Tales From the Crypt (1972) is the movie for this Sunday’s “monsterdon” watch party over on Mastodon, our fediverse sibling!
- Just start watching that movie this Sunday, December 21 at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 6pm PT which is 2am Monday UTC
- and follow #monsterdon over on mastodon for live text commentary. For example, you can follow that hashtag here: https://mastodon.social/tags/monsterdon
- I usually open two web browser windows side-by-side on a computer. But you could follow the mastodon commentary on a phone app while watching the movie on TV or something.
How to watch the movie:
- WARNING there is also a 7-season TV show from the early 90s, but that is something different. This is the movie from 1972.
- tubi (availability varies by country): https://tubitv.com/movies/499222/tales-from-the-crypt
- youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwGOdiUBa3A
- youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnEOF7s2zc
- youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj4P9oZqwEQ
- uBlock Origin adblocker on Firefox should work for those tubi and youtube links
- archive: https://archive.org/details/tales.-from.-the.-crypt.-1972
- it’s usually streamed on https://miru.miyaku.media/ at that time
- if you want to pay and/or watch ads, look here: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/tales-from-the-crypt
an anthology film consisting of five separate segments, based on short stories from the EC Comics series … In the film, five strangers (Joan Collins, Ian Hendry, Robin Phillips, Richard Greene and Nigel Patrick) in a crypt encounter the mysterious Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson), who makes each person in turn foresee the manner of their death.
…
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, saying, “It’s put together something like the comic books, with the old Crypt Keeper acting as host and narrator. In the movie version, he is played with suitable ham by Ralph Richardson”.[4]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times felt the film lacked style and was too heavy-handed in its morality.[5]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: “This excellent anthology of scares-with-a-smile stories drawn from EC horror comics has Ralph Richardson as the crypt keeper revealing a quintet of fearsome futures to a veteran British cast of terror troupers. … Ace direction by genre favourite Freddie Francis adeptly leavens the horror with serio-comic interludes.”[6]
In retrospective reviews, Craig Butler of AllMovie said, “It has a certain magnetism about it that is hard to resist and which accounts for its enduring popularity. There’s something about Crypt that makes even jaded viewers feel like they’re kids sitting in their rooms late at night with the lights out, telling eerie tales with the aid of a flashlight.”[7]
Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine rated it two-and-a-half out of five stars and wrote that “the undercurrent of sternness is tempered by a truly bottomless roster of campy excess”.[8]
Anthony Arrigo of Dread Central wrote, “The greatest strength in Tales comes not from the acting or directing – both of which are perfectly sound – but in the rich stories culled from the comics.”[9]
Chris Alexander of Fangoria wrote, “[F]rom its first frames to its invasive final shot, this classic British creeper offers an unrelenting study in the art of the macabre.”[10]
As of October 2020, Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reported that 90% of 21 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7.07/10.
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ol4MvRkWek