#talesfromthecrypt — Public Fediverse posts

Tales From The Crypt – Season 3, Episode 14: Yellow (1991) – Review

We now seem to bring you a change in your regularly scheduled programming. If something feels a little off abd decidedly un-Crypt like for the season finale of season three, I’d like to assure you that it’s not just you. In fact, Robert Zemekis’ “Yellow” wasn’t originally planned to be a tale from the crypt at all, but instead part of a trilogy of stories that would go on to form the season premiere of a spin off show called Two-Fisted Tales. While the Crypt covered all those horror stories that EC Comics churned out in their heyday, Fisted would give that ironic twist to stories more geared toward the war, western and thriller based adventures. Needless to say, the pilot (directed by Zemekis, Richard Donner and Tom Holland) didn’t do so well and as a result the stories were folded into the Crypt Keeper’s roster of tall tales that started here and continued into season 4. But as I’ve recently started getting tired of episodes that go easy on the horror, can Robert Zemekis change my mind with an offering that takes place during World War I?

The year is 1918 and the forces of General Calthrob are getting hammered somewhere in France as they try to take a hill from the really determined Germans. While the hill itself doesn’t that much of a tactical advantage, the attack would divert the enemy forces enough to allow forces in the rear time to reposition, but the plan is ultimately scuppered by an unseen problem: Lieutenant Martin Calthrob. While Martin’s father is every inch the iron-nerved military man, his son suffers from cowardice that simply just won’t away and while his men are valiantly fighting and dying for the greater good, the constant mortar barrage and whizzing bullets causes him to break and order a premature retreat.
When the Genral learns from his men that his son is Yellow, he offers Martin a chance to redeem his honor and go out into no-man’s land with a small team to fix a broken communication wire.
However, once again that yellow streak kicks in and in his gibbering fear, Martin is too terrified to even warn his fellow troops about advancing troops and as a result they are killed and he escapes to spin a tale of tragic heroism. But when it turns out that there was another (temporary) survivor who outs Martin’s cowardice with his dying breath and leaves the General with no alternative but to severely punish his son and sentence him to death by firing squad. While Martin pleads with his father to spare his life, Calthrob assures his son that he’d never murder his flesh and blood and reveals a plan that will spare his life.
Revealing that the rifleman will all have unknowingly have blanks loaded in their weapons, all Martin has to do is stand fast and be brave in the face of his death and then he can play dead and collect a bag of supplies left in the grave behind him. However, during his big moment, believing himself to be safe, Martin does indeed face his (fake) execution with bravery, but too late he realises that he’s been tricked to restore honor to the tarnished Calthrob name.

To be honest with you, before watching Yellow I was 50/50 about whether I would actually accept it as a genuine Crypt. In the plus column it’s directed by one of Tales’ big three, Robert Zemekis, who has been conspicuous by his Crypt absence since the superlative “And All Though The House” back at the start of season one. However, on the con side, not only was it never supposed to be an official episode, but the WWI setting suggests that the usual recipe of creeps and chuckles may be in short supply and further worrying me is the last time one of the big three directed an episode, it resulted in Walter Hill’s rather leaden “Deadline” which showed a distinct drop in quality from his previous attempts.
However, despite all these things counting against it, Yellow proves to something of a incredibly pleasant surprise that not only sees Zemekis returning to the show with style, but giving it an expanded canvas that it’s never enjoyed before. This is an episode that still may be introduced by a Crypt Keeper in full WWI uniform cracking jokes about getting shot, but it also has full on battle sequences that give the show a sense of scale hither to unheard of as Zemekis shoots them in sweeping long takes that sees dialogue and plot merge with stunt men flying across the screen. It may not be Saving Private Ryan, or even Band Of Brothers, but for an episode of Tales From The Crypt, it isn’t that far behind. Also adding to that scale is the cast and while the Crypt has seen its fair share of familiar faces, seeing Kirk fuckin’ Douglas show up still feels like something of a massive get. What makes it cooler is that the episode is plainly riffing on Stanley Kubrick’s Paths Of Glory, which starred Douglas as a French officer also accused of cowardice and the actor also gets to perform opposite his actual son (no, not Michael – the other one, Eric) which adds extra tension to the scene even if Eric isn’t quite as talented as his old man.

In addition to this, we also get Dan Ackroyd and a returning Lance Henriksen (from Walter Hill’s magnificent “Cutting Cards”) to round things out, so it’s impossible not to feel spoiled with such Hollywood heavyweights getting stuck in.
However, the biggest surprise is that despite the starry cast, the more dramatic plot and an extended run time, Yellow isn’t afraid to stick to that old EC Comics tone and dally with the macabre when it gets the chance. There’s no real reason for a wounded Henriksen to suddenly reveal that he’s missing a stomach and he’s been using his helmet to hold his guts in, but Zemekis makes it happen in order to deliver an amusing shock of gore. Better yet, the twist ending is actually something of a belter that not only gives more of an emotional punch than your average Crypt, but still manages to retain that darkly amusing cruelty the show had become well known for. After detailing a complex plan to his son that will apparently save his life, we realise at the last moment that Calthrob has concocted a harsh counter plan to fool his jittery son into standing strong and proud in the face of death and no such salvation was ever going to take place. Worse yet (and by worse, I mean better) there’s a split second of realisation from Martin when he sees his father turn away when the order to fire is given, which means that an episode that wasn’t even meant to be an official Tales From The Crypt entry ends up being objectively better that more than half of the actual episodes. My confidence may have wavered in the big three as of late, but Zemekis brings it back with style.

What could have been a cheap attempt to salvage a failed pilot ends up giving Tales From The Crypt’s third season the big finish it so richly needed. While other episodes from Two-Fisted Tales would show up further down the line, Yellow is rousing proof that sometimes it’s hood not to be afraid of a little tinkering.
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Tales From The Crypt – Season 3, Episode 12: Deadline (1991) – Review

While season three of Tales From The Crypt certainly has had its fair share of name directors (Tobe Hooper, Stephen Hopkins and Russell Mulcahy to name just three), there’s been precious little in the form of offerings when it comes to the series’ “big three”. Not only did the trio of Walter Hill, Robert Zemekis and Richard Donner kick the entire thing off back in 1989 with an unfeasibly strong triptych of episodes that merged to form a magnificent pilot, but Hill and Donner also returned in season two to deliver two of the strongest episodes – however, season three has thus far been conspicuous by their absence.
Well, wait no longer, because Walter Hill is back with yet another noir-tinged episode thanks to Deadline, a hard-bitten tale of a desperate reporter struggling with the bottle as he stops at nothing to try and reclaim his former glory. Can Walter Hill do the same with his third trip to the Crypt?

Charles McKenzie used to be something in the world of reporting, breaking stories left and right and claiming countless headlines in various papers; however, these days he’s a shadow of his former self as he steadily slips down the treacherous slope of alcoholism. Broke, desperate, but still clinging to his glory days, Charles frequently tells anyone within earshot that he used to be a bigshot, but his epic consumption of booze usually leads to him either getting pity or derision for his troubles.
However, it seems that Charlie’s life may be picking up when the sultry Vicky walks into his life. Red of hair and gutsy as Hell she catches the old jorno’s eye immediately, Charles wastes no time turning on that old charm and to his surprise, Vicky reciprocates. However, the woman has rules and the main one is that this relationship can’t get serious as she’s not in this for the warm, fluffy feelings. However, after sharing a bed with her a couple of times energises him for the first time in years, Charlie vows to kick the booze and get back in the game in order to win his respect back.
Pleading with the editor of a newspaper to give him a chance, Charles gets a deadline for his troubles: deliver a juicy murder story by the end of the night and he’s hired. However, as he pounds the pavement looking for leads, all of his old informants prove to be dryer than the inside of his mouth. Dying for a drink, he’s instead shuffled off to a diner where fortune manages to work it’s terrible magic as he overhears the owner first have an argument with his wife that soon turns to sounds of a struggle. As “luck” would have it, Charlie’s wandered into a fatal domestic argument that’s seen the owner of the diner lose his temper with a young wife that humiliates him by sleeping around and strangle her to death in a rage. However, as Charlie is phoning the story in, the young woman not only proves not to be death, but it turns out that the wife is Vicky. How dar will Charlie go to get his story, and what will it do to his sanity if he takes that darker path?

I’m sorry to admit that I just didn’t get on that well with “Deadline” for various reasons and considering that it’s been directed by one of the show’s leading lights, I have to say that my expectations were pretty damn high. In the past, Walter Hill gave us the very first episode with the marvelously gritty “The Man Who Was Death” and he even managed to top that one with the superlative season two offering, “Cutting Cards”, that arguably still stands as one of the best Tales of all time. However, with such a high bar to clear, third time doesn’t seem to be the charm for the veteran director as his tale of booze and murder not only lacks the punch of his earlier efforts, but it’s a strangely unfocused event considering Hill’s previous form.
Fitting into a similar format as the director’s previous episodes, Deadline sees a dark, noir-ish story play out through the eyes of an immensely flawed individual and while previous lead characters have been addicted to both death and gambling, here we find a much more prevalent monkey crawling over our protagonist’s back. Booze sodden and at the end of his rope, we get Richard Jordan convincingly tasting desperate as the low life journalist fallen on hard times. Despite the fact that the actor passed away only two years later, he delivers a honest, wretched performance of a man at his lowest ebb and there’s a hint of the same desperation you’d find in something more like Glengary Glen Ross than Tales From The Crypt. However, once Marg Helgenberger’s promiscuous Vicky shows up, you think that things will start to gradually take more of a classic, Crypt turn – but to our surprise, it sticks to it’s more drama-based tone as McKenzie starts to clean up his act despite the fact Vicky’s warned him not to get too attached.

