Greetings, fiends! The last time you saw the Crypt Keeper...wait, this is the last time. So turn out the frights, the party's over. They say all ghoul things must end. But first let the ghoul times roll one gleeful last ti... more »me with these 13 terrorific tales based on those classic moldy-but-goodie horror comics from back when. Among the die-lights: Natasha Richardson is a lawyer planning a Fatal Caper, Ewan McGregor gets down and zombie for a Cold War and Daniel Craig finds out how the sneaky, freaky ad biz really works in Smoke Wrings. Well, time's up. Past our deadtime. Never say die, kiddies (although we just did). It's the final season!« less
"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"
Farewell, Fright Fiends!
Sky | New York | 07/30/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"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 end
N. Durham | Philadelphia, PA | 08/06/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"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."
Tales from the Crypt.Complete Seventh Season
Linda D. Follmer | PA, USA | 04/29/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I didn`t like everything on it. But I thought it was worth having just for the few episodes that I did like which I thought were terrific like`Horror in the night` which reminded me a lot of the movie `1408`. Another was `Report from the Grave`. Plus `The Kidnapper`, which was quirky. I actually bought it for those three."
Not Scary But Probably The Best Written Stories Of The Serie
GameraRocks | Gillsville, GA USA | 10/28/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I was going to give this season three stars, butthe writing is so good that I have to give it four stars. None of the episodes on this season are scary, none! That still doesn't mean that the episodes aren't good. England's best actors are featured in this season and the stories are so well written, you can forgive it for not having anything really scary. It tries to be scary on a couple of episodes, but the special effects are sub-par.