Tales from the Crypt

Unexpected

To put it mildly, horror is not my bag. I can handle suspense, but the gore typically associated with horror sends me running. I was lulled into watching the first of the segments in Tales from the Crypt, and enjoyed it enough to watch the rest. Most of these little vignettes are in the style of Alfred Hitchcock, making them largely free of standard-issue slasher clichés. The stories are especially appealing because they have evil protagonists. There's a measure of delight in seeing them suffer, especially when we see the innocents for whom they've caused trouble. Only the last segment has a visual in it with the potential to be truly horrifying, and that one is purely manmade. Perhaps the limitations of the effects technology of that era encouraged the kind of writing so sorely lacking in movies today. For as good as the shorts are, the connecting material, with Ralph Richardson as the crypt keeper, is weak, but it takes very little screen time.