch also made frequent appearances, often fighting with the Cryptkeeper for control of the show's hosting duties. The series lasted three seasons on ABC with a total of 39 episodes with the 3rd season in 1999 on CBS for an 13 episodes under the title New Tales from the Cryptkeeper.
A kids' game show called Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House was featured on CBS from 1996 to 1997. The Cryptkeeper (again voiced by John Kassir) was the announcer of the show (he would often break into the action with appropriate wisecracks), and contestants competed in physical challenges on a variety of elaborate haunted house sets at Universal Studios Florida. In addition to The Cryptkeeper, the series also showed off an original character named Digger the Skeleton (voiced by Danny Mann).
In 2000, several Tales from the Crypt "radio shows" were recorded for Seeing Ear Theatre, an online subsidiary of The Sci-Fi Channel, and were offered free as streaming RealAudio files on their website, [5] as well as for sale on Audible.com. Although 13 episodes were planned (with forthcoming episodes listed as "TBA"), only eight stories were recorded. [6] Seven of the eight shows were released on CD in 2002 by Highbridge Audio [7] ("This Trick'll Kill You" was omitted from the CD set [6] ).
In 1991, the Fox television network aired a pilot for Two-Fisted Tales, a spin-off based on the 1950s EC action comics. When Fox passed on the pilot, Cryptkeeper segments were put down onto the three stories ("Yellow", "Showdown", and "King of the Road"), and HBO ran them as Tales from the Crypt episodes.
After the original series ended, a spin-off called Perversions of Science premiered in June 1997 on HBO, this time being based more on sci-fi instead of horror. The series was unsuccessful and lasted for a short run, ending only a month after it had begun airing. This iteration of the franchise featured a stylized female robot host in place of The Cryptkeeper.
A variety of notable guests have starred in episodes of Tales from the Crypt. This includes Academy Award-winning actors, A-list celebrities and highly recognizable character actors. [8]
Some of the most famous people to have starred in episodes are listed below:
In 1991, Big Screen Records released a soundtrack album featuring assorted music from the series. [9] The album includes the theme music, suites from 11 episodes and an original song titled "Crypt Jam" performed by The Cryptkeeper (John Kassir). A music video for "Crypt Jam" was filmed and is available as an extra on the Region 1 Season 3 DVD. [10]
Track | Title | Composer | Length |
---|---|---|---|
01 | Tales from the Crypt (Main Title) | Danny Elfman | 2:27 |
02 | Three's a Crowd | Jan Hammer | 3:50 |
03 | Cutting Cards | James Horner | 3:45 |
04 | Loved to Death | Jimmy Webb | 3:19 |
05 | Dead Wait | David Mansfield | 4:04 |
06 | Undertaking Palor | Nicholas Pike | 3:10 |
07 | Carrion Death | Bruce Broughton | 3:32 |
08 | Ventriloquist's Dummy | Miles Goodman | 3:32 |
09 | The Thing from the Grave | David Newman | 2:53 |
10 | The Man Who Was Death | Ry Cooder | 4:22 |
11 | Reluctant Vampire | Cliff Eidelman | 3:50 |
12 | Deadline | Steve Bartek | 3:32 |
13 | The Crypt Jam | Chuckii Booker | 4:30 |
In 1994, a Christmas album, Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas, was released by The Right Stuff, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. Most of the songs are spoofs of holiday standards performed by The Cryptkeeper, such as "Juggle Bills" ( Jingle Bells ), "We Wish You'd Bury the Missus" ( We Wish You a Merry Christmas ) and "Deck the Halls with Parts of Charlie" ( Deck the Halls ), with narration and a few original songs mixed in. The CD booklet includes a black and white reprint of the comic "And All Through the House".
