{"id":13634,"date":"2018-10-08T19:41:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T23:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.9deuce.tv\/blogs\/?p=13634"},"modified":"2018-10-08T19:41:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T23:41:05","slug":"tales-from-the-crypt-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.9deuce.tv\/blogs\/tales-from-the-crypt-1972\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales From the Crypt (1972)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have never seen the 2 original Tales From the Crypt films susrprisingly, despite having seen the TV show so many times, like every episode over 10 times. \u00a0I loved the show. Needless to say, i am excited to see what 1972 PG horror can provide for me. I tend to give these more room to grow on me because of the confides that they were working within. \u00a0It goes without say that there will be spoilers here. As far as I know, there are 5 different short stories told, and Peter Cushing is involved! If you want, please feel free to skip to the bottom where I give my brief synopsis and a rating. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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SPOILERS<\/span><\/p>\n

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The wrap around story is just about 5 strangers who get lost on a tour of a crypt. \u00a0There, that\u2019s simple enough. The whole thing is pretty damn silly. The Cryptkeeper tells these tales of each of the 5 strangers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Segment 1 – \u201cAnd All Through The House\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dead <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Mommy\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Santa\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Joan Collins was a fox back then. \u00a0Good for her. Anyway, Joan plays Joanne and she kills her old husband, Richard. \u00a0I think it\u2019s safe to say that she was a gold digger as the house seems very nice. She hit him upside the head with a fire poker, but their daughter was in the house. \u00a0Carol, the daughter has sweet wallpaper with donkeys on it. It\u2019s Christmas Eve, as if the title didn\u2019t already allude to that. Wait, I think this was made into an episode for the TV show, it was in season 1 if I\u2019m not mistaken. \u00a0Now I\u2019m even more excited. Yup, it\u2019s the second ever episode. There\u2019s a killer on the loose dressed as Santa and of course, he visits the house. That was not as well done as the remake, but almost 2 decades later allowed for a scarier version. \u00a0I still really enjoyed it. Basically, Carol lets Santa in and then obviously bad things.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Segment 2 – \u201cReflection of Death\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Carl <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Flaming <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nightmare\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

