All New Tales from the Crypt

Based on William M. Gaines' popular EC horror comics of the '50s, this feature-length video is a compilation of three new episodes from the critically acclaimed cable TV series. The opening segment, "Only Sin Deep," is by far the best. In it, a vain hooker named Sylvia (Leah Thompson) murders a pimp, and then sells a "mask" of her face to a pawn shop owner. (Don't ask me how, but the guy is planning to revive his dead wife with these beauty masks.) After attracting a wealthy playboy, Sylvia looks as if she's headed for easy street--but then one morning she wakes up in hormonal hell, to find that her face is aging at a tremendously accelerated rate. I won't reveal the twist ending, but the upshot, of course, is that vanity is a sin. The second piece, "Lover Come Hack to Me," is as distasteful as its title, and features the gifted actress Amanda Plummer in a truly wasted role as the rich Peggy. On her wedding night, Peggy gives her money-grubbing husband a double surprise: first, a wild ride in the saddle, so to speak, and then a battleax in the chest--repeatedly. We find out that her mother did likewise; it's a family tradition. "Collection Completed," the final segment on the tape, has some good moments of humor, as newly retired Jonas (M. Emmet Walsh) discovers that his wife Anita (Audra Lindley) lives for her pets. Waking up to a late leisurely breakfast, Jonas gets cereal, while his namesake, a pit bull, enjoys steak. Cats, dogs, birds, fish, they all seem to get more attention than Jonas. So he takes up a new hobby, to Anita's horror: taxidermy. While the stories share in common the elegant simplicity that made the EC comics such effective exercises in pure horror, the execution, particularly on the last two, is mundane, at best. As is the case with so many horror films these days, style takes a backseat to blood (usually measured by the bucket.) Not recommended.(R. Pitman)