Track | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
01 | Intro to Album | 0:51 |
02 | Deck the Halls with Parts of Charlie | 1:55 |
03 | Juggle Bills | 3:17 |
04 | We Wish You'd Bury the Missus | 2:20 |
05 | Moe Teitlebaum | 2:32 |
06 | A Christmas Card for the Cryptkeeper | 0:51 |
07 | Christmas Rap | 3:22 |
08 | Intro to Cryptkeeper's Family Christmas | 0:32 |
09 | Cryptkeeper's Family Christmas | 2:03 |
10 | 'Twas the Fright Before Christmas | 3:55 |
11 | Twelve Days of Cryptmas | 3:42 |
12 | Intro to Revenge of the Cryptkeeper | 0:24 |
13 | Revenge of the Cryptkeeper | 2:18 |
14 | Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas | 2:21 |
15 | Should Old Cadavers Be Forgot | 3:38 |
In 2000, Capitol Records released another album titled Tales from the Crypt: Monsters of Metal. [11] This album is a compilation of horror-themed songs from popular heavy metal bands with wraparound narration by the Cryptkeeper (John Kassir).
Track | Title | Artist | Length |
---|---|---|---|
01 | The Cryptkeeper Intro #1 | John Kassir | 0:30 |
02 | Heaven and Hell | Black Sabbath | 6:54 |
03 | Creepy Feelings | Armored Saint | 5:21 |
04 | Five Magics | Megadeth | 5:41 |
05 | The Cryptkeeper Intro #2 | John Kassir | 0:14 |
06 | Cemetery Gates (Demon Knight) | Pantera | 5:47 |
07 | Eyes of a Stranger | Queensrÿche | 4:40 |
08 | Hallucinating | Apartment 26 | 3:40 |
09 | The Cryptkeeper Intro #3 | John Kassir | 0:35 |
10 | Dead Inside | Arch Enemy | 4:11 |
11 | Beyond the Realms of Death | Judas Priest | 6:53 |
12 | Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck | Prong | 4:12 |
13 | The Cryptkeeper Intro #4 | John Kassir | 0:16 |
14 | Don't Talk to Strangers | Dio | 4:52 |
15 | Bordello of Blood | Anthrax | 4:12 |
16 | The Bell Witch | Mercyful Fate | 4:34 |
17 | The Cryptkeeper Intro #5 | John Kassir | 0:21 |
18 | Wolverine Blues | Entombed | 2:10 |
19 | Hollow Ground | The Haunted | 4:10 |
20 | Beyond the Black | Metal Church | 6:22 |
21 | The Cryptkeeper Ending | John Kassir | 0:46 |
Warner Home Video has released all seven seasons on DVD Region 1. The DVDs for the first three seasons feature all-new Cryptkeeper introductions and segments. No new segments were filmed for seasons 4–7. On June 6, 2017, all seven seasons were reissued in a box set entitled Tales From the Crypt: The Complete Series. A Region 2 version of the whole series was released by '84 Entertainment on June 4, 2010,
Until mid 2020, the series was also available through the streaming platform Vudu. [12]
Season | Episodes | Discs | Release date | Extras | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | 2 | July 12, 2005 |
| |
2 | 18 | 3 | October 25, 2005 |
| |
3 | 14 | 3 | March 21, 2006 |
| |
4 | 14 | 3 | July 25, 2006 |
| |
5 | 13 | 3 | October 31, 2006 | Death of Some Salesmen: Virtual Comic Book | |
6 | 15 | 3 | July 24, 2007 | Whirlpool: Virtual Comic Book | |
7 | 13 | 3 | October 23, 2007 | Fatal Caper: Virtual Comic Book | |
Complete series box set | 93 | 20 | June 6, 2017 |
Reruns aired on Fox from 1994 to 1995 under the name Primetime Tales from the Crypt; episodes also aired in 1994 in a late-night time slot. It aired late night on CBS in 1997–1998. It also aired on other channels, such as Syfy, Chiller, and Fearnet.
In the United Kingdom, the series aired Fridays on ITV. Sky1 Satellite and cable channel Horror Channel (then Zone Horror) aired the series in both late night and daytime slots. The daytime versions were billed as "cut"; however, they remained uncut.
