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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/talesfromthecrypt.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350: Dead On Humor and Horror!]]
3->''"Welcome, boils and ghouls!"''
4
5A critically acclaimed [[GenreAnthology horror anthology]] series that ran from 1989 to 1996. Every week, the show featured the [[HorrorHost Crypt Keeper]] telling horrifying tales based on stories from the gruesome Creator/ECComics of the 1950s. Because it aired on the premium cable channel Creator/{{HBO}}, the show was not subject to FCC censorship and featured lots of gore and sexual situations. The Crypt Keeper, a gruesome undead puppet voiced by Creator/JohnKassir and performed by Creator/PattyMaloney, served as the host and {{narrator}} in a manner similar to that of Creator/RodSerling on ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'', providing lead-ins to the stories and closing comments... all of which were filled with {{pun}}s of a macabre nature.
6
7This show was very influential, and helped bring along more anthology horror shows to come in the 1990s and 2000s, both for adults and for children. It also currently holds the distinction of being the [[LongRunner longest-running]] original series ever to run on HBO.
8
9It was announced that the show would return on Creator/{{TNT}} in 2017 as part of a new horror block, helmed by none other than Creator/MNightShyamalan. However, due to arising copyright issues, the planned reboot was unceremoniously nixed by the network in mid-2017.
10
11The popularity of the series led a variety of {{Spin Off}}s:
12* Three full-length movies (which were direct adaptations of the show, complete with the Crypt Keeper) including:
13** ''Film/DemonKnight'' (1995)
14** ''Film/BordelloOfBlood'' (1996)
15** ''Ritual'' (2002): though that one was a DolledUpInstallment.
16* ''WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptKeeper'' (1993-1999): An AnimatedAdaptation
17* ''The World of Tales from the Crypt'' (1996): TabletopRPG published by West End Games using the Masterbook system.
18* ''Secrets from the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House'' (1996-1997): A Saturday morning game-show.
19* ''Tales from the Crypt'' (2000): A radio series
20* In 1995, the Cryptkeeper became the very first icon for Ride/UniversalStudios' ''Theatre/HalloweenHorrorNights''; advertisements with his face on them labeled the event as "The Curse of the Cryptkeeper", and the ''Ride/DungeonOfTerror'' haunted house was revamped into ''Cryptkeeper's Dungeon of Terror''. He returned the next year in charge of the ''Crypt Keeper's Studio Tour of Terror'' and the ''Crypt Keeper's Festival of the Dead Parade''.
21
22Related loosely to the 1972 ''Film/TalesFromTheCrypt'' anthology film, as both had stories based on comics from the same company (and three episodes of the series adapt stories that had already appeared in the film).
23
24Has a [[Recap/TalesFromTheCrypt Recap page]].
25----
26!!This show provides examples of:
27* AbhorrentAdmirer:
28** Winona, ''in spades''.
29** Charlie in "Dead Right". Kathy puts up with him due to a prophecy that he will die and she thereby expects to inherit a huge amount of money. Of course, [[ProphecyTwist it doesn't quite work out the way she expects.]]
30** In "'Til Death", Margaret becomes one. A similar arch occurs in "Loved to Death".
31* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: In "Cutting Cards", Reno and Sam hate each other so much that each is willing to risk life and limb (literally) for a chance to force the other to leave town forever.
32* ActorAllusion:
33** Creator/JohnKassir pulls a meta example in the episode "Oil's Well That Ends Well", wherein he plays a con man who at one point chuckles like the Crypt Keeper. [[LampshadeHanging The Crypt Keeper himself then remarks on how awesome THAT particular actor is and how familiar his voice sounds.]]
34** It also wasn't rare for more famous directors to be alluded to in the episodes they directed. When Robert Zemeckis made "You, Murderer" using the same footage-insertion technology as he did in ''Film/ForrestGump'', the Crypt Keeper appeared as "Fearest", a slow-witted but kinder version of himself with a box of chocolates on his lap.
35** When Creator/MichaelJFox directed "The Trap" and had a cameo as a prosecutor, part of his scene showed him questioning [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture Mr. Strickland]].
36** In "What's Cookin'," landlord Mr. Chumley (played by Music/MeatLoaf) gets [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow carved up and eaten]].
37* AdaptationExpansion: The original stories in the comics were very short, and most have been expanded a fair bit for their respective TV episodes.
38* AdaptationalUgliness: Downplayed. The Crypt Keeper looked like a ghoulish, vaguely medieval, AmbiguouslyHuman but probably still living man in the original EC Comics, while in the show he looks like a decaying undead thing with a missing nose and such. In the cartoon spin-off, his updated look thus contrasts with the Vault Keeper and the Old Witch who are closer to their old designs.
39* AdaptationalHeroism: While not often, some episodes made certain characters from the comics more heroic.
40** Longtooth in "The Reluctant Vampire." While his counterpart in the comic was far from an AssholeVictim, he was far less picky about who he took blood from.
41** Bobbi in "Forever Ambergris." In the comic, she was just another one of EC's many unsatisfied spouses who supported the captain's plan to kill her husband, and only contracted the deadly disease due to a blunder on his part. In the episode, she's madly in love with her husband, and willingly contracted it [[CrusadingWidow to get revenge on her husband's killer]].
42* AdaptationalVillainy: Overlaps with AssholeVictim for the characters going through this adaptational change in their respective episode ending up dead.
43** The Cryptkeeper himself. His counterpart in the comics loved BlackComedy, but beyond his macabre sense of humor was a fairly normal, if extremely old, man. Here, The Cryptkeeper loves mutilating and/or killing the stray visitor to his home, with them more often than not winding up dead.
44** The husband in "Lover Come Hack To Me". In the show, he was a GoldDigger who was planning to kill his wife from the start, only to have the tables turned on him. In the comic, he was a completely innocent, unsuspecting NiceGuy.
45** Lou Paloma from "The Trap." In the comic, his counterpart was a HenpeckedHusband who was forced into the scheme by his shrewish wife and their partner-in-crime. Here, all of their negative traits are transferred onto him so that we don't feel too sorry for him.
46** In the episode "As Ye Sow", the main character suspects his wife is having an affair, and became so paranoid that without any hard evidence of the affair, he hired an assassin to kill the man who he thought is his wife's lover. It was revealed in the end that there's neither any affair nor attempted one going on. As compared to the original source material, where the character was in justified anguish because his wife DID have an affair and told him straight to his face that she's leaving him for another lover. The TV adaptation indeed made the main character's comeuppance more satisfying compared to that of the original source material's CruelTwistEnding.
47** The salesman in "Death of Some Salesmen" is made a conniving scumbag who rips people off preying on their grief over the deaths of loved ones -- in the original comic, he's not even a particularly pushy salesman, and he only visits the crazy couple[[note]]no daughter in this[[/note]] because his car broke down and he wanted to call a tow truck.
48** Ray in "Surprise Party". His comic counterpart is just a guy looking for some fun and [[SinsOfOurFathers had the misfortune of being the descendent of the man who deliberately set the fire]]. Ray, however, murders his own father to get the property and repeats the same actions of his father.
49* AdaptedOut: While the stories are adapted from the entire EC Comics line, the other two hosts--the Vault Keeper and the Old Witch--never appear.
50* AffablyEvil: Some of the episodes' main characters like the narrator of "You, Murderer".
51* AlasPoorVillain: In some episodes. One example is "Staired in Horror", where an antebellum widow's house is cursed so she gets older upon descending the stairs, but any man ascending the stairs age terribly. A killer who meets up with her flees much higher into the house to hide from a police dog, and is rendered a completely helpless old humanoid in the attic.
52* AmbiguouslyHuman: It's not entirely clear just what the Crypt Keeper is supposed to be. [[spoiler:Genetically, he's human -- the son of a two-faced man and an Egyptian mummy -- and was considerably less decayed as a baby.]] But on top of being undead, he doesn't refer to himself as human, and may very well have ceased to count as one.