From here, it’s now a race against the clock as Charles has precious little time to bring in a juicy murder story before his deadline runs out and in an attempt to heighten the tension, Hill magnifies the sounds of any ticking clocks in the room. The problem is that even when it finally drops the big twist (which you’ll probably see coming anyway), Deadline in this form just doesn’t feel like a good fit for Tales From The Crypt with its over-reliance on down-to-earth drama over crazy shocks.
It also doesn’t help that we’ve already had a boozy reporter story only two weeks ago, and that one had bald, fanged, corpse-eating ghouls in it which leaves Hill’s version looking more than a little bland. Worse yet, the ending ends up being a bit confusing as the story tries to tee up a coda that just doesn’t work. Discovering that the “murdered” wife of the owner of the diner is Vicky might have hit harder if they both were in love – but at this point we already know Vicky is a user. Similarly, Charles choice to kill her might have carried more wallop if she was in love with his and he decides to choose his career over her, but as it stands, his actions don’t make much sense when he already has to know that she’s bad news. However, things get extra confusing when we then suddenly cut to Charlie in an insane asylum as he tells us he lost his mind over the event. But being random told this in the dying seconds of the episode just feels like we skipped over vastly important parts of a far bigger story and thus feels tacked on and unearned. What’s even more frustrating is that this would be the last Tales From The Crypt episode that Hill would ever direct, so the fact that he doesn’t nail the hat trick proves to be yet another mark in the negative column for an episode that’s way too scrappy to satisfy, yet way too mature for a show hosted by a zombie puppet.

While Deadline has all the makings of a typically hard boiled Walter Hill episode, a strong central performance and a more grown up tone are rapidly undone by a weak ending and a slow burn that isn’t quite worth the wait. That’s a wrap on Hill’s time in the Crypt director’s chair; it’s just a shame that after being one of the show’s most consistent contributors, he couldn’t finish on a high.
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William Sadler is so underrated. Watching his iconic episode of Tales from the Crypt, a really great showcase for his skills in a rare lead role in a long career as a character actor.

#80s #horror #horrormovies #anthology #TV #tvshows #talesfromthecrypt

How Many Famous Faces Can You Spot In Our Exclusive TALES FROM THE CRYPT Teaser?

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.fangoria.com/shudder-tales-from-the-crypt-teaser/

Shudder May 2026 Schedule: New Movies & TV Shows

Link: https://film-book.com/shudder-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows/?fsp_sid=192760

#Heresy #MovieNews #Shudder #Smothered #SomethingisAbouttoHappen #StreamingSchedule #TalesFromtheCrypt #TheTerrorDevilinSilver #ThisisNotATest #TVShowNews #Whistle

AMC Global Media May 2026 Schedule: New Movies & TV Shows

Link: https://film-book.com/amc-global-media-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows/?fsp_sid=192258

#AcornTV #ALLBLK #AMC #AMCGlobalMedia #AMCPlus #BBCAmerica #DevilInSilver #Dolly #HIDIVE #MovieNews #Sisters #StreamingSchedule #SundanceNow #TalesFromtheCrypt #TheAudacity #TheTerrorDevilinSilver #TheZodiacKillerProject #TVShowNews #WEtv

AMC Global Media May 2026 Schedule: New Movies & TV Shows

Link: https://film-book.com/amc-global-media-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows/?fsp_sid=192258

#AcornTV #ALLBLK #AMC #AMCGlobalMedia #AMCPlus #BBCAmerica #DevilInSilver #Dolly #HIDIVE #MovieNews #Sisters #StreamingSchedule #SundanceNow #TalesFromtheCrypt #TheAudacity #TheTerrorDevilinSilver #TheZodiacKillerProject #TVShowNews #WEtv

AMC Global Media May 2026 Schedule: New Movies & TV Shows

Link: https://film-book.com/amc-global-media-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows/?fsp_sid=192258

#AcornTV #ALLBLK #AMC #AMCGlobalMedia #AMCPlus #BBCAmerica #DevilInSilver #Dolly #HIDIVE #MovieNews #Sisters #StreamingSchedule #SundanceNow #TalesFromtheCrypt #TheAudacity #TheTerrorDevilinSilver #TheZodiacKillerProject #TVShowNews #WEtv

