Is Tales from the Crypt really that scary?

[php111]

I always wonder if all 7 seasons of Tales from the Crypt are really that scary? Are they that scary, and how scary?

[honeykid]

Not scary. Never been scary.

[php111]

Thank you for your answer!

[Sedai]

Abracadaver is really trippy - I liked that one.

[Mesmerized]

Campy. Not scary. I've always enjoyed watching it.

[php111]

What do you mean?

[Mesmerized]

http://media.giphy.com/media/viLrTujAaaAbS/giphy.gif

[php111]

Thank you for that picture. But my last reply was what did Sedai meant by his/her reply?

[Yoda]

He's referring to a specific episode of the show.

[php111]

I get it now. Thank you so much for letting me know! :)

[Sedai]

Lisa and I decided to revisit this show after I found out she hadn't seen much of the run when it first aired. We didn't start from season one and proceed along chronologically, instead cross referencing a few Top lists of episodes and choosing what seemed interesting, or perhaps I would recognize an episodes I remembered being well-done.

Not only underrated, this show is a classic. First off, it's a who's-who of Hollywood at the time; a nice little time capsule of the acting landscape of the late 80s and early 90s. In just the 6-8 episodes we have watched so far, the stars have included Beau Bridges, Kyle Maclachlan, John Lovitz, Raul Julia, Andrew McCarthy, Muriel Hemmingway, Joe Pantliano, Tim Curry, Morton Downey Jr.(!!!), and I must mention Tim Roth in a really well done episode about a starving artist.

As far as being scary, per se...that's a tough one, because nothing ever really scares me in film or TV. Some of the episodes are suspenseful, most are fairly gory and violent, and most feature a twist ending or perhaps a morality play. Some episodes go for the camp, while others are directed and played in a much darker and more serious tone. many of them are shot and edited in a really creative way, while a few might even be considered ground-breaking by some.

For instance, in the ridiculously strong Season 3, which doesn't seem to have a weak episode in the bunch, we ran across an episode called "Undertaking Palor", four teenagers, one of which is Jonathan Ki Quan (Data of Goonies fame), get the idea to take a camcorder into a mortuary to film themselves shaking hands with a dead man. After an opening scene that pays homage to both The Goonies and Predator, the kids break in with their camera, overhear a dastardly plot by the undertaker, and then rush off in fear. As it turns out, the undertaker's plan gravely affects one of the teens, so they decide to head back in, this time with the aim of recording the criminal conversations the undertaker is having with his partner in crime, who is a mystery up until this point. The cool thing is that once this segment starts, we go into found footage mode, ala Blair Witch, REC and Cloverfield. Way ahead of its time! The episode was produced in 1991.

https://cinemaslasher.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/undertaking-palor.png?w=512&h=387

I mentioned Abracadaver earlier in the thread, also from season 3. This is one of the best half-hours of horror TV ever produced, Period. It is still really, really effective. If you have access to this show, watch Abracadaver!

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9902Wr8YLd0/hqdefault.jpg

Other top notch gems include Carrion Death, All Through the House, Split Second, and Split Personality, which stars Joe Peschi. But really, everything we have watched so far has been great, quite entertaining, and really well-done.

http://www.horrordvds.com/reviews/n-z/tftc3/tftc3_shot3l.jpg