Tales from the Crypt - The Complete First Season

Starring:Tales from the Crypt
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
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may decry liberties taken by updating the original stories (and current audiences may find elements in some episodes out of date, most notably Mary Lambert's "Only Sin Deep"), but the blend of gore and black humor should keep most horror heads happy, as should the chattering presence of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.

Amazon.com

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.

Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Classic show with classic episodes that range from darkly funny to downright scary!.......2007-04-22

Tales From The Crypt on dvd is a dream come true! This series was a big part of my childhood, one of those "comfort" things and to finally be able to watch it on dvd whenever I want and see that loveable Crypt Keeper any time is great!

The first season is excellent, as are they all, with the Crypt Keeper taking us through stories packed with humor, gore, and scares but the set is fully worth owning just for the episode "All Through The House" alone. House is absolutely one of the creepiest episodes of all time--I watched it and I swear I will not be looking out any of my windows for at least a week.

This set is a must-have for all fans of Tales From The Crypt and rather inexpensive with great episodes for anyone who is not as familiar with the show but wants to give it a try. You won't be sorry!

TALES FROM THE CRYPT: The Complete First Season (1989).......2006-11-02

*TALES FROM THE CRYPT THEME MUSIC PLAYS, AS THE CAMERA SHOOTS THROUGH A SPOOKY HAUNTED MANSION. THE CAMERA REACHES THE BASEMENT, OUT POPS THE CRYPT KEEPER WITH HIS MENACING CACKLE* "TALES FROM THE CRYPT". This show is one of my all-time favorites. I used to sit in front of the television with my father every Saturday night when this show came on. The stories in this show were so amazing and so well done, that I couldn't help myself when I became hooked on the show, and I was only four-years-old when this show debuted with its first season back in 1989.

TALES FROM THE CRYPT takes you on a journey through six horrifying episodes, each one scaring you in one way or another. This here first season only includes six episodes, but all six are very terrifying, and many ways, rather comical as well.

#1: THE MAN WHO WAS DEATH (aired June 10, 1989)
This spook-tacular episode shows a man named NILES (played by William Saddler, who would then go on to take the male lead role in the first-ever TALES FROM THE CRYPT motion picture entitled, TALES FROM THE CRYPT presents DEMON KNIGHT), who has spent the last twelve years of his life shooting electricity into prisoners, sending out their life sentences. But now, a law has been passed to ban the life sentence, for even executing murderers and law breakers is "Still Murder Within The Eyes of God". Niles then appears in a few court cases where the defendants happen to be let off the hook, despite the fact they are indeed guilty. This leaves Niles to privately execute the defendants, where it leads Niles into his own arrest, where is then in for a "Shocking" surprise.

#2: AND ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE (aired June 10, 1989)
In this chilling Holiday-filled episode, a woman murders her husband in cold blood on Christmas Eve. As she tries to bury the body outside in the freezing cold snow, she neglects to hear on the news that an escaped mental patient as broken out of the sanitarium, and has already killed four women in the county. The news has even stated that the patient has been seen wearing a Santa Claus suit, a suit he had stolen from one his victims. The mental patient stumbles upon this woman, practically killing her, but she seems to have killed him by stabbing him in the stomach. As she gets a hold of the police on the phone, she is told by the police to look around for a weapon to use, since she has informed the police that the patient has gotten up and entered her house, after she stabbed him the stomach. She goes into the closet to get her gun, but the door locks. As she pounds on the door, trying to get out, the patient climbs up to the woman's daughter's bedroom, with the daughter thinking that's it the real Santa. She busts through the closet and finds her daughter safe and sound, holding "Santa" by the hand, with her mother screaming at the top of her lungs.

#3: DIG THAT CAT...HE'S REAL GONE (aired June 10, 1989)
In this brilliant episode, ULRIC (played by Joe Pantoliano) comes across a seemingly mad scientist, who gives Ulric an offer he can't refuse: Have the gland of a cat inserted into his brain to give him the ability to resurrected after he is killed. The surgery goes successful, where Ulric becomes a classic act at the county fairs. He has been drowned, shot in the heart with an arrow, electrocuted, and many more. But he just kept coming back from beyond the grave. Here is now about to pull his next death stunt: being buried alive for twelve hours, and then resurrected. But...wait a minute. Ulric has already died and been resurrected...nine times.

#4: ONLY SIN DEEP (aired June 14, 1989)
In this sexy and beauty-filled episode, SYLVIA (played by Lea Thompson) is a 21-year-old hooker, looking to quit the business and clean up her act. She does so with the money she has robbed from her pimp...after killing him. She goes into a pawn shop to have her pimp's jewelery, but the pawner reveals that the jewelery isn't worth crap, for the jewelery is "hot". But he's willing to pay Sylvia $10,000 for her "beauty". He informs her that if she wants her beauty back, she has to get it back within a four-month period. Okay, whatever, you old whack-job. Sylvia goes through with the pawning of her beauty and goes out on her way with her 10 Gs. She meets a playboy and begins dating him. Four months go by and Sylvia begins seeing some odd changes in her complextion. She goes to a dermotologist, but he cannot seem to figure out what is wrong, where it is then and there that Sylvia figures out that the pawner was not kidding. She demands her beauty back, but the pawner will only sell it back to her for...$100,000. She kills her playboy boyfriend, and scrapes up every piece of jewelery he ever bought her. She gets her beauty back, which was formed in a plaster-of-paris head of her own self, but it ends up being smashed to pieces when one of Sylvia's hooker friends bumps right into her, not recognizing Sylvia, for she has become so hideous, like an old, disgusting haggard witch.