So Carl has a wife and 2 kids, but he goes out to pick up his mistress, Susan, and they are leaving town. \u00a0Susan is quite the looker herself. I am very pleased. He\u2019s tired so she drives, and then he has a nightmare, scares her, they end up on the wrong side of the road, veer off, crash through a fence, into a tree, and the car burns. \u00a0Carl escapes the wreckage, looks pretty red, but can\u2019t find Susan. He scares a homeless dude and then scares off a nearby driver. We are only seeing from his perspective so we don\u2019t know what he looks like. He comes home and his wife screams. \u00a0He goes to Susan\u2019s and finds her in the apartment and it\u2019s full of furniture again…and we see his very dead face. He screams, wakes up from the dream, they have the car crash again, rinse repeat basically. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Segment 3 – \u201cPoetic Justice\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Grimsdyke\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"James <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Happy <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Ohhh, Peter Cushing. \u00a0He plays this friendly guy named Grimsdyke, and he gives kids toys and they love him. \u00a0His rich neighbors don\u2019t like him, especially James Elliot. James wants him to sell the property, but he won\u2019t. \u00a0James digs up Grimsdyke\u2019s neighbor\u2019s prize rose garden, which gets blamed on Grimsdyke\u2019s dogs, so the cops take them away. \u00a0Grimsdyke gets on the Ouija board to talk to his dead wife. She reveals that he is in danger. Now Grimsdyke is out of a job. \u00a0It just gets worse and worse. Now Elliot has scared all the parents into not allowing their kids to see Grimsdyke. The next plan is to send him Valentine\u2019s from everybody in town. \u00a0Unfortunately, they are all incredibly mean-spirited. 2 weeks later, Elliot goes to check on Grimsdyke as nobody has seen him, and they found that he has hung himself. The next year at Valentine\u2019s Day, Elliot finds some of the cards and burns them. \u00a0We see Grimsdyke rise from the grave, naturally. He came back and attacked James and killed him. Man, the blood is so fake looking. He also left a nice poem of his own. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Segment 4 – \u201cWish You Were Here\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ralph\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Enid\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Stupid <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Ralph is a wealthy man, or used to be, and is now forced to go for bankruptcy. His lawyer, Charles, had warned him of his spending ways, but Ralph believed in simply going for the gold. \u00a0He tells his wife, Enid, and they look at a statue that grants 3 wishes. He recalls the tale of the Monkey\u2019s Paw, and she wishes for lots and lots of money, and he isn\u2019t happy with this wish, but then the phone rings and Charles has something important to tell him about money. \u00a0You can see where this is going. A guy on a motorcycle is chasing his car and has a skull face, and Ralph died. Charles is notified and now he has to notify Enid. Charles then informs her that she is due lots of money due to his huge insurance, double for accidents. She wants to wish Ralph to be back right before he was in the accident. \u00a0Uh huh. Well, he had a heart attack before the accident, so she gets him back but he\u2019s still dead. M Night Sham just got a raging clue. Enid wished for Ralph to be back alive, and forever. He still has all of the embalming fluid in him, so it burns like hell. She starts hacking him up but he remains alive. What a dumb bitch.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Segment 5 – \u201cBlind Alleys\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Carter\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Major <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Razor <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Major Rodgers is taking over a home for the blind. Ohhh shit, the old guy from Clockwork Orange is in this!!! Woooo! \u00a0His name is Carter. Rodgers also has a dog named Shane, so that\u2019s cool. It\u2019s now winter and all of the blind men are cold as hell because Rodgers isn\u2019t heating the place, and now there are no extra blankets. \u00a0The Major doesn\u2019t feel that this stuff fits the economy. Carter explains that due to loss of one sense, they feel, hear, taste, all of their other sense are heightened. Major doesn\u2019t give a shit. They get terrible food, no meat, no second helpings, while Major eats steak and drinks wine, so Carter gets pissed and Shane gets pissed at Carter. \u00a0One old guy, Greenwood, appears close to death due to the cold and asks for a doctor. Major says that he will take a look at Greenwood, but he is now dead. At mealtime, all of the guys pass along a plate and put scraps on the plate, and Carter ends up with it. It looks like ham or bacon, and Carter is lining the floor with the scent and making a trail. \u00a0Naturally, Shane finds the trail. The trail leads Shane to a basement perhaps and eventually outside I think, well, either way, he is behind a closed door now. The men escort Major down to this basement and force him out the door as well. It appears that these are like weird cells to hold people in, my bad. The men are all grabbing big planks of wood and appear to be building something. \u00a0The doctor comes to check on the dog barking and he gets put into a room. They are purposely starving Major and Shane. They did a take on this story for the TV show and it had Isaac Hayes, John Savage, and Teri Polo. It was season 6 episode 5. They are going to feed Major to Shane, I am sure. Yup, Major has to walk down a hallway lined with razors on the wall. He makes it pretty far. \u00a0\u00a0Anyway, he makes it through the narrow corridor only to have Shane\u2019s door opened and he backpedals, only to have the lights go out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"The <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Perhaps <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Back to the initial 5, and they are all confused since they all died in their stories. \u00a0The old guy yes that they can now go. Basically, they are at the gates of Hell. Good times. \u00a0Solid ending.<\/span><\/p>\n

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END SPOILERS<\/span><\/p>\n

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End Film<\/span><\/p>\n

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Final Thoughts: I am shocked that I had never seen that before. \u00a0What a treat! I had a really good time. Yes, it\u2019s dated, and it is cheesy by today\u2019s standards, especially the blood. \u00a0Thematically speaking, a lot of those stories could be retold in a film today and be great. Segments 1, 4, and 5 were the strongest of the group for me, especially 1 and 5. \u00a0From best to worst, I would go 5, 1, 4, 3, 2. This is tough to really rate. I know that I want to show this to people, and it\u2019s definitely rewatchable. It was fun in the same vein as Asylum was for me. \u00a0That\u2019s a big compliment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rating: 6.4 seems absolutely fair. \u00a0If each segment could be worth a full 2 points, I would have given 5 two points, 1 and 4 would get one and a half points, 3 could have been given 0.8 points, and 2 would have been given 0.6. \u00a0I feel that is fair from my perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:<\/p>\n