Customer Reviews

Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Seventh Season

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

And this wraps it up; the glorious 1989-1996 seven season run of the best pay cable anthology show ever to grace the airwaves is finally complete on DVD.

This season many feel lacked in detail but I completely disagree, there are quite a few gems in this finale, let me explain why it is a very unique finish to the series; the show moved production to the United Kingdom and used only a British cast of respected actors thus giving the series a different atmosphere to work with.

Episodes such as "Cold War" with a young Ewan McGregor, "Horror in the Night" and "About Face" stand out just as worthy as any previous season classic.

Fatal Caper (Starring the late Natasha Richardson)
Last Respects
A Slight Case of Murder
Escape
Horror in the Night
Cold War (Starring "Star Wars" Ewan McGregor)
Kidnapper
Report from the Grave
Smoke Wrings
About Face
Confession (Starring comedian Eddie Izzard)
Ear Today... Gone Tomorrow
The Third Pig

The Tales From The Crypt series was some of the best television airing back in the final years of the 80s and into the early 90s. Deliberately over the top. Deliberately funny. Deliberately campy at times. Deliberately scary. Deliberately gory. Deliberately one of HBO's finest creations.

The episodes are all based on EC Comics of old...mostly from the self titled Tales From the Crypt, Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror comic books. But I'd guess that 90% of you reading this already know that, and you're here as I am delighted that the final season is finally out on DVD.

For those that have not seen these wonderfully entertaining episodes of dark humor and horror...if you're into the genre this collection and any of the other HBO seasonal Tales From the Crypt releases are for you. Alas...by the sixth season the directorial effort and actor ambition had waned, and The Tales From The Crypt series was startin' to look a bit long in the fang. Hence, The Cryptkeepr "killed" production of the show after season 7.

Airing first in 1989 and finishing out in 1996, by the fifth season I've always thought that it would have been cool if the producers considered bringing in some adaptations of modern short stories from the likes of Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz, because the best EC Comic stories were done in seasons one through four. But I guess the producers felt it was taboo to stray from the EC Comics classics. (In my review of Tales 5 {that mirrors this review almost exactly, with the exception of the individual episode puns} a commenter said that, "part of the TV deal with William Gaines was that all of the Tales From The Crypt episodes had to be based on EC Comics stories.")

That's too bad, because the following episodes were good...but just good. Not great...like seasons 1 - 4.

Season 7 gives you:

"Fatal Caper" -- Who's your brother's creeper?
"Last Respects" -- Monkeying around with the wrong paw.
"A Slight Case of Murder" -- That's what I call writing a book with a twist!
"Escape" -- The penalty for treason is...Death.
"Horror in the Night" -- Diamonds are a ghouls best friend.
"Cold War" -- Battle of the undead.
"Kidnapper" -- Don't throw a baby out with the bath water.
"Report From the Grave" -- Be careful what you wish for.
"Smoke Wrings" -- Where there's smoke, there's murder.
"About Face" -- Bless you, Father, for you have sinned.
"Confession" -- Life imitates art.
"Ear Today...Gone Tomorrow" -- Hear ye, kill ye!
"The Third Pig" -- The Three Little Poltergeists.

I'm a big Tales fan, but the "Add to Cart" button was really hard to press for season 6 & 7. Still...it was a terrific run for the series, and even the final seasons of Tales are better than most of the TV on the air today. So, at minimum, give season 7 a rent....These'll kill ya!

The seventh, and final, season of HBO's Tales From the Crypt was bittersweet to say the least. Though no one wanted to see the horror anthology's demise, the series had grown tired over the past couple seasons (and two feature films), and by the time the seventh season came to an end, it was good to see the show go without wearing out it's welcome. There are some exceptional episodes to be found here, including "Cold War" starring a pre-Jedi Ewan McGregor in a twisty role, "Ear Today...Gone Tomorrow" in which a safecracker seeking a new lease on his old job gets more than he bargained for, "Confession" which features Eddie Izzard as a suspect in a series of grisly serial killings, and the last episode, the fully animated "The Third Pig" which puts a grisly and gory spin on the the Three Little Pigs. Other episodes, like "Smoke Wrings" (featuring a young Daniel Craig), and "Fatal Caper" (featuring a cunning Natasha Richardson) are solid enough as well, so the overall season is a winner like the ones that came before it. All in all, the Cryptkeeper may have finally gotten laid to rest, but as the final season of Tales From the Crypt proves, he's still worth digging up now and again.

This is it, the final season of the greatest horror anthology franchise of all time. Season Seven is where it ended and it's clear The Cryptkeeper was fed up with Hollywood at this point. So, much like Al Bundy before him, he decided to take a trip to the motherland, and set off for old London town. Season Seven is an entirely British production. Unfortunately, this season is regarded as the worst. It's true, the series went out on a bad note. But if you dig you can find a couple of horror nuggets among the rubbish. Let's take a look.

*** POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS ***

1. "Fatal Caper" - The season opener featured the great Bob Hoskins so it should have been better. This is a drama about a rich man's will and the lengths his family will go to collect on it. I consider this a weak episode. The twist at the end had been done before in the previous season and was laughable. 1 and half Stars.

2. "Last Respects" - In contrast to the bore that was the opener, "Last Respects" is a killer. It's about 3 young ladies that own an occult shop. They find a cursed monkey paw, and let's face it, how could you go wrong from there. I like this installment quite a bit. 4 Stars.

3. "A Slight Case of Murder" - And now on PBS, a British thriller starring Mrs. Doubtfire as a mystery author. Oh wait, I thought this was HBO, I thought I was watching Tales From The Crypt. Awful. 1 and a half Stars.

4. "Escape" - This is a somewhat OK episode about POW's in WWII. But it doesn't necessarily feel like TFTC. By the appalling standards of Season Seven, however, this is actually pretty good. 3 Stars.

5. "Horror In The Night" - Imagine if one of the jewel thieves in Snatch had been shot and later died in a hotel room and went to Hell. Then you'd have "Horror In The Night". This is one of the top episodes of this set. A bit surreal, which can be hit or miss with this series. But very entertaining. 3 and a half Stars.

6. "Cold War" - The one classic episode of Season Seven. This, like I have said about past classic episodes, has all the elements to create a great TFTC. Horror, comedy, crime, zombies, vampires. "Cold War" feels like a Tales, the opening features a holdup and shootout at a gas station and it is true to the harsh violence you find in the US epsiodes. Extremely well done. Ewan McGregor stars, looking much like how you would expect Rentboy to look if he had never kicked the smack. 5 Stars.

7. "The Kidnapper" - The first few minutes make this look like it's going to be good. A masked man is creeping around a baby stroller in a park. But it immediately falls apart and becomes garbage. 1 Star.

8. "Report From the Grave" - Another pretty good one about a university student who invents the technology to read the memories of the dead. Like most of this season, it suffers from being slow-moving and subdued. But there are some interesting parts set in a graveyard. One of the creepier installments this season. 3 and a half Stars.

9. "Smoke Wrings" - One of the worst Tales From The Crypts ever. This one plays like a bad Tales From The Darkside. It's got Daniel Craig as an executive who develops mind control advertisements. This is truly terrible but I'm going to give it 1 Star based purely on the intro and outro of The Cryptkeeper. At this point you wonder if he was exiled from his homeland due to the atrocious nature of Season Six, and just stopped trying. What a lame episode. 1 Star.

10. "About Face" - Oh jeez, another very dark, very quiet, very slow-moving yawn-fest. You might want to skip right to the final chapter on the DVD because the twist, as mild as it is, is the only thing interesting here. 1 and a half Stars.

11. "Confession" - This is the last good live-action TFTC episode. This one's got Eddie Izzard as a filmmaker under suspicion for brutal serial killings where the victims are found beheaded. Most people seem to think it's the best episode of the season, but for me that distinction goes to Trainspotting 2: Smackhead Zombies. The twist at the end has the irony you'd expect of an Eddie Izzard TFTC episode, and is quite well done. 4 Stars.

12. "Ear Today... Gone Tomorrow" - This is an incoherent edition of Tales about a safecracker under interrogation by torturers. Sounds promising, but it's not, it's wretched. I hate this episode. It's stupid. 1 Star.

13. "The Third Pig" - So that's it, "Ear Today..." was the final live-action episode. By now you're probably feeling that the real spirit of the series died a long time before that. More like at the end of Season Five. So for the series finale we've got an animated episode. This particular Cryptkeeper cartoon, however, would not be on network TV on Saturday morning, because it is R-rated. It's a variation of the 3 pigs fable done TFTC style. It's one of the best episodes of the season even though it's not a 'real' TFTC. Actually, if I really wanted to get into it, I'd mention that the series deserved something far more grand as a finale. The cartoon is cute, but the TFTC finale deserved something huge, like an homage to an old House of Dracula film done 90s style. Oh well, wasted potential. 4 Stars.

My biggest complaint about Season Seven is that it does not feel like Tales. TFTC is very American. It's trashy, loud and bright. There's a sense of humor that doesn't always translate with the British episodes. This season looks like it should be on PBS. It's too quiet and slow-moving.

One thing I always wonder about the real bad episodes. Why not just choose a better story? Are you telling me TFTC was lacking of good horror stories from their multitude of different titles, and their massive archive of back issues? It's mind-boggling that you sit through trash like some of the ones that appear here, when there are probably hundreds of stories that AT LEAST would have contained more elements of horror.

