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EXHUMED: Tales From The Crypt

post #1 of 110
9/28/10 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 
Episode 1.1: http://chud.com/articles/articles/25...uot/Page1.html
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post #2 of 110
9/28/10 at 1:47pm
I loved these from when they were doing them in the Tales from the Crypt thread. It is good to see a nice front page version.
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post #3 of 110
9/28/10 at 1:54pm
Nice start, with an impressive amount of insight. I actually picked up most of these seasons for ridiculously cheap a year or so ago, but haven't watched them yet. I'll have to crack them open and watch as you go.
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post #4 of 110
9/28/10 at 1:55pm
Thanks. I'm doing one every Tuesday and Arjen's doing one every Thursday, so I'm glad you like it.
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post #5 of 110
9/28/10 at 1:56pm
Good luck with these guys. They seem fun.
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post #6 of 110
9/28/10 at 2:26pm
Yay! I'm really happy to see these get some love.
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post #7 of 110
9/28/10 at 5:30pm
Awesome idea guys. I used to LOVE this show.
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post #8 of 110
9/29/10 at 2:07am
Fantastic. Keep these going!

Sadly I haven't seen the show in forever. Are the DVD sets still dirt cheap?
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post #9 of 110
9/29/10 at 2:10am
At a lot of Targets they have two season bundles (S1 & S2, S3 & S4) for 20 bucks. But I highly recommend buying them via CHUD's Amazon link.
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post #10 of 110
9/29/10 at 2:32am
SHILL!

Good to hear, might have to track down the first two at least. I loved the hell out of this show when I saw it last, but it's been insanely long time.
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post #11 of 110
9/29/10 at 3:16am
Good to see you on the front page, Patrick. These things just don't tickle my nostalgia bone like they do some of ya, but hope the articles prove popular.
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post #12 of 110
10/6/10 at 8:10am
Way to go! This first one was awesome!
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post #13 of 110
10/6/10 at 10:25am
When I was substituting for 8th grade (I know, terrifying thought) we had a unit on Mystery and Suspense. I used this episode ("And All Through the House" Sorry there's no message board link yet) to illustrate Suspense for the li'l ones. It worked really well. It had the kids screaming at the screen for her to "Run!" "Don't let the door lock!" "He's on the ladder!" Aside from the opening line and a little icicle to face violence it was fine. Since I'm from Louisiana as long as there's no nudity, little profanity and no questioning of religious tenants I get away with a LOT as a sub. They liked this more than Miyazaki's Nausicca but less than Harold and Maude (I sweated that one but it was my last day so fuck it).

Also: I love these articles, Pat. Great job with them.
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post #14 of 110
10/6/10 at 10:25am
Thread Starter 
Let's get number 2's link in here: http://chud.com/articles/articles/25...otA/Page1.html

This one's a John Bernhard joint ya'll.
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post #15 of 110
10/6/10 at 10:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Judson View Post
When I was substituting for 8th grade (I know, terrifying thought) we had a unit on Mystery and Suspense. I used this episode ("And All Through the House" Sorry there's no message board link yet) to illustrate Suspense for the li'l ones. It worked really well. It had the kids screaming at the screen for her to "Run!" "Don't let the door lock!" "He's on the ladder!" Aside from the opening line and a little icicle to face violence it was fine. Since I'm from Louisiana as long as there's no nudity, little profanity and no questioning of religious tenants I get away with a LOT as a sub. They liked this more than Miyazaki's Nausicca but less than Harold and Maude (I sweated that one but it was my last day so fuck it).

Also: I love these articles, Pat. Great job with them.
There's about four reasons that's awesome.

By the way, thanks for running these Renn.
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post #16 of 110
10/6/10 at 10:42am
John raised the bar on this one.

And that's a great story Judson. I actually had a conversation with my girlfriend the other day about what we'd let our hypothetical kids watch, and I was thinking an anthology show would be the preferred way to indoctrinate my seed in my favorite genre. I'd probably start with Tales From the Darkside, though.
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post #17 of 110
10/6/10 at 10:50am
Well, they wanted me to bring in Rob Zombie's Halloween, but I nixed that. This seemed like an alright choice for the kids. Not too graphic but enough to have that air of the forbidden about it which I loved so much at the age of 13. And it worked which is the best part.

I've been watching Amazing Stories with my girlfriend's 8 year old and he likes them. We're going to skip the Scorsese one, though. Bit too much for him right now. He thought Tales from the Darkside was okay too, though I'm still in trouble for that Savini episode with the closet monster. My mistake.
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post #18 of 110
10/6/10 at 11:07pm
I always liked how (not counting the opening credits) they didn't reveal the Crypt Keeper until the segment after the episode ended by keeping him under a Santa mask- I wonder if this was because he was merely a gross old man in the comics and they wanted an extra surprise.
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post #19 of 110
10/7/10 at 12:26am
Naw, we'd already seen him in the first ep, the opening credits, and I imagine all the ad material. But the Santa mask open is really cool, and quite possibly the only time the Crypt Keeper has been even remotely creepy. I ought to have mentioned that.

