Many different horror TV shows have delighted fans on the small screen over the years, but Tales from the Crypt remains the medium’s most successful horror anthology to date for a number of reasons. In recent years, the horror anthology format has undergone something of a revival, with the likes of American Horror Story, Slasher, and Shudder’s Creepshow all winning over audiences. Amazon’s Welcome to the Blumhouse and Hulu’s Into The Dark have even seen their respective studios release entire feature-length horror movies as part of their anthological approach, deviating from the episodic format for something more substantial.
However, this isn’t the first time that anthology horror won over audiences en masse. In the late '80s and '90s, the likes of Monsters, Night Gallery, Tales From The Darkside, Nightmare Cafe, and Perversions of Science all vied for the attention of TV viewers. Even Freddy Krueger got in on the action, with him and fellow iconic slasher Jason Voorhees having short-lived TV series of their own. But all of these series were trying to match the biggest point of success in the horror genre, and even decades later, no show has quite been able to best HBO’s campy cult classic, Tales from the Crypt.
Created by Back to the Future helmer Robert Zemeckis, Tales from the Crypt was a darkly comedic horror anthology that aired on HBO from 1989-1996, lasting 7 seasons and totaling 93 episodes. Based on the controversial vintage EC comics of the same name, at the time of its release, the show was infamous for pushing the boundaries of what mainstream TV could depict with tons of nudity, sex, graphic violence, and profanity on display. As Tales from the Crypt was a cable series, none of network television’s still-stringent censorship rules applied to its gruesome EC-inspired action. Thus, long before Creepshow got a TV adaptation, Tales from the Crypt was one of the earliest R-rated small screen efforts to be given the same sizable budget as its network competitors. But there’s more to the show’s unmatched success than its adult content. So what exactly made Tales from the Crypt a still-unparalleled paragon of horror anthology TV?
The Host
First and foremost, the detail which even casual viewers of the show remember best: the Cryptkeeper. While not everyone has a favorite tale from the titular crypt, anyone who was alive and had access to a television remote post-10pm during the '90s will recall the series' memorable host. The Cryptkeeper was a cackling, pun-loving puppet with an endless stream of macabre wisecracks and a surprisingly in-depth backstory; the character still remains the most recognizable element of the show. Voiced by John Kassir of Reefer Madness fame, the character was phenomenally popular, eventually gaining a Saturday morning cartoon entitled Tales from the Cryptkeeper, a children’s game show called Secrets of the Cryptkeeper’s Haunted House, and even his own Christmas album. The character was recognizable enough to be spoofed on the children’s show Tiny Toon Adventures, which was an impressive feat given the fact that he presented an R-rated, late-night horror show.
Tales from the Crypt's use of a host character is an element that few of its later imitators were able to successfully lift from the show’s format, most likely because utilizing a host would make any new horror anthology feel like a knock-off. However, even otherwise successful series, such as the two season wonder Masters of Horror, suffered for the lack of a ghostly host, as the show’s dark tone had nothing to lighten up its bleak endings, and often seemed more callous than comical by the end of each installment. Despite the serious pedigree behind the camera with the likes of Dario Argento and Takashi Miike directing episodes, Masters of Horror ironically failed to master Tales from the Crypt’s tricky horror-comedy balancing act without a Cryptkeeper style host to keep proceedings feeling gory, but goofy.
The Campy/Gory/Silly/Scary Tone
Despite boasting some serious scares, Tales from the Crypt never took itself too seriously when it came to its tone. While the show was very dark, with many episodes ending on cruel punchlines and frequently killing off the entire cast, (since next week would introduce a whole new slew of victims) the show took care to include dark comedy elements to keep the tone campy enough to avoid grim bleakness. Later imitators, like 2008’s underrated Fear Itself, failed to match this; some installments took themselves too seriously, and ended up being ludicrous. Others succeeded in terrifying the audience, but remained straight-faced and self-serious enough to be an entirely glum, harsh viewing experience.
Even the phenomenally popular American Horror Story struggles with maintaining a single tone, whereas Tales from the Crypt excelled. Ryan Murphy’s long-running series often bounces around between campy melodrama and glib black comedy within a single episode (and in many cases, a single scene). Sure, Tales from the Crypt’s consistently ironic tone meant that few of the show’s outings were particularly poignant or affecting, but it had little interest in moving viewers and succeeded all the more for its single-minded focus.
The Caliber of Guest Directors & Stars
The final ingredient which made Tales from the Crypt (and its film spin-offs) stand shoulders above competitors was the sheer quantity of talent involved in its production process. The series blew much of its considerable budget on acquiring the services of genuinely great guest directors, which the likes of Monsters and The Outer Limits could rarely boast. As a result, the remaining budgets stretched further under the watchful eye of horror cinema veterans. There is no better way for a horror series to invest its money than gaining the services of Fright Night’s Tom Holland, Pet Semetary’s Mary Lambert, Night of the Creeps’ Fred Dekker, and even classic buddy cop creators 48 Hours’ Walter Hill and Lethal Weapon’s Richard Donner. On occasion, Tales from the Crypt even enlisted the likes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper and The Exorcist’s William Friedkin, both of whom were bonafide horror royalty, and rarely worked on small screen projects at the time.
Few shows could match this sort of talent acquisition, although Masters of Horror did come close. That said, Tales from the Crypt had one more trump card up its sleeve — its guest stars. In a gimmick which shouldn’t have worked but somehow did, episodes of the series were directed by famous actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael J Fox, and Tom Hanks, while individual installments starred the likes of future James Bond Daniel Craig, Iggy Pop, Ewan McGregor, Brad Pitt, Tim Curry, Martin Sheen, and Kirk Douglas. This sort of star power was rare for any series, let alone a trashy horror anthology, and helped elevate the show to cult status.
Pitt’s outing even featured an exclusive song by cult folk musician Warren Zevon, a feat that it’s hard to imagine Tales from the Darkside could have pulled off. While American Horror Story has featured some incredible acting talent, and Masters of Horror utilized great genre directors, no anthology show after Tales from the Crypt has managed to balance both while still offering a consistent tone, and never allowing even the most famous faces to outshine its instantly recognizable mascot.