“Gutter of
Horror” is a Brazilian column from Dinamo Studio website about horror comics.
This is a
translated version of the articles.
In Television
The cable channel HBO brought the comics to life in 1989 with a TV
adaptation. Tales From the Crypt was an anthology in the same format as TV
shows like Twilight Zone and Tales from the Dark Side, where each episode was a different and independent story with beginning, middle and end. All stories
had an introduction by a Crypt-keeper that was visually very different from his
comic book counterpart. While in E.C. titles the Crypt-keeper were a regular
human being, in the TV series he was sort of a decrepit corpse – a visual that
would become strongly associated with Tales from the Crypt after that.
The TV
series had a stellar cast of actors and celebrities as main characters and cameos, such
as Dan Aykroyd, Hank Azaria, Steve Buscemi, Daniel Craig, Tim Curry, Timothy
Dalton, Roger Daltrey, Benicio del Toro, Kirk Douglas and his son, Eric Douglas,
Brad Dourif, Whoopi Goldberg, Bobcat Goldthwait, Teri Hatcher, Marg
Helgenberger, Mariel Hemingway, Lance Henriksen, Bob Hoskins, Margot Kidder,
John Lithgow, Andrew McCarthy, Dylan McDermott, Malcolm McDowell, Costas
Mandylor, Ewan McGregor, Meat Loaf, Demi Moore, Donald O’Connor, Joe
Pantoliano, Bill Paxton, Bruce Payne, Joe Pesci, Brad Pitt, Iggy Pop,
Christopher Reeve, Natasha Richardson, Mimi Rogers, Tim Roth, Martin Sheen,
Brooke Shields, Slash, John Stamos, Jeffrey Tambor, Lea Thompson, David Warner,
Steven Weber, Adam West and Treat Williams – just to name a few. Some actors even venture into directing, like Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks, Kyle MacLachlan and Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Notable director included Robert Zemeckis, Richard Donner, John Frankenheimer, William
Friedkin, Walter Hill, Tom Holland, Tobe Hooper, Mary Lambert, Peter Medakand and Russell
Mulcahy. The show lasted 7 seasons from 1989 through 1996.
The live action
TV series was a huge success and encourage others to try. In
the early 1990s, kaBOOM! Entertainment along with Warner TV created an animated
series called “Tales from the Cryptkeeper”. The format was similar to the live
action series, but with a more kid-friendly approach. The Cryptkeeper's visuals
were more in line with the live action TV show too. The animated series lasted
three season between 1993 and 1997 and the opening of the first season included
cameos from the Vault-keeper and the Old Witch, hosts from Tales from The Crypt
sister titles in the comics.
With the
end of the live action TV show, a sort of spin-off was created to take its
place. Called “Perversions of Science”, the show wasn’t based on any E.C.
Comics property and focused on science fiction. The host(ess) of the show was
Chrome, a female android. Without the charm of its predecessor, Perversions of
science only lasted only 10 episodes.
In 2016, a
new version of the live action TV series was announced, produced by M. Night
Shyamalan for TNT. Unfortunately, in 2017, the TV show was killed before even go to air due to licensing issues.
In film
Well before
the american TV series, the British production company Amicus made a film
adaptation of Tales from the Crypt. In the movie, five strangers go with a
tourist group to view old catacombs. Separated from the main group, the
strangers find themselves in a room with the mysterious Crypt Keeper who
details how each of them may die. In this version, the Crypt-keeper is a regular
human, just like in the comics. Three of the five stories adapted for the film
(All Through the House, Blind Alleys and Wish You Were Here) were later adapted
in some way by the TV show as well.
After the
TV show ended, the producers decided that it was time to get Tales from the
Crypt to theaters. The original idea was to make a trilogy where each film
would be standalone, but it would have a connection through an artifact that
would be seen in all three movies. It would begin with Demon Knight, following by
Dead Easy (a zombie flick that was actually promoted in the end of Demon Knight) and Body Count (an original story). This idea didn’t
pan out and Demon Knight was the first and only of these three ideas that saw
the light of day. In the story, a demonic being chases Brayker, a mysterious
man who possess an ancient amulet capable powerful enough to stop the forces of
evil from destroying mankind.
Despite the
original plan being scrapped, the success of demon Knight encourage producers
to do another story: Bordello of Blood. But unlike the previous film, Bordello of
Blood were more of a horror comedy. In the story, a private investigator is hired
by a woman to investigate the disappearance of her brother. The investigation
leads to a bordello run by Lilith,where all prostitutes are vampires. Although
it’s not a direct sequel to Demon Knight, Bordello of Blood did feature the amulet
from that film.
In 2002, a
third movie was release, Ritual, that tells the story of a doctor fired following
the death of a pacient. She travels to Jamaica where she and another pacient
become target of a Voodoo cult. This movie is not as known as the previous ones, since it was not released in United States, only internationally. Ritual is kind of a remake of filme I Walked with
a Zombie (1943), considered the first film about zombies.
Before
wrapping this article, a litte trivia: The Frighteners, directed by Peter
Jackson, was supposed to be a film within the Tales from the Crypt franchise,
but Robert Zemeckis (producer of the movies) read the script and thought the
story deserved to be its own thing.
Rafael Algures is a Bachelor of Philosophy specialized in Neurosciences of Language. He is also a copywriter, content and science writer, and a comic book creator. His latest work, “Gutter of Horror: Transition”, a short horror comic about Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence are available at Amazon – digital and paperback.
Further
reading: Tales from the Crypt