53* AmoralAttorney: "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime".
54* AnAesop: Much like the original comics, many of the episodes are morality plays showing that bad people deserve what's coming to them. Most of the main characters are villains indulging in vice or their worst instincts and their fates are usually richly deserved.
55* AndIMustScream:
56** "You, Murderer" is completely from the point-of-view of the protagonist, even when he dies shortly into the story. Thing is, he is still in his body afterwards, but no one can hear him, and he can still feel pain. Only the last one is of any concern to him (because he finds it annoying), as he has the unfolding story to narrate and concern himself with.
57** "Abra Cadaver" tells the story of a man who is paralyzed in a death-like state thanks to his brother injecting him with a drug and he's in danger of being autopsied alive. However, the drug wears off and it's revealed to be a prank. Then the man dies for real and his brother tries to revive him using the same drug. Unfortunately, by the time the drug starts to revive him, it's too late and the man can only mentally scream in agony as he is autopsied alive for real.
58* AnimatedEpisode: The very last episode, "The Third Pig", is a violent FracturedFairyTale retelling of ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs''. It's the only animated episode in the entire series, and was produced by Creator/{{Nelvana}}, which also animated the LighterAndSofter cartoon spin-off, ''WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptKeeper''.
59* AntiHero: In a rare instance of this trope in Tales From The Crypt, the narrator of "You, Murderer" continues to have our sympathy in spite of being a wanted criminal who has killed, robbed and cheated many people. One of the very, VERY few instances when an amoral character is actually portrayed sympathetically on the show.
60* ArtifactTitle:
61** "Forever Ambergris." The main characters of the original story were an old sea captain and one of his men, and ambergris was very important to the actual plot. In the TV adaptation, they're war photographers -- and nowhere near any whales.
62** "What's Cookin'." The original comic story had ''nothing'' to do with squids, cannibalism or a landlord.
63** In the comic, "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime" was about a group of townspeople figuring out that the reason their kids were so interested in having a pretend funeral was because they'd learned about the concept of capital punishment and had electrocuted one of their friends for "kidnapping" a little girl's doll.
64* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The protagonist of "Split Personality" meets his end by being cut in half vertically with a chainsaw. The final scene shows the two halves in separate beds, cut so cleanly that it appears as though he was bisected with a laser, an impossible result to achieve with a chainsaw, given the width of the blade and the general nature of chainsaws (which don't really cut cleanly though something, but more ''chew through'' in a narrow line).
65* ArtisticLicenseChemistry:
66** The woman who reduced her ulcer-prone husband into bathroom soap, then she got burned by his 'stomach acid' by using it in the shower. (Soap-making requires some lye, which would actually neutralize the pH.) Though as listed under HollywoodAcid below, this may be a subversion.
67** The end of "Oil's Well that Ends Well" has the con artist kill everyone by tossing her cigarette butt into crude oil and causing a massive explosion. The stuff is flammable, but not by that much, and a lit cigarette won't even ignite ''gasoline'', let alone crude.
68* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: The TriggerHappy husband from "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today" is depicted as [[StrawCharacter a die-hard NRA member]], even though his extremely careless gun handling would have easily gotten him kicked out of those meetings he attends.
69* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
70** In "Showdown", Doc Holliday is one of the people killed in gunfights. In real life, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Holliday he died of tuberculosis]] instead.
71** Several in "Escape," but most of all, German prisoners of war would certainly ''not'' be wearing rank insignia on their clothes, as they are no longer considered soldiers. Also, [[spoiler:the war ending]] would not result in [[spoiler:the immediate release of prisoners; That would take months of repatriation proceedings. Of course, this is revealed to a dying Luger by the camp commandant as he taunts the former, so this statement should probably be taken with a grain of salt.]]
72* AssholeVictim: Oh, so many - and sometimes they're the [[VillainProtagonist main character]] of an episode.
73** An example is the mortuary owner in the episode "Fitting Punishment". He is abusive towards his nephew and kills him in order to put him in a coffin. Then cuts off his feet when he doesn't fit in there. The nephew comes back to life and kills him.
74--> '''Bobby:''' Like it says in the bible uncle Ezra, blood, is thicker than water.
75** Sometimes the show would [[AdaptationalVillainy turn undeserving victims from the source comics into assholes]] to make for less of a DownerEnding. In the original "Death of Some Salesmen" story, for instance, the main character isn't a con man and wasn't even trying to sell anything to the creepy old couple who murder him.
76* TheAtoner: The main narrator of You, Murderer attempted to be this in a bid to try and put his criminal past behind him. It backfires on him horribly.
77* AwfulWeddedLife: The majority of couples on the show are murderously dysfunctional; It wouldn't make for good stories if they were happy, after all. The only couples to avert this are the ones from "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today" and "The Assassin". [[spoiler: It's not clear if the wife from "The Assassin" genuinely loves her husband, or if it's her maintaining a cover, though.]]
78* BadHumorTruck: "People Who Live In Brass Hearses"
79* TheBadGuyWins: Given this is a horror series, this happens at times. Notable examples include:
80** A very tragic example occurs in the episode "People Who Live in Brass Hearses" where brothers Billy and Virgil seek revenge on Billy's former employer, a jolly ice cream man, for reporting the criminal behavior that landed Billy in jail. Billy and Virgil fail initially, but finally break into the ice cream man's home and murder him, albeit by Virgil accidentally shooting him. [[spoiler:In the end, it is revealed that the man they seek revenge against is one of two conjoined twins who promptly murders Billy and Virgil in revenge. But at the episode's end, the ice cream man is dead, his rotting corpse will likely lead to his conjoined brother's death, and the ice cream truck's wares are shown to be 50% off, indicating a failing business. [[FridgeHorror Which means Billy ultimately got the revenge he sought]].]]
81** "The Third Pig" features poor Dudley Pig getting framed for the Wolf's murder of his brothers by a rigged wolf jury. His dead brothers bail him out of jail and lead him to create a FrankensteinsMonster-esque pig that devours the Wolf alive. But Dudley, feeling guilty for [[HeWhoFightsMonsters creating another monster to combat one]], goes to kill the Frankenpig, succeeding in electrocuting it. [[spoiler:But then the Wolf, reanimated by the electricity, emerges from the dead pig monster's body and devours Dudley alive.]]
82* BadSanta: "And All Through The House"
83* BadassNormal: In "Comes The Dawn" Sergeant Parker is able to fight off against several vampires while his foot is caught in a bear trap, and he even manages to take a few with him before being overwhelmed and devoured.
84* BatmanGambit: In "The Reluctant Vampire", the owner of the Blood Bank announced that business was bad and he needs to start retrenching his staff. As he anticipated, Longtooth (the titular character of the episode) started a killing spree to add on to the supplies of the Blood Bank, and the owner attempted to coerce him to continue killing.
85* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor:
86** In "Last Respects," a trio of sisters gets a hold of Literature/TheMonkeysPaw itself. Delores tries to use the ThreeWishes and her first one is for one million pounds. It turns out Marlys had a big life insurance policy, so she dies in a car accident. Thinking she can beat the Paw, Delores uses the second wish to restore Marlys to before the accident. [[spoiler:It turns out that Marlys was really shot by the third sister Lavonne, meaning the second wish simply undid the cover-up and exposed the truth to Delores]]. Delores does find a way to beat the Paw in the end. [[spoiler:She wishes that her last wish go to her sister... but doesn't say ''which'' sister]].
87** In "Loved To Death", Edward uses a love potion to make his neighbor fall in love with him. It works but comes to the point where the love potion makes her unbearably clingy and never stops bothering him. [[spoiler:It gets to the point where Edward, even in the afterlife is stuck with her after the latter had [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]] just to be with him.]]