At least from Season Six and Seven you can cobble together one decent 13 episode final season. From here, you move on to the 2 TFTC films: Bordello of Blood and Demon Knight, which are both marvelous. Then there's Tales From the Cryptkeeper, the Saturday morning cartoon spin-off. If you don't have them, you'll also want to grab the first 2 Creepshow films, because they were the precursor to TFTC. TFTC was originally planned to be Creepshow 3. And then there's the actual Creepshow 3, which was released as Tales From the Darkside: The Movie. That's another 3 chapters that fit in perfectly with this whole EC Horror Anthology Universe.

For the final season Tales From The Crypt heads to....... England! And fans seemed to not like it as much. But did fans actually give it a fair shake? I say no. The final season of this show IS excellent. Sure you have an all British cast but there is nothing wrong with that at all! Now onto the episodes. There are plenty of gems here.
The episodes

Fatal Caper - A really solid episode. Not the best of the season BUT it does feature plenty of twists towards the end. It is very hard to figure out just how this will end. Not at all gory but interesting. Well made. 2.5 out of 4 stars.

Last Respects - A solid take on the Monkey's Paw. Really enjoyable. Nothing wrong here. 3 out of 4 stars.

A Slight Case Of Murder - Overall this is the weak link of the set BUT it's still good and has solid acting. More of a mystery thriller but enjoyable. Go in with lower expectations. 2.5 out of 4

Escape - A real surprise. Escape is quite like Yellow in ways but it has more twists. Really well done with a solid ending. 3 out of 4

Horror In The Night - Did you like the film 1408? If so you will love this one. Scary and gory. Very nightmarish. 3.5 out of 4

Cold War - Masterful episode. Zombies, vampires..... this one has it all. Plus it is well written, funny and LIKABLE. Yes likable. Ewan McGregor and Jane Horracks are brilliant. 4 out of 4

The Kidnapper - Now before you watch this.. go in knowing it's not horror. Not even a thriller honestly. A quirky drama. It's entertaining and has a couple of twists. 3 out of 4

Report From The Grave - LOVED it. One of the best on the set for sure. Brilliantly directed by William Malone. This is also pretty creepy and the end is top notch. 4 out of 4

Smoke Wrings - Daniel Craig stars in this one! Great episode. I loved the final twist in it. 3.5 out of 4

About Face - A classic. The darkest episode of the set with a bit of a disturbing and shocking final scene. Brilliant. 4 out of 4

Confession - This one gets better the 2nd time you see it. Eddie Izzard and Ciaran Hinds give great performances. Knowing the end actually makes this episode better. 3.5 out of 4

Ear Today... Gone Tomorrow - Maybe the strangest episode ever. It may be a bit of a love it or hate it. I loved it. The final couple scenes are 0_0 ............ 4 out of 4

The Third Pig - Animated episode. A gory three little pig's. The final episode and a solid way to go out. Not the best of the set but a must see still just for how left field it is. 3 out of 4

As you see a great season and a must own.

There's no denying the cultural impact that Tales from the Crypt had in the late 80's to the mid 90's. It was fun, campy and mildly creepy and gory. I'm sure for some people it was more than mildly gory, but I have a very high tolerance for blood and gore, which may be one of the reasons why I found this final season to be a bit of a let down. Blood and gore aside, I'm also a fan of solid storylines that have you genuinely interested and wondering "what's going to happen?" throughout the entire episode. Unfortunately, I didn't feel that for most of season seven. Actually, I found most of the episodes to be somewhat boring.

So what makes the final season so different? Well, the most obvious is that the entire cast is British. The Cryptkeeper's introduction of "Fatal Caper" explains it as the result of him being on vacation in London. Another difference is that this is the only season to feature a full length animated episode ("The Third Pig"), which looks like a combination of Ren and Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life. The biggest difference is that the writing has gone downhill. As I previously mentioned, quite a few of the episodes were rather boring to me and features the WORST Tales from the Crypt episode EVER ("The Kidnapper"), as nothing supernatural or scary happens. It felt more like an extremely watered down Law and Order episode and was just added to take up space.

There are a few gems in this season such as: "Escape", "Horror in the Night" and "About Face". All-in-all, this isn't a horrible season, but it is far from great. If you're looking for some prime Tales from the Crypt episodes, check out the first four or five seasons and it will surely satisfy your bloodlust!

I didn`t like everything on it. But I thought it was worth having just for the few episodes that I did like which I thought were terrific like`Horror in the night` which reminded me a lot of the movie `1408`. Another was `Report from the Grave`. Plus `The Kidnapper`, which was quirky. I actually bought it for those three.

I was going to give this season three stars, butthe writing is so good that I have to give it four stars. None of the episodes on this season are scary, none! That still doesn't mean that the episodes aren't good. England's best actors are featured in this season and the stories are so well written, you can forgive it for not having anything really scary. It tries to be scary on a couple of episodes, but the special effects are sub-par.

Got Tales from the Crypt DVDs expeditiously and my son who is 35 has the other DVDs to the set and was very happy to get the rest of the set to complete his set.

although tftc only lasted seven seasons it had some of the best stories.i was proud to get all seven seasons and will cherish them for years to come.