Tales From the Crypt - The Complete Second Season (DVD)

It’s time for more deadtime stories, hosted by the die-abolical Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir)! Tales From the Crypt ran on HBO for seven seasons (1989-1996), then lived on in syndication all over the airwaves. Now it is finally being eked out on DVD, bit by bit.

Season Two features 18 uncut, ungutted standalone episodes spotlighting guest stars such as Demi Moore, Lance Henriksen, Teri Hatcher, and Moses Gunn (to name a few). It’s wonderful to revisit this funny, irreverent series without commercial interruption.

• Cutting Cards

• Dead Right

• Fitting Punishment — This tale is one of the more gruesome: Long before Six Feet Under, Tales From the Crypt featured a funeral home and its odd casket… er, cast of characters. Ezra (Moses Gunn) takes his teenaged nephew (Jon Clair) in, but not out of the goodness of his heart. And speaking of hearts, think Edgar Allen Poe’s Telltale Heart with a toe-taggin’ twist. It’s easy to tell that Fitting Punishment was co-written by Don Mancini of Child’s Play fame, because his wickedly warped sense of humor and unflinching ghoulishness is all over this one.

• For Cryin' Out Loud

• Four-Sided Traingle

• Judy, You're Not Yourself Today — Carol Kane, the consummate comedic actress, is in fine form here as a vain housewife who falls for the oldest bait-n-switch trick in the bad book when old crone selling beauty secrets comes a-calling.

• Korman's Kalamity

• Lower Berth

• Mute Witness to Murder

• My Brother's Keeper

• Television Terror

• The Sacrifice

• The Secret

• The Switch — Arnold Schwarzenegger directed this twisted tale of an old man (William Hickey) who is so desperate for the love of a beautiful young blonde (Kelly Preston) that he pays a million bucks for a mad scientist’s (Rick Rossovich) sure-fire cure. The story has an end-twist you can see coming down the block and around the corner, but the actors make it so much fun you don’t mind a bit.

• The Thing from the Grave

• The Ventriloquist's Dummy — For anyone who’s seen Magic (1978) or is looking forward with bated breath to Silence (due out in 2006), this anything but wooden morality yarn is a must-see. This talky, terrifying tale was written by now-famous film director Frank Darabont, and starred Don Rickles.

• Three's a Crowd

• 'Til Death — When a voodoo priestess (Janet Hubert-Whitten) warns a greedy customer purchasing a love potion, “If you give her one drop, she'll become your wife. If you give her two, she'll be yours...for ever...” she isn’t kidding.

The DVD includes a “behind the screams” featurette, plus some behind the scenes footage about bring the show to radio with the vocal stylings of Tim Curry.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson