Tales From The Crypt... Oh How We Miss Them

The Cryptkeeper welcoming us back for another wonderful, 'Tale From The Crypt'!

Back in the late 80s there was a late night horror TV anthology series that was just something to be hold... It had some truly scary episodes, some truly funny episodes... but rather they be scary, or funny, most of them were truly something to enjoy... And with those episodes, you would get horror movie quality special effects (the like of which made horror movies great, and which have been found to be lacking in most modern horror movies...) And in all of this, you get some truly amazing talent, (including: Tom Hanks (Apollo 13), Larry Drake (Darkman), etc...) And along with the amazing talent of filmmakers like, 'Robert Zemeckis' (Back To The Future) and you got the amazing HBO late night smash hit, 'Tales From The Crypt' (1989 - 1996)!

Based on the EC Comics series of the same name, this series debuted on HBO on June 10th 1989 and would go on to superstardom, and become one of the most famous horror anthologies of all time, making, 'The Crypt Kreeper' (Don't let the name fool you kiddies, he may look scary... But he is more awesome then will give you a jump!)

The face of late night TV in the late 80s - the mid 90s... A face that only a mother could love!

Now the reason that I say that this series would probably go on to be one of the most famous horror anthology TV series of all time... The reason for that is this... Well you might say that, 'The Twilight Zone' is that... The truth is, is that what makes, 'The Twilight Zone' one of the greatest anthologies of all time is not because of the horror aspects of the series, but because of everything (the science fiction side to...)

No in the case of Tales From The Crypt... They became the, 'The Twilight Zone' of horror anthologies, having pulled off a long list of celebrated 80s and early 90s superstars, including (Besides those mentioned above): Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Brad Dourif (Child's Play), Margot Kidder (The Amityville Horror), Bill Paxton (Aliens), Malcolm McDowell (Halloween)... And that is just to name a few!

Legendary actor: 'Kirk Douglas' in a scene from, 'Tales From The Crypt'!

 Included in this also is the fact that most of this series was extremely well written, with stories that were extremely well crafted, with enough character development, that when the shit hit the fan (and I mean this show had episodes that were about 1/2 hours long, so the fun gore moments, when the shit hit the fan came rather quickly...)

And along with great stories and great acting talent was the fact that this show... considering the fact that (well at least when I got in to it... And I got in to it when it was still on the air) was still running on late night, had some surprisingly great special effects that I would say would rival just about any special effects that you would see in any movie!

The use of an, 'Electric Chair' is just one example of some truly remarkable special effects in the series!

But besides what I mentioned above, one of the coolest things... And I imagine that this probably would sound pretty odd, but the truth is, is that I would say what tops out this series over all is, 'The Crypt Keeper'... I mean John Kassir (Batman: Arkham Origins), did an amazing job bringing the crypt keeper to life and giving him this sort of bad ass hilarity that just made him perfect!

In the end, I guess what I am trying to say is that there were few series (anthologies or otherwise), that are made these days like shows like, 'Tales From The Crypt'... I know that: Tales From The Crypt Presents: Bordello Of Blood (1996) didn't do all that well in the theater, but this series in it's heyday was truly prolific, and left a mark on the world of TV, and for the fans like me, we miss that, and would love to see, 'Tales From The Crypt' come back in all of it's glory!

The Void (2001) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_322" align="alignright" width="258"] Official Score = 1 1/2 Devils[/caption]

On The Sci-Fi Channel (Now I believe it is called, ‘Syfy’) but there is this continuing series of Movies/TV Shows that deal with certain elements of Science (and more directly Science Fiction) that generally tend to be quite entertaining!

One show on this network generally tended to do with a town that is comprised primarily of the world’s most smartest people, and the hilarious consequences of their sometimes, dangerous and oft times strange inventions! This show, is the show that we all know and love, ‘Eureka’

Now that show is an awful lot of fun and frequently quite hilarious (usually because it takes the Sheriff (who is the dumbest person in town) and his friends to resolve whatever problems that the smart people have created!

There is another side to the Science Fiction on that channel, and that is more well-known it seems like in the filmaking community, and that is the movies that Syfy has made!

Now I know that not everyone agrees with this concept (I know I don’t totally agree with this) but Syfy has been known to make these sometimes bizarre but also oft times fun end of the world style doomsday scenario movies that usually puts the, ‘hero’ or the, ‘heroes’ as the soul people fighting against the big bad group that is un wittingly about to destroy the world, or they are the only ones capable of salvaging what is left of humanity!

Now I personally think that at least part of the reason why people think that these movies are bad, is because frequently they are well funded, with great special effects, a great cast, oft times are directed real nicely, and they even have been known to have some fun cinematography… The only problem is, is that not all of these movies are great, and it does seem rather odd that most of these movies generally tend not to make it to Blu-Ray or DVD!

You might be wondering why I am mentioning this… Well simply put, the movie that I am reviewing here actually seems very much like a movie that people could have first scene on the Syfy channel called, The Void (2001)

Written by: Geri Cudia Barger (Powerplay), and Directed by: Gilbert M. Shilton. Starring Adrian Paul (Highlander: The TV Series), Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG1), Malcolm McDowell (Halloween), Kirsten Robek (Tempbot), Roger R. Cross (X2), Michael Rivken (The Cable Guy).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Professor Steven Price (Adrian Paul) & Professor Eva Soderstrom (Amanda Tapping) in, 'The Void' (2001)![/caption]

Now one of the prevailing theories that I have heard in the limited number of Science circles that I have been able to hang out with, and this theory has definitely been a long standing theme in Science Fiction movies and TV shows, is the idea that if you use a particle accelerator to create a black hole, that if even the slightest hint of anything goes wrong, that it could end up destroying the planet!

A truly fascinating concept for a great Science Fiction movie right?

Well, The Void tells the story of how a greedy old man (McDowell), whom 8 years earlier had tried to generate a stable black hole, ended up destroying an entire complex and killing dozens of people!

Well 8 years later, this guy is now dying of cancer, and the Earth is quickly running out of energy… Well he decides to try again, only this time though, the woman (Tapping) who is the daughter of one of the projects managers at the old test site, ends up convincing her boyfriend (Paul) to help her save the world, stop this man who is trying to start the project again (and which is destined to fail again), before this project and its leader kill even more people!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Eva Soderstrom with Dr. Thomas Abernathy (Malcolm McDowell) as they work to resolve, 'The Void'![/caption]

In the end, I do think this movie is a fun one, but the cinematography techniques used in making this film were so bad and disjointed (at certain times they use slow motion on the camera, and jerky almost stop motion cinematography so much, that at some points Ms. Tapping actually looks like a character from a video game), all in all it heavily detracts from the quality of the film, but if you can get past that aspect of it, it is actually pretty fun!