88** "Top Billing": Barry wants to get the role in the stage production of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' to the point of resorting to murder. [[spoiler:Barry ends up getting the role, but, unfortunately for him, what he didn't know was that the play is actually being conducted by murderous mental asylum patients and the role they want him for was to be the skull of Yorick.]]
89* BerserkButton: Don't hurt Anita's pets.
90* BewareTheNiceOnes:
91** Longtooth from "The Reluctant Vampire" [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire really doesn't like to kill people in order to satisfy his thirst for blood]], but he will still bite your neck if you try to mess with him or his heart-crush or, in a lesser extent, if you are a criminal.
92** "Split Second" HOLY SHIT Snazz, Artie and the rest of the lumberjacks...
93* BigNo: "Let The Punishment Fit The Crime" and "About Face" each end with one.
94* BittersweetEnding:
95** "My Brother's Keeper": Frank watched his Siamese twin brother Eddie murder the love of his life, but (before both blacked out) he managed to sign the release for surgery. When they wake up, they're "free," with Eddie taken away by the police and Frank planning to live his life to the fullest. Although this can actually be viewed as a DownerEnding when you consider that Frank "living his life to the fullest" involves [[HeWhoFightsMonsters acting quite a bit like his brother used to.]]
96** "Lower Berth." Enoch the two-faced man wanted a normal life and a family with Myrna, the mummy he fell in love with. Myrna was apparently killed at age 16 and never had a chance at life, let alone love. In a morbid way, they got their happy ending for just a little while. [[spoiler:And together, they made the Crypt Keeper.]]
97* BlackComedy:
98** The episode "Cutting Cards" is a particularly vivid one, as a game of Russian roulette devolves into a round of "chop poker" that goes nowhere good in a hurry.
99** Of course, the Crypt Keeper himself ''specializes'' in this.
100* BlackComedyRape: In the episode "Death of Some Salesman". Counts as both DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale ''and'' DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale, since Winona is quite obviously played by a man (Creator/TimCurry, no less!). Technically he agreed to it...but it certainly wouldn't have been any better if he hadn't.
101* BloodierAndGorier: Than the comics, which were 'plenty' gory enough on their own.
102* BloodIsTheNewBlack: Every episode ends up with someone getting gorily dismembered, if not the main character.
103* TheBluebeard: "None but the Lonely Heart".
104* BodyHorror: One episode features a woman wearing what appears to be a porcelain mask, but it's apparently her real face because it ''bleeds'' when the villain tries to take it off; she ends up removing his "mask" instead. And then there's the adaptation of "Forever Ambergris" where the main character's nose and body parts [[spoiler: drop right off]].
105* {{Bookends}}
106* BreakingTheFourthWall:
107** "The Man Was Death" Niles Talbot the protagonist in the episode constantly address the camera and talks to the audience through out the episode.
108** The wraparound segments for "Oil's Well That Ends Well" is this to a T, with the Crypt Keeper playing the "Tales from the Crypt" [[Pinball/TalesFromTheCrypt pinball]] game (at the start), and watching the episode itself at the end, even going so far as to comment on how Larry (played by, of course, John Kassir) seems familiar to him...
109** A variation occurs with both "Korman's Kalamity" and "Whirlpool", which both have ''the original Tales from the Crypt comic'' as part of the plot[[note]]both main characters work for it[[/note]], with the Crypt Keeper even mentioning how it led to this very show in the beginning of the former.
110** "Whirlpool" has an independent example itself near the end, where [[spoiler:Vern [[AsideGlance utters an]] [[OhCrap "Oh,]] ''[[OhCrap shiiiiit]]''[[OhCrap ..."]] to the camera after his boss, Rolanda, orders him into her office]].
111** "The Third Pig"'s opening wraparound segment had the Crypt Keeper doing auditions for potential story editors. [[{{Irony}} It's the series finale, btw.]]
112* BrainFood: The Great Zambini's fate in "Food for Thought." Shouldn't have pissed off the man-eating gorilla by killing the only guy who was nice to her, dude.
113* BuriedAlive: The ending of "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone."
114* CannibalLarder: In "What's Cookin'," Gaston hangs Mr. Chumley from a meathook in Fred & Erma's restaurant freezer. By the end of the day's business, there's not much left of him (Chumley, that is).
115* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Standard, with one or two KarmaHoudini subversions.
116* CatsHaveNineLives:
117** In "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone," a homeless dude (Ulric) is offered a chance at (gruesome) fun and profit after he has a cat's brain gland implanted into him; it gives him the mythical extra lives, which allow him to die repeatedly as a circus performer. [[spoiler:Too bad he forgot to count the death of the cat to begin with before pulling his final stunt...]]
118** Also played with in the episode "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow".
119* ChristmasEpisode:
120** "And All Through the House" with a [[AxeCrazy maniac]] Santa.
121** "The Pit" was aired at Christmas and had a Christmas-themed segment for the Crypt Keeper, although the story itself has nothing to do with Christmas.
122* CirclingVultures: An episode (inspired by the "Carrion Death" example in comic books) ended with an escaped convict [[AndIMustScream paralyzed in the middle of the desert and getting eaten alive by a vulture]].
123* CompanionCube: The skeletons the Crypt Keeper shares his crypt with, though at least some of them appear to be sentient. He spends his days playing with them, torturing them, and on occasion, having sex with them.
124* CompilationMovie: The first three episodes were edited together as one movie for some airings. Notably, though, there is no new linking footage. The episodes appear together as they would separately.
125* TheCon: A man gets his wife and brother, a coroner, to help him fake his own death to collect the $500,000 insurance money. After going to South America with a small part of the money, he keeps waiting for them to join him with the rest. Eventually, what money he has runs out and he returns to find his "widow" and brother are now married and living off the rest of the money. When he tries to turn them in to the police for insurance fraud, ''he'' gets arrested, convicted, and ''sentenced to death'' for his own murder.
126
127* ConjoinedTwins: The episode "My Brother's Keeper" is about [[SiblingYinYang completely opposite]] conjoined twins. This is also used in a twist in at least three other episodes: [[spoiler:"The Ventriloquist's Dummy", "People Who Live In Brass Hearses", and "About Face".]]
128* CrazyJealousGuy:
129** Steve Dixon in "Split Second" rapidly becomes one after getting married, and unfortunately for him, his wife has no intention to remain faithful.
130** Mitch Bruckner in "The Thing from the Grave."
131* CreatorCameo: Not unusual, especially if a given director happens to have an acting career of their own. Creator/MichaelJFox plays a prosecuting attorney in "The Trap," Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger helps get the Crypt Keeper in shape in "The Switch," Creator/TomHanks shows up in a bit part in "None but the Lonely Heart" [[spoiler:and even [[DeathByCameo gets killed]]]], and Bob Hoskins is in the opening to "Fatal Caper."
132* CreepyBlueEyes / IcyBlueEyes: And they are the Crypt Keeper's most human feature.
133* CreepyCrossdresser: [[spoiler: Roger in "Came the Dawn" by way of split personality.]]
134* CruelTwistEnding: A few episodes. "Three's A Crowd" being the most notable.
135* DarkerAndEdgier:
136** The final episode, "The Third Pig", gives this treatment to "Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs".
137** The whole show in general is Darker and Edgier than the comics, although they weren't exactly family-friendly to start with: The lack of censorship allowed them to basically throw in as much sex, violence and swearing as they liked.
138* DeathByMaterialism: This is a recurring theme.
139* DemonicDummy: Subverted in "The Ventriloquist's Dummy". "Morty" is actually [[spoiler:Ingels' vestigial twin brother underneath a dummy costume]].
140* DenserAndWackier: In the 1972 British film, the Crypt keeper seemed like a normal human dressed as a monk and was played by eminent thespian Creator/RalphRichardson. In the TV series, the Crypt Keeper is a darkly comedic skeletal puppet who cackles loudly and makes silly puns.
