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View Full Version : Tales From The Crypt(1972)


Carrieattheprom
05-16-2004, 03:57 PM
Much tamer than the HBO t.v. show. But I think it's odd the movie only got a PG rating. I realise that PG-13 didn't exist yet, but that's still a weird rating. Oh, well.


The basic premise: five people find themselves lost in a crypt. The crypt keeper is an old dude with no special make-up. He tells tales about each of the five people.


All Through The House: Woman kills her husband on x-mas eve to get his insurance money. News report comes on saying a maniac wearing a Santa suit escaped from the nut house. Woman lockes up the doors and windows. Daughter opens the door to let "Santa" in.


Reflection Of Death: Man leaves his wife and kids to be with his misstress. They are involved in a car accident. Man starts to walk home. Whenever anyone looks at him, they flee in terror.


Poetic Justice: Sweet little old man is tourmented by an SOB who thinks the old man is a disgrace to the neiborhood. After recieveing some nasty valentimes, old dude hangs himself. A year later he comes back as a zombie to get revenge against the SOB.


Wish You Were Here: If you ever heard the story of The Monkey's Paw, this story will be familier to you. Woman wishes for money. Her hubby dies, she gets his insurance money. She wishes to have her husband alive again forever, not realising he's been embalmed.


Blind Alley: Mean dude is put in charge of a home for the blind. Mean Dude makes them eat crappy food, doesn't let them have blankets, and won't call for a doctor when someone is sick. Blind People get revenge.



Final part of the wrap around has the crypt keeper reveal exactly why our peeps are there, and where the exit is.



All around a good movie. Despite it's PG rating there is blood shed. Sword in the head, a heart removed, a nasty encounter with some razor blades.


The only problem I had was with the story,"Wish you were here" the dude in that story did NOT deserve what happend to him. In all the other stories, the characters DO deserve what happens.
"Wish You Were Here" seems out of place.

countchocula
05-16-2004, 06:21 PM
Solid anthology, although it's illogical in spots. I watched this movie before I knew who Peter Cushing was. The TV series is more fun, but this flick's Hammer-esque vibe is irreplaceable. When is The Vault of Horror going to hit DVD??????

countchocula
05-16-2004, 06:22 PM
(double post)

blacksnake
05-16-2004, 11:20 PM
I originally saw this film on tv and I loved it. Good direction, good performances from everybody involved, good stories, good original music and good cinematography. I liked this film a lot and hope to buy it soon. I also agree that the film was a little too bloody for a PG rating but wasn't strong enough for an R, so I think the PG rating fits. Plus the film was marketed to kids who were the main readers of the comic. I hope this film comes out on DVD soon because the video is around but not always the easiest to find.

Cronos
05-17-2004, 05:53 AM
i quite liked this, if had a Hammer vibe and the stories were fun

KillerKlown
05-17-2004, 06:33 PM
I caught this on TV a few weeks back and I loved it! I especially loved Peter Cushing in his zombie get-up.

EVILxxx
05-18-2004, 03:43 AM
This is one of the best anthologies ever. All the stories ranged from good to very good, and the wrap around story was pretty good to. 8/10

XCoRyX
05-18-2004, 10:08 AM
i remember the santa segment, and remember enjoying it very much... most of the time horror themed tv shows don't do much for me, and neither did tales from the crypt, but that santa episode creeped me out as a kid, and to this day I dig it.

Carrieattheprom
05-19-2004, 04:27 PM
In that one scene, did anyone else think the heart was too big to belong to a human?

KillerKlown
05-19-2004, 05:29 PM
I can't remember. If it was about fist-sized, then it would be about right.

Carrieattheprom
05-20-2004, 09:33 AM
No, I think it was a little bigger than that. Almost like the borrowed it from a slaughter house or something, kinda like it belonged to a cow.

Gravedigger
05-20-2004, 03:56 PM
Certainly one of Amicus' finest short-horror anthology films with a great cast and some cool and macabre stories based on the 1950's EC comics. This is one of my favs from Amicus and where I got my original username, The Cryptkeeper from!~

I have this on DVD, from Cryptflix, its an excellent transfer copy.

Carrieattheprom
05-20-2004, 06:32 PM
YOU GOT THE DVD?????!!!! KEWL!!!!!! ANY EXTRAS???????!!!!!!


I saw this movie by chance on the FoxMovie Network. All the films made by 20th Century Fox, Without comercial interuption.

Patrick Bateman
06-02-2004, 01:06 AM
I first viewed this film when I was pretty young and still enjoy it today. It definately has that HAMMER aura about it, and is definately one of the most entertaining anthology films ever made. I dug the story of how these indivduals got caught up in the clutches of the Crypt Keeper, and tied in the stories from the EC comics.

My fav 'tale' from the film would have to go to, "All through the House". I remember seeing this at a pretty young age and was on the edge of my seat to see what would happen to the lovely Joan Collins (you have to admit she was fine back in the day) during her predicament. And I was not let down.

A DVD with the double bill of "Tales from the Crypt", and "Vault of Horror" should be a must!

8/10 Great Film!

Carrieattheprom
06-04-2004, 02:07 PM
Next time Arrow does a movie suggestion thread, I'll ask him to look at this.

Could Be Worse
06-04-2004, 02:28 PM
Originally posted by Carrieattheprom
YOU GOT THE DVD?????!!!! KEWL!!!!!! ANY EXTRAS???????!!!!!!


I saw this movie by chance on the FoxMovie Network. All the films made by 20th Century Fox, Without comercial interuption.

Sucha great channel. The films are uncut, too.

teenkiller
11-29-2009, 04:23 PM
How very strange. I never thought I would enjoy a PG horror film as much as I did this one. On top of that It doesn't suffer from "anthology syndrome", meaning that it isn't uneven with it's five stories. The only one I didn't care for much was Blind Alley. I liked the twist in All Through the House and even liked the self aware spin that they took with the Monkey's Paw styled segment. Hey, it beats the fuck out of Creepshow III. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

thewolf
12-27-2009, 11:28 PM
Much tamer than the HBO t.v. show. But I think it's odd the movie only got a PG rating. I realise that PG-13 didn't exist yet, but that's still a weird rating. Oh, well.

hell, Jaws also got a PG rating!

All Through The House: Woman kills her husband on x-mas eve to get his insurance money. News report comes on saying a maniac wearing a Santa suit escaped from the nut house. Woman lockes up the doors and windows. Daughter opens the door to let "Santa" in.


i had seen this flick a long long time ago, and don't really remember this segment, but Robert Zemeckis remade this story for the HBO series, and remains one of my absolute favorite episodes!

Mopar Fanatic
12-28-2009, 12:27 AM
i had seen this flick a long long time ago, and don't really remember this segment, but Robert Zemeckis remade this story for the HBO series, and remains one of my absolute favorite episodes!

Beat me to it.

PSU80
03-06-2010, 07:17 AM
I've never seen the 1972 film but I always loved the HBO series. I've heard too many bad things about the film over the years to ever bother trying to hunt down a copy.