I can remember the little cryptkeeper dude from growing up but last summer I binged watched through this entire series and OMG was it gooood! I didn't even know it was HBO?Totally forgot how many memorable episodes there were and how many cool stars from back in the 90s showed up. Like Demi Moore looking super-young or Arnold Schwarzenegger directing?!!But the best part is of course the little cryptkeeper man talking before and after the episode. He's so cheezey but funny! Like you wish he was your pet or something. I don't know. But you HAVE to watch this show if you like HORROR at all!

"Tales from the Crypt" was a very good show from the first season to the third one. The 30 minute episodes contain some entertaining stories which are imaginative and well written. Sadly, it was mainly downhill from season 4 onwards. The episodes became poorly plotted and were quite difficult to follow. I was disappointed by the mediocrity that had set in as the shows potential quickly evaporated. For all of that, at least the production values for "Tales from the Crypt" are far better than average and that there are a few talented actors involved. People like Tim Curry, Timothy Dalton, Michael J. Fox, Dan Ackroyd, Kirk Douglas, Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Reeve, Leslie Phillips, Lea Thompson amongst others. The show isn't exactly subtle or thought- provoking in particular. The violence, sexual content and foul language are delivered in droves and all this reduces the overall impact. However, there is still room for a twist to the tale. "Rod Serling's Twilight Zone" and to a certain extent, "Night Gallery" demonstrate both of the above attributes. The opening credit sequence is very well done because it is quite spooky. The way the camera glides through an open gate, then entering a big front door and making its way to the crypt in question, gives the distinct impression of guiding the viewers against their will toward the creepy host of the series. I recommend "Tales from the Crypt" for its early episodes but not many others afterwards.

Oh as a kid I loved this show with such a fiery exuberant passion, I worshipped it, the sting in the tale just desserts style of the horror where the bad and guilty were generally punished gruesomely in priceless and delicious twist endings came to be what the ideal version of horror is to me, grim, deadly, but with a certain underlying sense of fun and humour about itself and twisted karmic justice. This has always been for me by far the best horror anthology show out there and always thoroughly blew all others of its ilk clear out of the water and its sharp tone and kick-ass attitude, as well as the healthy degree of the gleeful gory old Grand Guignol spirit put into it, all resonated with me in a huge way and a lot of those earlier season episodes went right into my memory and stayed there, this show was one of the main things that ignited my lifelong appreciation of the genre. As a show today it remains such a gem of pop horror culture, and a lot of that is down to John Kassir as the one and only Cryptkeeper. What a rotten cackling old sweetheart, what a voice, what a laugh!!! With a limitless supply of lovably groan-inducing horror-related puns and plays on words, he brought the fun and wrapped up the tales as only he could. It just wouldn't have been the same without our dear old Crypty! To me at least the first three seasons had so much heart and wicked love for the craft put into them that you could really feel that they were trying to express in film the dark fun style of the old E.C. comics the same way that the 1972 Amicus film also named "Tales From the Crypt" and the 1982 anthology masterpiece "Creepshow" had previously done so perfectly. I tried to never miss an episode and even if it had been a bad one I wouldn't have noticed! You got the really tongue-in-cheek fun schlocky tales that are noticeably trying to showcase the style of the source material and do to me really feel like macabre crazy comics come to life, like "And All Through the House", "The Switch", "Till Death", "Loved to Death", "The Ventriloquist's Dummy", and the truly excellent "Carrion Death". Most were horror comedies, but there were more haunting and foreboding horrific offerings such as "Three's a Crowd" "Fitting Punishment" and especially "Abra Cadaver", which sure as hell gets my vote as the scariest episode because it feels like it holds a chilling grain of truth... It really took off fantastically in the second season which I consider the best because it has the most episodes that I personally consider great. The quality sadly declined a little with each season with spots of greatness here and there, until we finally hit the abominable seventh season, a season that I find so monstrously awful that I don't even care to own it, it was just that cheap and terrible and just so distinctly UN-Crypt. It's the reason I consider there to be 6 seasons of the show, and one runt! Anyway for the majority of its run it was just wonderful and had so many awesome moments that were liable to leave you shocked or in stitches, and it was tailor made for the horror lover who was young at heart. For the most part they got it dead right and captured the precious macabre magic that they intended to. Not perfect, but it took care of the things that really mattered. Thanks for all the laughs screams and happy memories Cryptkeeper!

Tales from the Crypt is a series that ran for a full seven seasons, with the last one being entirely filmed in the UK. Each episode has a dark story of love, hate, pain, death or a mix of any of the above with a little twist of dark humour thrown in for good measure.This show proves that a low budget and cheesy monsters cannot ruin great writing, fantastic acting and naughty hidden gags.If you choose to take my advice and watch this programme, you will find many huge names making early appearances. I personally enjoyed the episode with Ewan McGregor. I won't ruin the ending of this episode, but suffice it to say, you probably won't see it coming.