141* DevouredByTheHorde:
142** The final fate of Sergeant Parker in "Comes the Dawn".
143** "Mournin' Mess" ends with the reporter being devoured by a horde of ghouls.
144** Les Wilton from "House of Horror" suffers the same fate with an "All Ghouls" fraturnity.
145** "None but the Lonely Heart" ends with [[TheBlueBeard the main character]] [[AssholeVictim meeting his end]] via his long-desceased ex-wives.
146* DidntThinkThisThrough: [[spoiler: In "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone" Ulric realizes he forgot that the death of the cat that gave him the gland counted as a lost live which means he had already used up his extra lives.]]
147* DismemberingTheBody: In the episode "Two For the The Show", the protagonist hacks up his wife's corpse and stuffs it in a suitcase after murdering her. He then boards a train, intending to get rid of that suitcase by throwing it out of the baggage car. Unfortunately, things don't go according to plan.
148* TheDogBitesBack: If someone committed an immoral act, you can be absolutely certain that he will meet his end by the end of the episode — often in a spectacularly gruesome manner.
149** A literal example occurs in "Curiosity Killed" with the bitter old woman who berates her husband's dog with the implication that she regularly mistreats it. During the story, the old woman sabotages her husband's friends' plan to make a youth potion to spite her husband, which leads to them dying via RapidAging while she takes the untainted youth potion for herself. [[spoiler:She doesn't get to enjoy her youth for long when her husband's dog, who has also taken some of the potion, leaps up and violently avenges his master.]]
150* DoubleEntendre: Tons of it in "Spoiled" between the housewife and the cable man, before they begin an affair of course
151* DrJerk:
152** "The New Arrival"
153** The murderous Dr. Trask in "Mute Witness To Murder".
154* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first season The Crypt Keeper while still jokey is portrayed as a much more sinister figure then he is in the following seasons where he is far more comical and goofy.
155* EarAche: In "Mournin’ Mess" Dale Sweeney’s ear is ripped off and eaten by a ghoul, who then dips it in cocktail sauce.
156* EatTheEvidence: "The Assassin" ends with [[spoiler:Janet, revealed to be the missing assassin (she has had [[EasySexChange a sex change]] to disguise herself) serving up the remains of the CIA agents to her husband, though he doesn't know what he's eating.]]
157* EverybodyLives:
158** A rare example with a macabre BlackComedy twist in "Cutting Cards".
159** Another rare example is "Spoiled" about a scientist who's on the verge of working a new anesthetic while his wife has an affair with a cable man. Everybody lives but [[spoiler:the scientist gets revenge on his adulterous wife by performing an operation that switches the heads of her and the cable man]].
160** Yet another example is in "Operation Friendship" about a computer programmer and his imaginary friend. Everyone's still alive [[spoiler: but the imaginary friend takes over the programmer's body in the end.]]
161** One of the earlier episodes, "The Switch", has no one dying. In fact, aside from one physical altercation, it is arguably the ''least violent'' episode in the entire series.
162* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Crypt Keeper. Although, since he doesn't seem to have another name, this could be a case of HisNameReallyIsBarkeep.
163* EvilVersusEvil: Several episodes have this happen, usually with a violent or murderous criminal doing battle with a supernatural entity, or two supernatural beasts fighting each other.
164* EvilLaugh: The Crypt Keeper's trademark.
165* EvilPoacher: The [[VillainProtagonist Villain Protagonists]] of "Comes the Dawn" are a pair of Gulf War veterans turned poachers who wind up squaring off against a bunch of vampires while hunting bears in Alaska.
166* EvilUncle: "Fitting Punishment"
167* ExactWords: The MadScientist protagonist of "Spoiled" catches his unfaithful wife and her paramour in the act as both of them are telling each other how much they want the other's body. So he gives them both exactly what they wanted... [[spoiler:by switching their heads]].
168* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Combined with some InUniverse FridgeHorror and more than a touch of DidntThinkThisThrough, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone" ends with Ulric (after being BuriedAlive as part of his last ever stunt) bemusing on how, after that, he's going to be set for life while also sadly remarking on the fate of the cat that the gland he was given came from. [[spoiler:Said fate being that it died. Meaning it '''lost a life'''. Cue Ulric realizing he only had '''''8''''' lives, not 9... and that he's going to die ''permanently'' in his last stunt]].
169* EyeScream: Relatively often, but "Carrion Death" is by far the most notable (and NauseaFuel-filled) example.
170* FakeOrgasm: In the episode "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS5E10CameTheDawn Came the Dawn]]", Roger's date in the opening scene is seen practicing faking orgasms in the bathroom, just before Joanna, [[spoiler: Roger's alternate personality]], hacks her to death.
171* FakeTwinGambit: "Split Personality".
172* FakingTheDead: In "The Trap," a deadbeat {{Jerkass}} decides to fake his own murder for the insurance money - getting his abused wife to tell the cover story, and his little brother (a doctor) to fake an autopsy and cremation. It works, so he skips the country and gets a little plastic surgery. He returns to find out why his wife never came out to join him, though. He finds his wife and brother now married and "unaware" of who he is, as well as police eager to know why his fingerprints and blood are on the murder weapon.
173* {{Fanservice}}: The series has plenty of T&A to accompany the gore (though sometimes they get mixed up, leading to some serious FanDisservice). Special mention goes to the strippers from "The Bribe," the sexy groupie in "On A Dead Man's Chest," or Molly and her hot bandage outfit in "Only Skin Deep" ([[NightmareFace from the neck down, anyway]]).
174* FateWorseThanDeath: "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime".
175* FauxAffablyEvil: Several main characters and the Crypt Keeper himself.
176* {{Fingore}}: "Cutting Cards" has its two gambler protagonists engage in a game of "Chop Poker", where the guy with the losing hand gets a finger chopped off by a meat cleaver.
177* FirstPersonDyingPerspective: The season 6 finale ''[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS6E15YouMurderer You, Murderer]]'', centers on the view of protagonist Lou Spinelli. He is murdered by his wife and best friend, and the entire episode is viewed through his eyes. As such, we see through his POV when his wife [[BludgeonedToDeath bashes in his head]] with [[ImprovisedWeapon a nude statue]], and kills him. However, as is the episode's theme, while Lou is still dead, he can still [[AndIMustScream hear, see, and feel]] everything that goes on around him, including the rigor mortis of his body.
178* {{Flanderization}}: The Crypt Keeper is far more subdued, more ominious in Season 1, whereas he is more tongue-in-cheek in the rest of the series. According to John Kassir, production always wanted the latter approach, but budget constraints required the Season 1 approach (specifically, the Crypt Keeper's mouth couldn't fly as fast as it needed to). Renewal and a budget increase allowed production to make the Crypt Keeper the way viewers remember him.
179* {{Foreshadowing}}:
180** Ever noticed how near the end of "For Cryin' Out Loud", after Marty [[spoiler:jams a bunch of swabs into his ears]], we ''never'' [[spoiler:see the left side of his head again]]? Well, that's because they didn't want to reveal that [[spoiler:he ruptured his eardrum]] right away!
181** From "The Assassin", we have this gem of a line: "So? [[spoiler:Did she go out sniveling or did she take it like a man?]]"
182*** And yet another one from "The Assassin", mere ''moments'' before TheReveal:
183---->'''[[spoiler:Janet]]:''' I'm your worst nightmare; [[spoiler:a woman with ''balls'']].
184** "Mournin' Mess" in a FreezeFrameBonus moment shows a plaque with the full name of the Grateful Homeless [[spoiler:Outcasts and Unwanted Layaway]] Society.
185* FormulaBreakingEpisode:
186** The final episode, a re-telling of "The Three Little Pigs", was animated.
187** "Whereas most episodes are set in the present-era, "Lower Berth" takes place in the early 1900s.
188** "Yellow", "Showdown", and "King of the Road" are rather tonally different from the rest of the show. This is because they were originally part of a pilot for a planned TV version of ''TwoFistedTales'' instead. Of these, "King of the Road" stands out the most for being a completely straight action yarn with no grisly or macabre themes whatsoever.
189** "The Pit" isn't based a ''Two Fisted Tales'' story, but has zero horror elements, being a martial-arts themed action piece.
190** "Fitting Punishment" is notably the only episode with an entirely black cast.
191* FracturedFairyTale: "The Third Pig". Oddly enough, despite EC's horror line up featuring many of their own twisted versions of classic Fairy Tales, this one is completely original, and is the only episode in the entire show to not take either its name or plot from a story from the comics.
192* FriendToAllLivingThings: Anita from "Collection Completed." She has many pets of different species and is always willing to take in strays. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Her husband]] would define her as a CrazyCatLady instead.
193* FriendVersusLover: "Operation Friendship". More like Imaginary Friend versus Actual Lover.
194* FriendlyRival: Aaron and Felix in "The Pit" are martial artists with a professional rivalry, but they actually get along fine. It's their wives who despise each other and push them to go at it.
195* FrivolousLawsuit: The main character of ''Let the Punishment Fit the Crime'' is a lawyer that specializes in these. Gets a massive deconstruction, as she's revealed to be responsible for several deaths because her lawsuits shut down legitimate medical companies and force doctors to charge more to cover their malpractice insurance.
196* FromCamouflageToCriminal: "Comes The Dawn" centers around a pair of amoral Gulf War veterans turned poachers fighting vampires in the Alaskan wilderness.
197* FunWithAcronyms: The episode "Mournin' Mess" revolves around a reporter investigating the mysterious deaths of several homeless people, which he believes are connected to a charitable organization called the "Grateful Homeless Outcasts and Unwanted Layaway Society". What do you think their secret is?
198* FurAgainstFang:
199** The ending to [[spoiler: "The Secret"]].
200** ''And'' [[spoiler: "Werewolf Concerto"]].
201* GambitRoulette: Lampshaded in "A Slight Case of Murder". [[spoiler:The old woman behind everything admits that things didn't work out exactly the way she planned, which genuinely surprised her.]]
202* GenreAnthology: Of modernized horror stories.
203* GoldDigger: Several. And then they get what they deserve -- [[KarmaHoudini with occasional exceptions]].
204* GroinAttack:
205** Creator/JoePesci starred the most gruesome example in "Split Personality".
206** The greedy wife in the episode "And All Through The House" throws a swift kick in the family jewels towards the killer dressed as Santa Claus in their first confrontation.
207** How Enoch strikes back at Mr. Sickles in "Lower Berth".
208* GroundhogDayLoop: "Whirlpool" features a comic artist, Rolanda, who experiences the same day of getting fired for a story her boss, Vern, doesn't like and a confrontation that kills her boss which ends with her being killed by policemen. [[spoiler:It's revealed to be a story created by an employee, Vern, featuring his JerkAss boss, Rolanda, as the female protagonist. And his final words suggest he's trapped in one of his own.]]
209* GuestHost:
210** One episode had Creator/WilliamSadler 'reprising' his role as [[Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney The Grim Reaper]] to co-host with the Crypt Keeper.
211** Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger also showed up in the Season Two episode, "The Switch", which he also directed.
212** The Crypt-Keeper plays [[Series/TheTonightShow Johnny Carson]] to Creator/WhoopiGoldberg's "talk-show guest" in the closing segment of "Dead Weight."
213* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe:
214** The ending of "Split Second" where loggers help a new employee blinded by their HairTriggerTemper boss get revenge by [[spoiler:having him chainsaw the boss in half while he's bound and gagged inside a hollow log]].
215** Also in "Split Personality", where a guy pulls a FakeTwinGambit in order to date two beautiful twin sisters at the same time. When they find out, [[spoiler:they resolve the problem by sawing him down the middle so they can each keep half.]]
216* HappilyEverAfter: Rare all things considered, but not unusual for sympathetic characters to get what's coming to them.
217** "Four-Sided Triangle" and "Korman's Kalamity" provide reasonably happy, if bloody, endings for TheWoobie. "The Reluctant Vampire" gives Donald a happy ending after all.
218** "The Trap" also ends quite happily for Irene and Billy. Irene's abusive husband Lou, [[KarmicDeath on the other hand...]]
219* HauntedHouse: "Television Terror." Also the twist ending for [[spoiler:"Surprise Party"]].
220* HeadSmashesScreen: In "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS4E1NoneButTheLonelyHeart None But The Lonely Heart]]," the VillainProtagonist uses a video dating service to scam rich old ladies, murdering them for their money. When he suspects the dating service manager is blackmailing him, he responds by violently ramming the poor bastard's skull through the service's big-screen video player. In a wonderful bit of BlackComedy, the TV keeps sparking (and the corpse keeps spasming) until the killer clicks it off with the remote control.
221* HeartInTheWrongPlace: In the episode "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone", a bear-shaped archery target has a valentine-shaped cutout on the left side of its chest. They do get it right on the occasions where somebody gets their heart ripped or cut out, though...
222* HellHotel: "Horror in the Night"
223* HenpeckedHusband: Jim Korman in "Korman's Kalamity".
224* HollywoodAcid: Used as an ending twist in [[spoiler:"99 & 44/100% Pure Horror"]] -- apparently soap made from a human body is acidic enough to ''melt'' someone's skin right off. In fairness, the [[spoiler:living, moving eye]] seen in the soap bar implies that it's not HollywoodAcid so much as a form of supernatural revenge from beyond the grave.
225* HotterAndSexier: Has a fair share of nudity and explicit sex scenes, which weren't present in the 1950's comics.
226* HowWeGotHere: "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone" has the cat-gland-implanted/coffin-housed protagonist, Ulric, tell the audience via flashbacks the tale that led to his being willingly buried alive prior to his ninth life. But then... well, see ExplainExplainOhCrap above.
227* HurricaneOfPuns: The truly terrifying element of the show is the Crypt Keeper's awful sense of humor.
228* IdiotBall: There's often an easy way to avoid the horrible fates characters either have in store or bring upon themselves, but a firm grasp on this keeps them from thinking of it.
229* IfIHadANickel: "Only Sin Deep" has, "You know somethin' honey, if I had a dollar for every time you stood in the mirror admirin' your face, I could get off these streets and retire to the Bahamas."
230* ImAHumanitarian:
231** "What's Cookin'", "The Assassin"
232** "Mournin' Mess" and "House of Horror" also touch on this.
233* IncomingHam: "HELLO KIDDIES!"
234* IncrediblyLamePun: The Crypt Keeper is proficient for this, along with some of the episode titles.
235* IndulgentFantasySegue: A long and brutally tragic one makes up the second half of "'Til Death Do We Part."
236* InNameOnly: While most of the earlier stories hewed fairly close to the original tales, episodes in later seasons had increasingly little in common with the comic stories, aside from the titles. Additionally, not all the stories came from ''Tales''. ''Haunt of Fear'', ''Vault of Horror'', ''Crime [=SuspenStories=]'' and ''Shock [=SuspenStories=]'' also supplied material (and were acknowledged as such in appropriate episodes' credits.)
237* InUniverseCamera: The last act of "Undertaking Parlor" is from the perspective of the heroes' cameras as they film themselves trying to [[spoiler:and succeeding in]] taking down the mortician [[spoiler:after he killed Josh[[note]]one of the heroes[[/note]]'s father]].
238* IronicEcho: There have been several.
239-->"I'd rather be dead than you."
240-->"You gotta have that killer instinct."
241-->"It wasn't lies, it was ''salesmanship!''"
242* ItAmusedMe: In "Loved to Death", this is Implied to be the landlord's reason for helping Edward to brainwash his crush with a love potion. When the effects of the potion backfire on Edward, making his crush so sex-obsessed that it consumes their lives, the landlord expresses little more than a few chuckles, before handily offering Edward a potion to kill his girlfriend when the latter pleads for aid. Edward then notes that the landlord must have known things would spiral out of control, to which the latter simply replies (with a wicked smile) "I'm just here to help, kid".
243* JerkAss: ''Take your pick''...
244** Both Reno and Sam from "Cutting Cards." Their mutual hatred is so extreme that they escalate from craps to Russian roulette to [[spoiler:"chop poker", which they persist in playing until the two of them have lost all of their limbs]].
245** Uncle Ezra from "Fitting Punishment." As well as being TheScrooge who nickel-and-dimes his customers for every little thing, he treats his orphaned nephew like dirt.
246* JerkassHasAPoint: The husband from "Collection Completed" goes too far in trying to kill his wife's many pets, but it's tough to deny he had a right to be upset by the way she neglected him to dote on her animals. Her resentment that he was rarely there for her is hard to justify when one bears in mind that he spent decades working his ass off to support her ''and'' her pets.
247* JokerJury: "The Third Pig".
248* JustEatGilligan: At the end of "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime", the one thing the main character never thought of to do is pointed out to her - [[spoiler:paying off the jury.]]
249* KangarooCourt: "The Third Pig", "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime"
250* KarmicDeath: Pretty much the whole idea. Someone horrible does something horrible and then has something horrible done in return. Rinse, repeat.
251* KarmaHoudini: While it was common for the murderer to get away, the person killed was always the one the audience hated most. There are exceptions however, as this WAS a horror show, after all; generally, the less an episode centers around a despicable character, the more likely they are to succeed with their evil plans and get off scot-free in the end.
252** The Crypt Keeper himself is one, considering the occasions he's periodically tortured, mutilated, and/or killed people during the bookends. He occasionally gets tortured and/or mutilated himself, but then, he ''likes'' stuff like that.
253** The main character from "The Man Who Was Death" had a motive to hunt down {{Karma Houdini}}s who were found not guilty. Ironically, he was eventually caught and executed for his murders.
254** There are some instances of the AssholeVictim being killed by people arguably just as evil, if not more. An example would be the pageant host, his employees, and his audience in "Beauty Rest". They do give Helen, the BeautyContest contestant who killed another, her KarmicDeath, as they turn her into ''Miss Autopsy 1992''. However, an offhand comment made by one employee hints that they have been doing it for a while and that they used to "pick them off the streets" in the past. It's a safe bet to say that not all of the previous "contestants" were {{Asshole Victim}}s and they all presumably continue their murderous business after the end of the episode.
255* KarmicTwistEnding: Most episodes.
256* KnightTemplar: Talbot in "The Man Who Was Death." After his state repeals the death penalty, he goes around killing people that got away with murder.
257* LampshadeHanging: John Kassir, who voices the Crypt Keeper, also plays a minor character in one of the main stories. At the end of the episode, the Crypt Keeper compliments that character's performance.
258* LargeHam: The Crypt Keeper's bombastic introductions provided as much entertainment as the actual stories.
259* LemonyNarrator: The Crypt Keeper, naturally. This is a guy who takes a HurricaneOfPuns and works them into the BlackComedy and GallowsHumor he uses to introduce and analyze the stories.
260* LicensedPinballTable: Released by Creator/DataEast in 1993. [[Pinball/TalesFromTheCrypt Click here for details.]]
261* LiteralMetaphor:
262** "The Assassin" has "[[spoiler:a woman with balls]]".
263** The scientist's wife and her paramour in "Spoiled" breathlessly speak of how much they want each other's bodies, so he grants their wishes [[spoiler:by switching their heads]].
264* LovePotion: Both "Til Death" and "Loved to Death" involve men who use this to win over otherwise unattainable women. This goes about as well as you would expect, given what show they're on.
265* MadDoctor:
266** Dr. Orloff in "Doctor of Horror", who steals corpses in order to extract their souls.
267** Another appears in "The Switch", who helps the protagonist switch bodies.
268** The doctor in "Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow" [[spoiler:surgically implants animal characteristics into people, who are used as hosts, before killing them to harvest their newfound abilities for the Lawson crime family to inherit.]]
269* MagicPlasticSurgery: A trifecta in the episode "The Assassins": The trope is [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when a team of government agents show a photograph of a rogue assassin to a housewife and it's obvious that the man in the picture doesn't look anything like her husband. [[spoiler:It's [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when the rogue assassin proves not to be her husband and [[DoubleSubversion Doubly subverted]] when the mandatory twist ending reveals that the rogue assassin is actually the wife]].
270* MandatoryTwistEnding: One for just about every episode. However, some were quite happy to the good characters, [[KarmicTwistEnding delivering well-deserved vengeance to the unsympathetic]].
271* MeaningfulName:
272** Leah and Angelica, the twins in "About Face." Angelica is the angelic, beautiful, "good" twin, while in Literature/TheBible Leah is the name of one of Jacob's wives, who is unloved and ignored by Jacob in favor of her sister (especially appropriate given that the twins' father is a priest.)
273** The weaselly AmoralAttorney from "Let The Punishment Fit The Crime" is named Geri ''Ferret''.
274* MetaFiction: Particularly notable in some episodes, such as "Korman's Kalamity" and "Whirlpool" which feature writers/artists of the ''Tales from the Crypt'' comic as their protagonists (with the Crypt-Keeper even holding a copy of the comic in the former). Another notable example is the end of "Oil's Well That Ends Well" where the Crypt Keeper rewatches the final two-three minutes of the episode and comments upon John Kassir's character for being a "great hacktor" and [[LampshadeHanging wondering where he's heard that voice before]].
275* MonogenderMonsters: A variant of this in "Lover Come Hack to Me", where every baby born into Peggy's family is apparently female.
276* MonsterClown: Played with in "Strung Along" where it appears Joseph's clown puppet Koko has come to life and murdered his adulterous wife. [[spoiler:It's subverted in that it was all an act by his wife and her lover to make Joseph suffer a fatal HollywoodHeartAttack. It's then played somewhat straight when the Koko puppet, implied to be possessed by Joseph, murders the adulterous wife and lover in revenge.]]
277* TheMovie: Technically six. Two films were produced in the 1970s by Creator/AmicusProductions -- [[Film/TalesFromTheCrypt a self-titled movie]] and ''Film/VaultOfHorror''. (Unsurprisingly, though, this series has a loose connection to those movies.) In 1989, a CompilationMovie was put together, consisting of "The Man Who Was Death", "And All Through the House", and "Dig That Cat, He's Real Gone". Three [[ThematicSeries stand-alone franchise films]] were made in the 1990s: ''Film/DemonKnight'', ''Film/BordelloOfBlood'' and ''Ritual'', the last of which was released straight to video. Note that ''Ritual'' was produced as a ''[=TFtC=]'' movie, but later edited to remove any connection to the franchise. This connection was later restored in an effort to increase awareness of it. Also notable are the movies that were supposed to be part of the franchise, complete with Cryptkeeper wraparound segments, but ended up becoming their own thing, most notably ‘’Film/FromDuskTillDawn’’, ‘’Film/DeathBecomesHer’’, and ‘’Film/TheFrighteners’’.
278* MundaneUtility: Several episodes feature their superhuman/supernaturally-powered protagonists using their abilities to accomplish daily tasks, most notable in season three episode "The Reluctant Vampire", in which said vampire uses his ClassicalMovieVampire powers to... light the candles in his living room, squeeze and shake the blood out of a corpse (via I.V. to throw a roaming vampire hunter off the trail), and heave his unconscious (and obese) boss into a coffin.
279* MurderIsTheBestSolution: This pops up a lot, and it tends to be the specific IdiotBall many characters latch onto.
