The Crypt Keeper is back, and he’s got a few new tricks up his rotting sleeves. Three brand-new videos featuring the legendary Tales from the Crypt host have been released online, giving horror fans a chance to see the character brought back to life by The Walking Dead director and special effects maestro Greg Nicotero, with John Kassir once again providing that unmistakable voice. There is a catch, though: the Crypt Keeper is helping promote Bacardi as part of this year’s AMC FearFest celebration.
The three videos are titled “Guess Who’s Back?!,” “Raising the Bar from the Dead,” and “Better With a Beat.” They’re sort of like miniature versions of the introductions the Crypt Keeper used to deliver on HBO’s classic horror anthology series, complete with his signature cackle and macabre sense of humor. But this time, with the addition of Bacardi. You can watch all three below.
The segments were directed by Nicotero in collaboration with AMC Global Media’s Content Room, the company’s in-house branded entertainment studio. Nicotero recreated the Crypt Keeper puppet at his KNB EFX studio. The videos are part of AMC FearFest’s partnership with Bacardi, which means the horror host is spending some of his Halloween season serving up “shocktails.” Well, even the undead have to pay the bills.
The new videos follow AMC’s announcement last month that the Crypt Keeper would return to host the 30th anniversary celebration of FearFest. It marked the first new Crypt Keeper material in decades, with Nicotero recreating the character originally brought to life by effects artist Kevin Yagher.
“What a great honor and privilege to re-create this iconic character and get a chance to revisit some of his clever quips and puns with John Kassir again reprising his role,” Nicotero said when the return was announced. “Having the chance to re-create Kevin Yagher’s amazing puppet at my studio KNB EFX and get the opportunity to ‘direct him’ in a series of FearFest spots was like going back in time and I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.”
Kassir’s return is particularly welcome. His vocal performance was an essential ingredient in Tales from the Crypt, which ran for seven seasons between 1989 and 1996. The HBO series brought horror stories packed with gruesome deaths, dark humor, and wicked twists to television, with the Crypt Keeper serving as its master of scaremonies.
The Crypt Keeper’s return inevitably raises the question of whether a full Tales from the Crypt revival could happen someday. Unfortunately, there’s no announcement of a new series at this point. The franchise has a complicated history when it comes to its rights. A planned Tales from the Crypt revival from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan was in development at TNT in 2016, with the network ordering 10 episodes. The project ultimately fell apart amid difficulties untangling the property’s underlying rights.
Kassir discussed those complications in 2023, explaining that different elements of the franchise and the Crypt Keeper character were controlled by different rights holders. The new AMC FearFest material demonstrates that the character can return in a promotional capacity, but it doesn’t establish that the rights issues surrounding a new television series have been resolved.
For now, we’ll have to settle for the Crypt Keeper making commercial breaks a little more gruesome. It’s not quite the same as getting a fresh batch of Tales from the Crypt stories, but hearing Kassir cackle again while Nicotero’s puppet mugs for the camera is a welcome Halloween surprise. Even if he’s now slinging Bacardi.
AMC FearFest is running throughout October with more than 650 hours of horror programming, and the original Tales from the Crypt is available to stream on both Shudder and Tubi. So while the Crypt Keeper may be mixing up some shocktails for the occasion, fans can also revisit the series that made him a horror icon in the first place.