#5: LOVER, COME HACK TO ME (aired June 21, 1989)
In this ciller, Charles has found Peggy, the perfect girl. Peggy has found Charles, the perfect man. The two have married, against the wishes of Peggy's aunt. On their way to their honeymoon, they are stranded into an old house, where they have to succomb into spending their wedding night in this disgusting old house. Peggy wants her wedding night to be perfect, so consumating their marriage on the sofa is not a good idea. Comsumating their marriage in a bed is much better. They do their thing, and they both fall asleep, where Peggy says in a sort of joking way that they've made a child, a little girl. Charles falls asleep, but he wakes up to the sound of Peggy entering the house with another man. He watches his own wife screw another guy on the sofa, where they guy falls asleep, while Peggy tells him of how they've just conceived a child, a little girl. She then picks up an axe, leans over to the man's ear and simply says, "Peggy would make a great name for our little girl, wouldn't it?" She swings the axe and kills the guy she just had sex with. Charles wakes up in horror, for it was only a nightmare, but it was a nightmare about a true fact: Peggy's mother had killed her Peggy's father on their wedding night, after they had consumated their marriage, where her mother and father had just conceived Peggy that very night. Peggy's mother said she did it to consume the perfect love to a perfect wedding night. But Charles claims that he didn't marry Peggy out of love. He married her for her money, and he was going to murder Peggy that very night, report to the police that an accident had happened, where he would inherit the money, but Peggy has made a change in plans: continuing her family tradition, which is: Murdering her husband to consume the perfect love on the perfect wedding night, after consumating their marriage, which led into the conception of their daughter.

#6: COLLECTION COMPLETED (aired June 28, 1989)
In this lame episode, Audrey Lindley (the actress best known for her role as HELEN ROPER on Three's Company) plays a lonely housewife, who's husband named JULIAS has just retired. One the first day of his retirement, her husband is already going crazy because of all the animals his wife has in the house. She continues to claim that she does not want to get rid of the animals because they are her "friends", they've kept her company all those years her husband had spent working, instead of paying more attention to his own wife. Days go by, and the house is seeing less and less of the animals. Julias then shows his wife where all the animals have gone: in his basement...stuffed. The last animal to be taken care of is a cat, but Julias' wife bashes his skull in. But the next afternoon, she is sitting in the living room with Julias, talking to him as if he were still alive. Their friendly next-door neighbor drops by, where he discovers Julias' stuffed body.

This was a great season. But stay tuned, Boils and Ghouls. There's plenty more terrifying tales to come in the following seasons *CRYPT KEEPER'S CACKLE*

Short but Sweet Season - and I don't mean sweet in an innocent way.......2006-10-05

Tales from The Crypt's First season only has six episodes in it, but this only makes this DVD better to watch, because you can watch it all in one go, and all the episodes are on a single disc. Having said this I wish that HBO would have expanded on the 1989 season, because this is CLASSIC CRYPT!!!
I have had close favourite episodes in this season, that I can't decide. It's either "The Man Who Was Death", "Only Sin Deep" or "And All Through The House".
Like many fans of the show I took a trip down nostalga lane when watching these episodes, and remembered how afraid of the Cryptkeeper I was as a little kid. I first rediscovered the first half of this season, when a movie channel played "Man" "House" and "Dig" back to back one night in 2002.
Immediatly after watching them I searched on Amazon to see if they were released on DVD, but was dissapointed.I did not realize it would be yet another three years before I could own them on a suitable video format, but now I am glad I own a copy of Crypt's best season preserved in almost pristene quality on disc.
The episodes on this collection have a great atmosphere to them, one that is both classic and scary. I love the Cryptkeeper scenes, and he is exactly how I remembered. Owning these discs, for me at least is like owning a little bit of the past. Not just the past, but my past...as I am reminded how much I love this show.
Upon viewing the discs I was suprised how well Season One's master copies must have aged and Warner Bros has done an excellent job remastering the Picture Quality and sound from a show that first aired on cable T.V. in the late 1980's. Colours are very well saturated and they are very solid with Dark blacks, deep blues and crisp whites. All details on the Cryptkeepers rotting face are noticable, and the Blues in Zemeckis's "House" show up really well. I thought the DVD Art Work was good, presenting it in the form of an EC comic, and the inside design and back cover are also very good. Even though I liked the Art Work, the packaging itself was annoying, with flimsy cardboard, fold outs in a cardboard slip case. The set is difficult to get out of the case and back in again, and I personally would have liked two plastic slipcases ( that are easy to open, and do not tare ) or even a double disc keep case if we had been lucky
Back to the picture quality,there is some minimal grain, and specks, but for a show as old as this, it's presentable and acceptional DVD quality.
The special features aren't great, but the Documentary is quite good and interesting, but it is the Broadcast version, not the 90minute DVD Edition, and this Season version only runs at about 50minutes, so a good half hour has been chopped off. The new Cryptkeeper intro's and History of Season one arent that great, but if Your'e even a remote Crypt fan , a die hard one ( No pun intended ) or just someone who used to watch the show, and is looking for a trip down Nostalga lane , You will be glad with your Purchase, I already have season 2 & 3 on DVD, and have seen both feature movies and almost every Crypt episode, and I can honestly say that, Even though the First Season of Crypt is short, It's The shows finest season. Makes for Great Late night viewing!!!

The Cryptkeeper is awesome.......2006-08-03

This is one of Tales from the Crypt's best seasons!I loved the one about the man embalming all of his wife's pets,when he gets sick of them getting more appreciated than him.If you are a big fan of the TV show,then you should definilty add this season to your collection!I loved it!

This season is great!!!!!.......2006-07-31

I've just watch this season and it was great, is the best season of Tales from the Crypt.

DVD:

DVD

DVD: Kipper - Water Play

Steve Earle - Just an American Boy