Cue the lightning strike and music as the camera zig-zags us through a haunted mansion where we come upon a coffin. The lid flies open and we find ourselves staring at our favorite corpse, the Cryptkeeper, as he erupts into his signature cackling. A familiar sight for fans of “Tales from the Crypt” and this can only mean one thing. Warner Brothers has given us the fourth season on DVD.
This season is as packed with celebrities as ever which includes a Tom Hanks-helmed episode in which he also cameos, Brad Pitt, Christopher Reeve, Treat Williams, Joe Pesci, Timothy Dalton, Judd Nelson, Margot Kidder, David Morse, Burt Young, Donald O’Connor and some guest direction done by Richard Donner and Joel Silver among others.
Overall, the quality of the episodes in the fourth season seems to be a slight step down from the previous three seasons but certainly include enough camp, gore and nudity to keep Crypt and horror fans happy even if a few of these episodes hardly qualify as horror.
Highlight episodes for me include “What’s Cookin’?” my favorite episode of the season and one of my favorites of the series so far. The late, great Christopher Reeve stars as a hapless cook and co-owner of a diner with his wife in which he thought it was a good idea to serve squid only. Needless to say, business is poor, and when a drifter they hire as a employee (Judd Nelson) makes a suggestion to try his killer recipe for barbecue, they refuse at first until the landlord (Meat Loaf) comes calling threatening eviction. This new recipe becomes all the rage but secret recipes can’t last forever….This episode is vintage “Tales” with some great dark comedy, some truly nasty gore and nice performances from Reeve and Nelson. And isn’t it always great to see Christopher Reeve again?
Another solid episode is “Showdown” with a clever script by Shawshank Redemption writer/director Frank Darabont and direction from Richard Donner. A notorious gunslinger and outlaw (Neil Gray Guintoli) in the Old West rides into a dusty old town in which he soon finds out is a ghost town with the residents consisting of all the lives he has taken over the years. Davis Morse, great as always, turns up as a posse leader. “Split Personality” is another camptacular episode in which Joe Pesci gets directed by his old Lethal Weapon producer Joel Silver. Pesci stars as a con man that dupes a pathetic gambler (Burt Young) early in the episode and then slaps a hooker for speaking out of turn. Always on the look out for the perfect score, Pesci gets lucky in stumbling upon two billionaire twins with a shady past but will his luck run out as he tries to come up with a plan in which he can marry both of them? The episode is slightly uneven at times, but Pesci is great here and the final frames are some of the more twisted of the season.
“Strung Along” stars Donald O’Connor (Singin’ in the Rain) as a retired puppeteer constantly suspicious of his young wife but comes upon a big break in his career when asked to perform his old stint on a major TV show. Bringing in a young apprentice (Zach Galligan from Gremlins…whatever happened to this guy?), things seem to go well until he learns his wife might be cheating on him and this doesn’t sit well with him or his puppet. Donald O’Connor does a great job here coming off as sympathetic and believable even as he’s talking to his puppet. While this story has certainly be told several times, this episode manages to generate some atmosphere and legitimate scares anyway and also sports a pretty good twist.
More moderate episodes include “None but the Lonely Heart”, the episode directed by Tom Hanks which was mostly a shoulder-shrugger for me even though I found it rather humorous to see Tom Hanks meet his demise via bad horror techniques. Treat Williams stars as a con man (Cryptkeeper loves his con men apparently) who marries old women for their money and then offs them. Someone has found out about his dirty plan, however, and his sins are about to catch up to him. Mildly amusing but it played rather dull for me.
There is a lot of nudity in this episode if that’s your thing and the climax is a gory mess but it all became unintentionally silly for me. “Séance” is fairly weak about two crooks involved with blackmail who have to put up a fake séance to fool a widow. “Beauty Rest” tells the tale of an aging actress (Mimi Rogers) who becomes tired of losing gigs to her younger, slutty roommate (Kathy Ireland) and decides to take matters into her own hands quite literally. An okay if rather inexplicable climatic reveal.
“King of the Road” is about a street-race punk (Brad Pitt) who becomes determined to race an old legend Iceman, who is now a cop, by any means necessary even if that involves kidnapping the cop’s daughter. There’s not a lot here and I’m curious what makes this a tale of “terror”? “The New Arrival” starts off a little convoluted but becomes better as it progresses. A radio child psychologist plans to boost his ratings by taking his show on the road to visit a frequent caller, a seemingly psychotic mother, and her even stranger daughter. Some really creepy atmosphere is generated here and Zelda Rubenstein (from Poltergeist) will always freak me out.
Other weaker episodes include “Maniac at Large” directed by John Frankenheimer about a frumpy, paranoid librarian (Blythe Danner) who freaks herself out over a headlining serial killer. It unfolds slowly and the big twist can be seen a mile away. “Werewolf Concerto” is an Agatha Christie-like whodunit about a werewolf terrorizing a resort in the woods. Decent turns from Timothy Dalton and Beverly D-Angelo but Clue this ain’t. The final episode “Curiosity Killed” stars two senior-citizen couples who stumble upon the secret to a youth potion but of course comes with a few strings attached. It’s a strange tale and not particularly successful.
The episodes are presented in their original aspect ration of 4:3 full frame. Meager special features include a commentary on the “What’s Cookin’?” episode by John Kassir hacking it up as the Cryptkeeper as he discusses the episode with writer Alan Katz and series historian Dighy Diehl. Amusing stuff but just one episode gets a commentary? The only other special feature is the superfluous “Stars of Season Four” montage, a minutes-long montage hosted by the Cryptkeeper, content that makes me wonder why they even bothered. Also to note is that oddly, Warner Brothers made the rather annoying decision to not include English subtitles for this season even though English subtitles were included on the first three seasons. With “Tales” sporting a stereo mix, English subtitles were a nice way to flesh out some of the dialogue. Oh well.
“Tales from the Crypt” seasons are always a mixed bag and this season is no different. Season four brings its usual eclectic mix of different genres: western, noir, camp, comedy, etc. into a moderately successful whole even if the overall quality of episodes didn’t quite match up to previous seasons for me. Regardless, fans of the show will be pleased to add Season four to their collection and any television show that sports celebrity directors, big-name stars, werewolves, cannibals, gunslingers, zombies, voodoo, an ample supply of nudity, and plenty of gore will always get thumbs up from me.
Tales from the Crypt – The Complete Fourth Season is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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