280* TheNeidermeyer: Creator/MichaelIronside’s character in "Comes The Dawn" was one of these, though by the time of the episode he’s since become a poacher. He gets his comeuppance when a soldier whose platoon he killed by calling in an air strike tricks him and his partner into running into a vampire nest.
281* NighInvulnerability: The Crypt Keeper constantly [[SelfHarm inflicts pain and torture on himself]] [[TooKinkyToTorture for his own amusement]], but always comes out of it without a scratch on him. Obviously a factor of his undead state.
282* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: The original comic of "The Pit!" had the couples running cockfighting and dogfighting rings, with the women bullying their husbands into trying to one-up their rivals. That probably would've been too brutish for modern sensibilities.
283* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In certain episodes, The Crypt Keeper dresses or impersonates famous people or characters.
284** "And All Through The House" Santa Claus
285** "Dead Wait" David Letterman (when he was interviewing Whoopi Goldberg at the end of the show)
286** "The Reluctant Vampire" Dracula
287** "On A Deadman's Chest" Elvis Presley
288** "Seance" Humphrey Bogart
289** "Showdown" John Wayne
290** "As Ye Sow" Howard Stern (at the end of the episode)
291** "Til Death Do We Part" Vince Scully (but spelled as Vince Skully)
292** "Operation Friendship" Jacques Cousteau (but called himself Shock Cousteau)
293** "The Bribe" Richard Nixon
294** "You, Murderer" Tom Hanks' Forest Gump (but called himself Fearest Gump)
295* NoFourthWall: At least as far as the Crypt Keeper is concerned.
296* NotInTheFace: On one episode which stars a pair of bandit lovers, the man is always paranoid about something happening to his visage. Predictably, there's more to this fear than simple vanity, as revealed by the twist ending.
297* NotJustATournament: There are a few episodes where a contestant murders the odds-on favorite, but finds out too late that the "prize" for winning is death. In one case, an actor literally kills for a chance to play ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', but discovers that he was really auditioning to play Yorick, the skull. In another case, a BeautyContest contestant kills another, but soon discovers that the pageant is called [[spoiler:"Miss Autopsy"]].
298* OnceAnEpisode: A somewhat loose example. The Crypt Keeper will make at least one "ghoul" pun, no matter how nonsensical or how much of a stretch. Any word with a G and an L in there is fair game, usually "girl" or "gal," but on occasion "goal" and "gill" have fallen victim.
299* OffWithHisHead: Happens in more than a handful of episodes.
300* OohMeAccentsSlipping: John Kassir (an American actor) has the Crypt Keeper slip and out of varying degrees of a British accent so frequently, it's hard to tell which one is supposed to be sticking.
301* OriginsEpisode: "Lower Berth" establishes how the Crypt Keeper came to be. Appropriately, the episode was directed by Kevin Yagher, who helped the Crypt Keeper come to be in real life.
302* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The vampires in [[spoiler:"Comes the Dawn"]] are nonverbal and truly hideous goblin-like humanoids that sleep in fleshy cocoons.
303* POVCam: "You, Murderer" (with the added bonus of being from the POV of Creator/HumphreyBogart), "Abra Cadaver"
304* PreciousPuppy: Played for BlackComedy at the end of "Curiosity Killed" when a couple discovers a cute little puppy [[spoiler:with its AssholeVictim hidden a few feet away]].
305* PreMortemOneLiner: From "For Cryin' Out Loud", right before [[spoiler:killing Ms. Kielbasa[[note]]his banker[[/note]], who wants half of the "Save the Rainforest" money he's stealing]]:
306-->'''Marty''': (while picking up a guitar) You know who gave me this guitar?
307-->'''Ms. Kielbasa''': No, who?
308-->'''Marty''': (raises the guitar over his head) [[Music/TheWho Pete... TOWNSHEND!]] ([[spoiler:[[TalkToTheFist bludgeons Ms. Kielbasa to death with the guitar]]]])
309* PrisonersLastMeal: In the episode "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS2E1DeadRight Dead Right]]", the grossly overweight Charlie is arrested, convicted, and executed for Cathy's murder. It's reported on the news that his last meal was [[BigEater the largest any death row inmate has ever had]].
310* ProductPlacement: Curiously, Perrier-Jouët champagne turns up in several episodes, with its distinctive painted bottle always clearly visible on-camera. Whether this was a deliberate plug or just what the prop department happened to have handy isn't clear.
311* ProphecyTwist: A fortuneteller assures a [[GoldDigger greedy woman]] that she will soon marry a man who will inherit a fortune from a rich relative and die himself soon afterward. No points for guessing that one important bit of information was left out of that. [[spoiler: Namely, ''she'' was the rich relative, having won a large sum of money for being the millionth customer at an automat. When she went to rub it in his face, he killed her and was executed for it.]]
312* PungeonMaster: The Crypt Keeper.
313* PyrrhicVictory: "Mute Witness to Murder" ends with Susan finally killing the murderous doctor by denying him his heart pills. But said doctor killed Susan's husband, [[KarmaHoudini got away with murdering his wife]], and Susan, if the Crypt-Keeper's comment at the end is any indication, likely [[DownerEnding becomes fully insane]].
314* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Grunwald in "Revenge is the Nuts". It's not enough that he steals the home's funds to spend on himself while the blind inmates starve and freeze, but what's presented as the MoralEventHorizon is his sexual harassment/abuse of a new female arrival.
315* RapidAging: In "Only Sin Deep", a vain prostitute "sells" her looks to an eccentric pawnbroker, only to start quickly looking like an old woman. "Curiosity Killed" features this happening when a JerkAss old woman sabotages her husband and his friends' attempt at creating a youth potion. Also a version of this appears in "Staired In Horror" with any young man who goes up a staircase in a cursed house aging tremendously, while the woman who lives there goes from young to elderly when she descends the stairs, and vice versa.
316* RecklessGunUsage: In the episode "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today", a husband points his rifle at a random solicitor, and pulls the trigger while pointing it at his wife to prove to his wife the gun was unloaded. In the end he ends up trying to physically subdue his wife's body snatcher (an old witch traded bodies with her) while holding the gun, and ends up shooting his wife.
317* RevengeBeforeReason: In the episode "Oil's Well That Ends Well", conwoman Gina was [[spoiler:cheated of her life savings from being on the losing end of a GambitPileup relating to investing in a fake oil well. It was revealed that the ground that she and the rest of the conmen were standing on actually do had a real oil well which would probably make all of them rich. However by now Gina was too pissed off to care either way and [[TakingYouWithMe threw a lit cigarette onto the oil well, igniting an explosion and killing them all]]]].
318* RevengeFic: The end of "[[spoiler:Whirlpool]]" InUniverse implies [[spoiler:that the whole episode was this]], with [[spoiler:Vern putting his JerkAss boss, Rolanda, in a GroundhogDayLoop story]]. What's more, Vern's final words imply that [[spoiler:he's trapped in a loop of his own, possibly the main character in ''someone else's'' RevengeFic, and is fully aware of it.]]
319* RewatchBonus: A number of episodes have this, but "Three's a Crowd" bears special mention. Pretty much all of the dialog in the episode has a different meaning once you know the ending.
320* RuleOfScary: In full force, just like it was in the EC comics that inspired it. Admittedly, the stories and plot twists don't usually make a whole lot of sense, but if someone who watches the show complains about them [[MST3KMantra they're doing it wrong]].
321* TheScrooge: Uncle Ezra from "Fitting Punishment".
322* SelfDeprecation: Between the Crypt Keeper occasionally deriding the audience for watching too much of the show, and characters in the actual segments tending to have a low opinion of it (or its namesake comic) whenever it was bought up, it seems Tales from the Crypt had no problem poking fun at its own low-brow appeal.
323* SevenMinuteLull: [[spoiler:Subverted]] in "For Cryin' Out Loud".