I appreciate the value in the Crypt Keeper's muppety shenanigans; it gave the show a mascot and a brand in a way that, say, Michael Gambon as the Storyteller didn't. But I do wish they'd kept him the way he appears in Season 1, which is to say ever so slightly darker.
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post #20 of 110
10/7/10 at 1:33pm
My favorite Crypt episode to date: http://chud.com/articles/articles/25...t--/Page1.html
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post #21 of 110
10/7/10 at 7:57pm
I've never seen an episode of this, but the write-ups are making me want to. Sterling work chaps.
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post #22 of 110
10/7/10 at 8:43pm
I love these articles. Thanks, Patrick (and John B.), you're doing a great job.

I remember watching most of TftC in their intial run, and Dig That Cat was a great one. I searched everywhere for a synopsis of this one.

Spoilers: Doesn't he forget to count one of his deaths, as he is slowly being killed? Is that the punchline?

I bet you can't wait for CHOP POKER!
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post #23 of 110
10/7/10 at 8:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Allen View Post
I love these articles. Thanks, Patrick (and John B.), you're doing a great job.

I remember watching most of TftC in their intial run, and Dig That Cat was a great one. I searched everywhere for a synopsis of this one.

Spoilers: Doesn't he forget to count one of his deaths, as he is slowly being killed? Is that the punchline?
Yeah, he doesn't count the original death of the cat donor.

And thanks so much for the kind words, everyone. The whole series will take approximately 47 weeks to complete, so all the praise is very encouraging.
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post #24 of 110
10/12/10 at 6:26pm
http://chud.com/articles/articles/25...ot-/Page1.html

Don't be fooled by the byline, this is John's (aka Arjen's) article. He's just not set up with an author profile on the back end yet.
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post #25 of 110
10/14/10 at 7:12pm
http://chud.com/articles/articles/25...uot/Page1.html

My best write-up yet, I think. Too bad it's for the worst episode yet.
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post #26 of 110
10/17/10 at 12:27am
I'm enjoying these. Somehow, I missed them when they first hit the site so I have the pleasure of reading several reviews in one sitting. The first episode remains one of my favorites -- I remember watching it downstairs at my parent's house with all the lights off and the circus music totally sold it for me. I may have to pick the first couple of seasons up soon.
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post #27 of 110
10/17/10 at 1:03am
Love the series. This was a great write up on a terrible episode.

How far y'all planning on going into this series?
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post #28 of 110
10/17/10 at 1:09am
Thanks for the kind words.

James, foregoing some terrible accident, we're going to review all 93 episodes.
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post #29 of 110
10/22/10 at 1:36pm
Thread Starter 
Episode 6, another from John/Arjen: http://chud.com/articles/articles/26...uot/Page1.html

Be aware these guys are great about getting these things generated on time, and the hiccups with the T/Th schedule are on my end.
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post #30 of 110
10/22/10 at 1:45pm
No worries Renn, I appreciate you helping us out over on the back-end.

This is definitely one of my favorite Crypt episodes.
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post #31 of 110
10/23/10 at 6:52pm
These are great. Keep 'em coming. Thanks. I have been really enjoying these write-ups. It's been years, but the episodes that stand out in my memory from Season 2 are the Walter Hill-directed "Cutting Cards" and the Jack Sholder-directed "Fitting Punishment."
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post #32 of 110
10/26/10 at 8:54pm
Episode 2.1 "Dead Right"

I really need to get these sets so I can follow along.

You should probably throw your author names under the intro. I'm assuming this one is written by Patrick, but his name is nowhere to be found.
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post #33 of 110
10/26/10 at 9:37pm
Renn's been kind enough to upload these so we don't have to deal with CHUD's notoriously difficult back-end. Most of them have been uploaded under my author profile because John B. doesn't have one set up yet, but under his articles it does say that he wrote it.