AMC Global Media May 2026 Schedule: New Movies & TV Shows

Link: https://film-book.com/amc-global-media-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows/?fsp_sid=192258

#AcornTV #ALLBLK #AMC #AMCGlobalMedia #AMCPlus #BBCAmerica #DevilInSilver #Dolly #HIDIVE #MovieNews #Sisters #StreamingSchedule #SundanceNow #TalesFromtheCrypt #TheAudacity #TheTerrorDevilinSilver #TheZodiacKillerProject #TVShowNews #WEtv

AMC Global Media May 2026 Schedule: New Movies & TV Shows

Link: https://film-book.com/amc-global-media-may-2026-schedule-new-movies-tv-shows/?fsp_sid=192258

#AcornTV #ALLBLK #AMC #AMCGlobalMedia #AMCPlus #BBCAmerica #DevilInSilver #Dolly #HIDIVE #MovieNews #Sisters #StreamingSchedule #SundanceNow #TalesFromtheCrypt #TheAudacity #TheTerrorDevilinSilver #TheZodiacKillerProject #TVShowNews #WEtv

ICYMI: Tales From The Crypt Finally Comes To Streaming This May https://popgeeks.com/tales-from-the-crypt-finally-comes-to-streaming-this-may/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #TalesFromTheCrypt #HBO #Streaming #90sTV #HorrorClassic

Tales From The Crypt Finally Comes To Streaming This May https://popgeeks.com/tales-from-the-crypt-finally-comes-to-streaming-this-may/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #TalesFromTheCrypt #HBO #Streaming #90sTV #HorrorSeries

TALES FROM THE CRYPT Is Coming To Streaming For The First Time Ever

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.fangoria.com/tales-from-the-crypt-streaming-shudder/

The classic #talesfromthecrypt homage cover for Briar Skies is coming along nicely. Can't wait to sling some more digital ink on it tomorrow.
#horror #comics #indiecomics #horrorcomics #art #artist #comicartist #coverart #briarskies #ink #mastoart

Demon Knight was originally released on LaserDisc today in 1995 and then on VHS and DVD in 1996. I'm not sure when I saw it first, but it was probably pretty close to 1996. I was 16 then. Nobody I knew had DVD players, but we all had VHS players.

I know Demon Knight gets criticized for being bad or whatever, but I remember loving the hell out of it. I probably still would. Anything Tales from the Crypt, I'm there. I gotta give this one a rewatch.

#TalesFromTheCrypt #horror #DemonKnight #90s #90sMovies #90sHorror @horror

Actress #GayleHunnicutt has died at 80. Hunnicutt may be best known for her role as Vanessa Beaumont on the final three seasons of #Dallas but she had a 30 year career starting with a small role on the series #MisterRoberts. Other TV credits include #TheBeverlyHillbillies, #GetSmart, #LoveAmericanStyle, #TheMartianChronicles, #TheLoveBoat, #Taxi, #FantasyIsland, and #TalesFromTheCrypt. Movies include #TheWildAngels, #EyeOfTheCat, #Marlowe, #TheLegendOfHellHouse, and #TheSpiralStaircase. #RIP

and two searing Tracey Letts adaptations, #Bug (2006) and #KillerJoe (2011), alongside standout 80s #TwilightZone episode "Nightcrawlers" (1985) and #TalesFromTheCrypt's "On a Deadman's Chest" (1992), a spry, grisly rock satire about a band named Exorcist.

2/2

#InMemoriam #RIP

I watched/reviewed/rated 25 episodes of #ClassicTV between May 14th and May 27th.
Here's how they lined up.

10/10
#BuffaloBill
#Highlander
#HillStreetBlues
#Hunter
#TheMaryTylerMooreShow
#Seinfeld

9/10
#Baretta
#Kojak
#TheOtherOne
#SantaBarbara
#30Rock
#Viper
#Werewolf

8/10
#TheATeam
#Branded
#TheFamousTeddyZ
#HardcastleAndMcCormick
#Rhoda
#Riptide
#TalesFromTheCrypt

7/10
#FernwoodTonight

6/10
#InBedWithMeDinner
#Three

5/10
#TheSixMillionDollarMan

4/10
#WonderWoman

Some of my favourite #tv shows today - #thetwilightzone #thexfiles #psych #seinfeld #blackbooks #spaced #fawltytowers #brasseye #alanpartridge #talesfromthecrypt #thecomicstrippresents #theyoungones #bettercallsaul #breakingbad #thesopranos #thetworonnies #nightgallery #strangerthings #talesoftheunexpected #quantumleap #earlyedition #twinpeaks #fatherted #ghosts #pennydreadful #doctorwho #bobsburgers #thesimpsons #glennmichaelscartooncavalcade (yeah, that last one is the most niche).