Thursday, December 6, 2012

Tales from the Crypt (1972)

CREEPY CHRISTMAS

He Sees You When You're Sleeping

Tales from the Crypt (1972) - Movie review plus screencaps:
Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt is a horror anthology film, featuring five short subjects inspired by stories from EC comics.  The plot of each story is essentially the same:  evil people do bad things, until the end, when the tables are turned on them and they meet a grisly fate in a "twist" ending.  The "twists" are not really clever twists at all, though.  In one episode, a man is goaded into committing suicide, and the twist is that a year later, the dead man's corpse comes to life and kills the dude.  That's not really a twist, that's just revenge.  In another, a man cheats on his wife, and then falls asleep and dreams he dies in a car accident.   Then he wakes up just in time to REALLY die in a car accident.  And the moral to the story is what, don't cheat on your wife, or you'll get in a car accident?   
The Cryptkeeper
There are wraparound segments featuring the characters from the shorts encountering "The Cryptkeeper" that tie the stories together.  At first it is presented that the Cryptkeeper is foretelling the characters' futures, but at the end of the film, it is revealed that he is actually reviewing their past, and that they have all died and are damned to Hell.  Which is cool, except that one of the "twist" endings had it's character cursed to live forever, but in constant, excruciating pain, so it doesn't really make sense for him to also be dead and damned. 
Rising from the Grave
In the old EC comics that this film is based on, the characters usually met their fate with more poetic justice, in this film, the deaths seem kind of random and tacked-on.  It feels like the script was just dashed off really quickly without a lot of thought put into it.  And the sad thing is, with a little more polish,  if they took the time to make the characters death resonate more with their crimes, and made more of an effort to tie the different stories together,  I think it could have been a really good movie.  As it is, it still has its moments of entertainment value, as long as you don't think about it too much.
Escaped Mental Patient in a Santa Costume
Tales from the Crypt is not strictly a Christmas film, but it does have many Christmas elements, including:
  • One segment is set during Christmas Eve
  • Christmas music on the radio
  • A Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations
  • A little girl eagerly awaiting Santa's arrival
  • An escaped mental patient wearing a Santa Claus outfit
  • Two segments feature snow
  • One segment features a kindly old man who makes toys for children (kind of like Santa Claus)
Rating: 2 Robots (out of 5)










More screencaps after the jump...




Presents Under the Tree

Pop Fans Warn Hell's Angels

Hey!  Someone Spilled Fluorescent Red Paint on my Newspaper!

White Christmas

Mod Phone

Looking Out the Window

Stalked by Santa

Hands of Santa

Jolly Old Saint Nick

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Escaped Nut's Choking by an Open Fire

Upside Down

Flaming Automobile

Smoking Wreck

Zombieville, Daddio

Ouija Board, Ouija Board

All Signs Point to Yes

Danger


Walking Corpse

Dead Man's Hand

Crusty McDeadface

Now You Really Have No Heart

Chinese Statue

Mysterious Inscription

Death in the Rear View

The Undertakers

Home for the Blind

Blindy McBlinderson

Razor Wall

Don't Get Cut!

Razor Blades

Lake of Fire

The Flaming Crypt



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