324* SheCleansUpNicely: Stella King in "Creep Course" for the majority of the episode is pretty mousey and okay looking in baggy clothing and thick glasses. After encountering the mummy, she is smoking in revealing Egyptian garments and eyeshadow.
325* SiblingYinYang: In one episode, a pair of twins come to live with the lecherous priest who fathered them. One twin is attractive, sweet-tempered and generally kind to him, while the other is a deformed and violent religious fanatic who deeply resents their father for abandoning them.
326* SingleSpecimenSpecies: The Crypt Keeper is [[spoiler: the offspring of a two-faced carnival freak and an ancient undead mummy]] so the jury is out on what kind of being he actually is. Regardless we never see another creature like him in the series.
327* SinisterSouthwest: In "Carrion Death," a multiple murderer named Diggs escapes police custody and tries to flee across the Mexican border in Texas, pursued by a motorcycle cop and a very hungry vulture. He manages to kill the cop, but not before he handcuffs himself to Diggs and swallows the key, forcing Diggs to drag the dead man through the wasteland.
328* SinsOfOurFathers: The big twist of "Surprise Party." It's pure luck that the ghosts' victim ended up being a murderous arsonist just like his father, because they make it clear they were going to exact revenge on him either way.
329* SparedByTheAdaptation:
330** In the original story of "The Reluctant Vampire", Longtooth is discovered and staked in the heart. In the episode of the same name, it's the JerkAss who harasses Longtooth that gets staked in the heart after being mistaken for a vampire. Given the InNameOnly reputation of the episodes, this probably isn't the only example.
331** Another example occurs with "My Brother's Keeper" wherein the original comic story featured the good twin committing suicide by slashing his throat and taking the evil twin with him due to [[SiameseTwins their shared body]]. In the adaptation, both survive and are surgically separated, leaving the evil twin to be arrested.
332** The paranormal expert in "Television Terror" goes in the house and dies in the original comic, but here he has the sense to stay out, which keeps him alive.
333* SpinOff:
334** The animated ''WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptKeeper'' and the Creator/{{CBS}} GameShow ''Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House'' were aimed at a younger audience, but still horrifying.
335** There was also a brief audio series produced for Sci-Fi Channel's Seeing Ear Theatre and done as a RadioDrama. Kassir again returned as our horror host (even singing the opening lyrics) and several high-profile guests (such as Creator/TimCurry and Luke Perry) took part.
336* SpiritualSuccessor:
337** ''Music/SnoopDogg's Hood of Horror'' will seem very familiar to fans of this series, from the BlackComedy to the charismatic host to the godawful puns. The first segment will also seem very familiar to ''Manga/DeathNote'' fans, but [[FollowTheLeader that's a whole different story]].
338** ''Perversions of Science'', a short-lived series that essentially replaced this one after the final season.
339* StrawFeminist: In "Oil's Well Thar Ends Well", Gina is an intelligent, if manipulative and downright evil, woman who despises almost all men.
340* StrawMisogynist: Also in "Oil's Well That Ends Well", the villains are misogynistic, opportunistic men who try to [[spoiler: trick Gina out of her wealth]].
341* SurvivorshipBias: Averted in a number of stories.
342* SwallowTheKey:
343** In "Carrion Death," a criminal and a cop are handcuffed together. The cop is killed, but he manages to swallow the key before the criminal can get it, forcing the criminal to lug the dead cop along as he attempts to escape across the desert.
344** Mr. Duvall swallows the black pearl to keep Red from the stealing it in "Dead Wait." Unfortunately, this backfires pretty gruesomely on account of Red having both a sharp knife and no moral compunctions against murder.
345* SympatheticAdulterer: In "The Trap", a physically and verbally-abused housewife conspires and becomes intimate with her brother-in-law to get revenge on her JerkAss husband.
346* TitleDrop: Happened a few times, but perhaps the most (purposefully) blatant was by the Crypt Keeper in "Korman's Kalamity":
347-->"...because long before my eerie offerings appeared on your silver screen, they were a magazine called - get a load of this - ''Tales from the Crypt''!"
348* TomatoInTheMirror
349* TooDumbToLive: Richard's wife Della and his friend Alan in "Three's a Crowd." While trying to keep a joyous secret ([[spoiler:he's gonna be a daddy!]]) from Richard so the announcement will be a surprise, both seemingly go out of their way to make it look like they're having an affair instead, with Della spending most of her time alone with Alan and then running to his arms whenever Richard tries to confront her about it. But what really makes them this trope is that when Richard finally snaps and moves to kill the two, and it dawns on each of them that ''he's seriously going to do it'', they '''still''' refuse to just come clean about all the secrecy, even though it could have avoided the major TearJerker that ensues.
350* UndeadChild: [[spoiler:"The New Arrival", coupled with RevenantZombie.]]
351* TheUriahGambit: In "Forever Ambergris", an aging photographer sends his young protege to a village that was ravaged by germ warfare, knowing the younger man will fall victim to the same flesh-rotting disease that killed the villagers, leaving his hot girlfriend for the older man's taking. [[spoiler:Naturally, it backfires when the older man learns his protege sent some germ-infected flora to his girlfriend before he knew anything was wrong.]]
352* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: On the odd occasion the Crypt Keeper leaves his crypt to mingle with the general public, no one seems to react predictably to the sight of him.
353* VampireDoctor: In ''The Reluctant Vampire'', the main character, Mr. Longtooth, works at a blood bank, though as a security guard. He does know some medical procedures though like asking if a person has taken drugs or has any diseases and what not and managed to refill the so called missing quota the bank seems to be going through.
354* VegetarianVampire: Again, Longtooth in "The Reluctant Vampire".
355* VigilanteMan: "The Man who was Death".
356* VillainProtagonist: Most of the main characters of each episode. And most of them end up suffering horrible ends due to their selfishness.
357* TheVirus: "Forever Ambergris"
358* VocalEvolution: The Cryptkeeper's voice in the first season and roughly the first third of season two sounds noticeably different compared to his more usual one. It's a bit more quiet and raspier and slightly accented, like a sort of high-pitched Creator/VincentPrice impression. The Cryptkeepers voice actor, John Kassir, has said that this was due to the animatronic initially being unable to move its mouth very quickly so he had to speak more slowly to ensure that the movements synced up with the words.
359* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Lampshaded at the end of "Mute Witness to Murder":
360-->'''Crypt Keeper:''' I suppose you're wondering what became of Susan. If you give me a scream, I might just tell you! ''(laughs)''
361* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Some of the Crypt Keeper's closing segments allude to what became of the characters after the end. The DrJerk in "The New Arrival" [[spoiler:eventually escaped his predicament and got a new radio show, though he was more careful about "screaming his calls"]]. Charlie from "Doctor of Horror" [[spoiler:opened a club and even sent our horror host a postcard about it]]. Clyde from "Staired in Horror" [[spoiler:eventually managed to reverse his age by slowly shuffling down the stairs, but was then left waiting for Lily to grow up.]]
362* WorthlessYellowRocks: ''Dead Wait''. The voodoo priestess (Creator/WhoopiGoldberg) tosses away a huge, valuable black pearl, because she finds the red hair on Red's (severed) head far more valuable. Based on the [[http://d1g4sq00ps2bp3.cloudfront.net/comicart/0289_6.jpg vignette of the same name]] in ''Vault of Horror'' #23.
363* WouldntHurtAChild: The Crypt Keeper reassures us that the psychotic Santa from "...And All Through The House" didn't harm the little girl who let him inside, as "He preferred older women... in pieces!"
364* WoundedGazelleGambit: Liz in "Split Second" seduces an unwilling young lumberjack and, when caught, tells her husband that he tried to rape her. [[ForTheEvulz She did this all because she was bored.]]
365* {{Yandere}}: The resident GoldDigger of "Lover Come Hack To Me" ''really'' picked the wrong woman to con.

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