Tales from the Crypt: The Complete Seventh Season [Import]

And this wraps it up; the glorious 1989-1996 seven season run of the best pay cable anthology show ever to grace the airwaves is finally complete on DVD.

This season many feel lacked in detail but I completely disagree, there are quite a few gems in this finale, let me explain why it is a very unique finish to the series; the show moved production to the United Kingdom and used only a British cast of respected actors thus giving the series a different atmosphere to work with.

Episodes such as "Cold War" with a young Ewan McGregor, "Horror in the Night" and "About Face" stand out just as worthy as any previous season classic.

Fatal Caper (Starring the late Natasha Richardson)
Last Respects
A Slight Case of Murder
Escape
Horror in the Night
Cold War (Starring "Star Wars" Ewan McGregor)
Kidnapper
Report from the Grave
Smoke Wrings
About Face
Confession (Starring comedian Eddie Izzard)
Ear Today... Gone Tomorrow
The Third Pig

The Tales From The Crypt series was some of the best television airing back in the final years of the 80s and into the early 90s. Deliberately over the top. Deliberately funny. Deliberately campy at times. Deliberately scary. Deliberately gory. Deliberately one of HBO's finest creations.

The episodes are all based on EC Comics of old...mostly from the self titled Tales From the Crypt, Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror comic books. But I'd guess that 90% of you reading this already know that, and you're here as I am delighted that the final season is finally out on DVD.

For those that have not seen these wonderfully entertaining episodes of dark humor and horror...if you're into the genre this collection and any of the other HBO seasonal Tales From the Crypt releases are for you. Alas...by the sixth season the directorial effort and actor ambition had waned, and The Tales From The Crypt series was startin' to look a bit long in the fang. Hence, The Cryptkeepr "killed" production of the show after season 7.

Airing first in 1989 and finishing out in 1996, by the fifth season I've always thought that it would have been cool if the producers considered bringing in some adaptations of modern short stories from the likes of Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz, because the best EC Comic stories were done in seasons one through four. But I guess the producers felt it was taboo to stray from the EC Comics classics. (In my review of Tales 5 {that mirrors this review almost exactly, with the exception of the individual episode puns} a commenter said that, "part of the TV deal with William Gaines was that all of the Tales From The Crypt episodes had to be based on EC Comics stories.")

That's too bad, because the following episodes were good...but just good. Not great...like seasons 1 - 4.

Season 7 gives you:

"Fatal Caper" -- Who's your brother's creeper?
"Last Respects" -- Monkeying around with the wrong paw.
"A Slight Case of Murder" -- That's what I call writing a book with a twist!
"Escape" -- The penalty for treason is...Death.
"Horror in the Night" -- Diamonds are a ghouls best friend.
"Cold War" -- Battle of the undead.
"Kidnapper" -- Don't throw a baby out with the bath water.
"Report From the Grave" -- Be careful what you wish for.
"Smoke Wrings" -- Where there's smoke, there's murder.
"About Face" -- Bless you, Father, for you have sinned.
"Confession" -- Life imitates art.
"Ear Today...Gone Tomorrow" -- Hear ye, kill ye!
"The Third Pig" -- The Three Little Poltergeists.

I'm a big Tales fan, but the "Add to Cart" button was really hard to press for season 6 & 7. Still...it was a terrific run for the series, and even the final seasons of Tales are better than most of the TV on the air today. So, at minimum, give season 7 a rent....These'll kill ya!

The seventh, and final, season of HBO's Tales From the Crypt was bittersweet to say the least. Though no one wanted to see the horror anthology's demise, the series had grown tired over the past couple seasons (and two feature films), and by the time the seventh season came to an end, it was good to see the show go without wearing out it's welcome. There are some exceptional episodes to be found here, including "Cold War" starring a pre-Jedi Ewan McGregor in a twisty role, "Ear Today...Gone Tomorrow" in which a safecracker seeking a new lease on his old job gets more than he bargained for, "Confession" which features Eddie Izzard as a suspect in a series of grisly serial killings, and the last episode, the fully animated "The Third Pig" which puts a grisly and gory spin on the the Three Little Pigs. Other episodes, like "Smoke Wrings" (featuring a young Daniel Craig), and "Fatal Caper" (featuring a cunning Natasha Richardson) are solid enough as well, so the overall season is a winner like the ones that came before it. All in all, the Cryptkeeper may have finally gotten laid to rest, but as the final season of Tales From the Crypt proves, he's still worth digging up now and again.