Tales from the Crypt is not available on HBO’s streaming service Max reportedly due to licensing issues. It was also unavailable on HBO Go and HBO Now for the same reason. [13]
Tales from the Crypt won the following awards:
In July 2011, it was announced that Gilbert Adler, who produced the original series, was working with Andrew Cosby to develop a new Tales from the Crypt series. It was said to be a continuous story, rather than an anthology, and would also omit The Cryptkeeper. The series was unsuccessfully shopped to several major networks. [14]
In January 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that M. Night Shyamalan would helm a series reboot as part of TNT's new two-hour horror block. [15] The network ordered a 10-episode season that was slated for fall 2017. [16] The series was to keep the episodic anthology format, but without The Cryptkeeper. [17] In June 2017, it was announced that TNT would not move forward with the series due to legal issues concerning the rights for the characters from Tales from the Crypt Holdings. [18]
Night Gallery is an American anthology television series that aired on NBC from December 16, 1970, to May 27, 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although he did not have the same control of content and tone as he had on The Twilight Zone. Serling viewed Night Gallery as a logical extension of The Twilight Zone, but while both series shared an interest in thought-provoking dark fantasy, more of Zone's offerings were science fiction while Night Gallery focused on horrors of the supernatural.
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series. Initially, EC was owned by Maxwell Gaines and specialized in educational and child-oriented stories. After Max Gaines' death in a boating accident in 1947, his son William Gaines took over the company and began to print more mature stories, delving into the genres of horror, war, fantasy, science-fiction, adventure, and others. Noted for their high quality and shock endings, these stories were also unique in their socially conscious, progressive themes that anticipated the Civil Rights Movement and the dawn of the 1960s counterculture. In 1954–55, censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the humor magazine Mad, leading to the company's greatest and most enduring success. Consequently, by 1956, the company ceased publishing all of its comic lines except Mad.
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Tales from the Crypt may refer to:
Perversions of Science is an American science fiction/horror anthology television series that ran from June 7 to July 23, 1997, on the premium cable channel HBO, lasting one season. It is a spin-off of the horror series Tales from the Crypt also shown on HBO, and its episodes are based on EC Comics's Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, and Incredible Science Fiction comic book series.
Tales from the Cryptkeeper is an animated horror children's television series made by Canadian studio Nelvana. The series was broadcast on ABC in the United States, and on ITV in the United Kingdom. It is based on the 1950s EC Comics series Tales from the Crypt and the live action television series of the same name, which aired concurrently on HBO. Intended for children, Tales from the Cryptkeeper is significantly milder than its live-action counterpart, and all blood, gore, profanity and sexual content are completely removed to be more appropriate for the target audience. Most episodes take place within the fictional city of Gravenhurst, California.
The Vault of Horror was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics in the early 1950s. Along with Tales from the Crypt and The Haunt of Fear, it formed a trifecta of popular EC horror anthologies. The Vault of Horror hit newsstands with its April/May 1950 issue and ceased publication with its December/January 1955 issue, producing a total of 40 issues.
The Haunt of Fear was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics, starting in 1950. Along with Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, it formed a trifecta of popular EC horror anthologies. The Haunt of Fear was sold at newsstands beginning with its May/June 1950 issue.
Tales from the Crypt was an American bi-monthly horror comic anthology series published by EC Comics from 1950 to 1955, producing 27 issues. Along with its sister titles, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt was popular, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s comic books came under attack from parents, clergymen, schoolteachers and others who believed the books contributed to illiteracy and juvenile delinquency. In April and June 1954, highly publicized congressional subcommittee hearings on the effects of comic books upon children left the industry shaken. With the subsequent imposition of a highly restrictive Comics Code, EC Comics publisher Bill Gaines cancelled Tales from the Crypt and its two companion horror titles, along with the company's remaining crime and science fiction series in September 1954.
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