I wish this series would come to Netflix Instant or something. The seasons aren't at all expensive, especially at Target where you can get two seasons packaged together for 20 bucks, but I think if it was streaming (legally) somewhere, it'd be a lot of fun for folks to follow along.
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post #34 of 110
10/26/10 at 10:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
The seasons aren't at all expensive, especially at Target where you can get two seasons packaged together for 20 bucks, but I think if it was streaming (legally) somewhere, it'd be a lot of fun for folks to follow along.
I don't know if HBO released the discs, but they seem weird about their material being streamed, in my experience. I'm kind of in the boonies, but I'm probably going to grab that pack next time I'm near a Target.
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post #35 of 110
10/27/10 at 7:37am
Yes, this ep is pretty great, but it does foreshadow an interestng critical compnent. If you choose to judge the Crypst episode on the strength of its twist. This is something I struggled with watching them the first time around. I would heap inordinate praise on the most ingenious twist driven episodes when, it's funny, all these years later the ones that stick in my memory and I'm clamoring to re-watch, have no twists whatsoever (in Season 2's case Cutting Cards and Fitting Punishment). It's a tone thing. Dead Right has a great playful tone whereas "Til Death" in the same season has a muddled campy, poor man's Bruce Campbell vibe. Gimme the tone Walter Hill sets with Lance Henriksen and Kevin Tighe for "Cutting Crds" every day of the week.
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post #36 of 110
10/27/10 at 8:34am
I was just working on Cutting Cards. It's a good one for sure. And you're right, Crypt is sorta identified with twist endings, but the truth is there's almost nothing more predictable, especially for genre fans. The reason I like the show so much is that it's a chance for actors and directors to break out of their comfort zones and just have as much fun as they can within a set framework, and that framework just happens to he horror comics. I'm running the risk of adding absurd pretension here, but for lots of the more high profile eps, it's almost entering Five Obstructions territory. Of course, that didn't mean there weren't more than a few quota-filling junk episodes, and we'll see our share of those here in season two, but when some like Hill or Zeneckis really gets into the spirit of the thing, it's often surprisingly sophisticated, at least fir a 20 year old horror anthology.

Though it's worth adding there's a few great twists along the way.
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post #37 of 110
10/27/10 at 12:33pm
I identify Tales From the Darkside more with the Five Obstructions type phenomenon than Crypt. Darkside was so low budget, it almost entirely consisted of episodes with no more than 3 characters and 2 sets.

I think the twists in Crypt are often little more than ironic ways to cap off the episode than the deeper thematic twists that you'd see on a show like Twilight Zone. There are some great ones, though, like The Man Who Was Death.
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post #38 of 110
10/27/10 at 1:02pm
That's true enough about Darkside, but then, Crypt had more real filmmakers. Journeymen tend to approach it as a job, while for the auteurs, it's more of a goof. Put that way, I don't know ones better than the other, but I'll take Jeffrey Tambor over Alice Ghostly, en generale.
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post #39 of 110
10/30/10 at 5:57am
So, Amazon is selling the entire series for one day only (Oct 30th) for the price of 89.99, if anyone is interested. Just a heads up.
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post #40 of 110
10/30/10 at 12:19pm
Nice. If I didn't already own the first four seasons, I'd pick that up.
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post #41 of 110
11/10/10 at 8:57pm
I was really enjoying these, even pulled out the series for rewatchin. Have these write-ups been cancelled? Or are they appearing somewhere else that I can follow along with 'em?
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post #42 of 110
11/10/10 at 9:13pm
Back end issues.
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post #43 of 110
11/11/10 at 2:22am
Like a thief in the night...BAM.

Horrible episode, but good write-up by Arjen. Share and enjoy!
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post #44 of 110
11/11/10 at 2:27am
Thread Starter 
= Delay
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post #45 of 110
11/11/10 at 2:28am
Ok, that seems more like front end issues. Glad you got everything taken care of.
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post #46 of 110
11/11/10 at 2:37am
Excellent. Glad to have 'em back! Great write up on a pretty bad episode. My favorite bad moment of this one is the (exuberant?) "Open up the windows!" musical flourish moment with Hickey and his Butler. Guaranteed cringe from me every time.
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post #47 of 110
11/11/10 at 2:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Manny Fraker View Post
Excellent. Glad to have 'em back! Great write up on a pretty bad episode. My favorite bad moment of this one is the (exuberant?) "Open up the windows!" musical flourish moment with Hickey and his Butler. Guaranteed cringe from me every time.
That really made me laugh too. So out of nowhere.
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post #48 of 110
11/11/10 at 2:52am
Sick in bed last weekend I was able to burn through seasons 2 & 3 and start on 4, so I'm having a blast reading these write-ups. Great job on 'em. Looking forward to reading about Cutting Cards. Walter Hill did my favorite eps from both seasons 1 and 2.
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post #49 of 110
11/11/10 at 3:02am
Such a good write-up by you guys that it makes me want to watch this episode despite how shitty I know it will be. I also want to watch it because of this:
Quote:
Cue William Hickey’s entrance, speaking with Rick Rossovich’s voice.
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post #50 of 110
11/11/10 at 11:36am
Well sure, if you're looking for risibly bad anthology horror, Crypt has some of the more entertaining offerings. Switch is maybe better than I give it credit for here, simply because it's so goddamn stupid. That "Throw open the windows!" bit is a great example.

This season is wildly schizophrenic. The gap in quality on a week to week basis is huge.

Cutting Cards due up next, I believe.
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