#tales from the crypt franchise
TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1989)
S02E12: FITTING PUNISHMENT (1990)
Horror Anthology Recommendations
When crooked, miserly funeral director Ezra Thornberry is forced to take in his well meaning nephew Bobby, they strike a deal: room and board in exchange for Bobby working for free as an apprentice mortician. Their personalities instantly begin to clash, with Bobby trying to make things work and his uncle constantly mistreating him. As tensions escalate, an expensive workplace mistake brings Ezra’s hatred for his nephew to murderous levels…
This is easily the bleakest episode of TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1989). It’s just so grim! It starts dark, with Ezra (excellently played by Moses Gunn) taking his stinginess so far as to literally rip the gold teeth from his corpses, and descends further and further into darkness with each passing moment. Ezra is just evil, and the lengths he’ll go to to save a penny become more sinister as the episode rolls on. When it’s time for the finale, which is one of the show’s very best, you just can’t wait to see him get his comeuppance. And, boy, does he ever get his comeuppance. Karma comes calling for him the way it comes calling for only the most wicked of characters, and what happens has to be seen to be believed.
Such an excellent episode. Well cast, well written, and directed to perfection.
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TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1989)
S04E11: SPLIT PERSONALITY (1992)
Horror Anthology Recommendations
Academy Award winner Joe Pesci stars as Vic, a no good hustler who happens to have a fetish for twins. After pulling a con he finds himself face to face with twin sisters who are almost too good to be true: rich, beautiful, and naive enough to fall for one of his plots. Vic creates a fictional twin sibling of his own and starts to court both women, making excuses for why the brothers are never together. But it’s only a matter of time before his secret comes to light…
As you’ll likely expect, it’s Pesci’s performance that makes this episode so great. He’s as charismatic as ever, playing up his character’s sleaziness to delightful effect. It doesn’t hurt that he has great material to work with - the script is written by horror hound Fred Dekker, the man behind NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986)andTHE MONSTER SQUAD (1987). With two icons of that magnitude coming together, you just know you’re in for something special.
This one doesn’t sound much like horror on the surface, but believe me, it is. It’s more comedic than horrifying, but it has perhaps the most gruesome ending in TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1989) history! And, believe me, that’s saying a lot.
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