Creative differences, or something more?
A Slight Case Of Murder is the 3rd episode in the 7th season of Tales from the Crypt.
A mystery writer cluelessly participates in plans for her own murder.
Tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: True old lady neighbor poisons her son, murders the mystery novel writer Sharon and her cruel ex husband, and steals Sharon's next best selling novel idea and gets away with it.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The old lady who keeps pestering the mystery novel writer Sharon about her book ideas. Turns out she's the one who orchestrated the whole fake love triangle, poisoning of the cookies and multiple murders all for a best selling mystery novel idea of her own.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Mrs. Trask orchestrated the whole thing. She even had a to-do list on a notecard.
- Evil Gloating: Mrs. Trask does this when explaining to Sharon how she orchestrated all of this. She feels safe doing so because she knows that Sharon wasted her last bullet on Larry.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Larry mentions a postcard that Joey allegedly sent Sharon. Joey says Sharon had written to never contact her back, but she has no idea what either of them are talking about.
- Foreshadowing: Mrs. Trask talks to Sharon about having become much more organized as of late and knowing how her next story is going to end. She also inquires about the whereabouts of Larry.
- Gambit Roulette: Though she wins in the end, Mrs. Trask admits events didn't completely pan out like she had planned and is genuinely surprised by that. Not that she's complaining, of course.
- Homage: The entire episode is essentially a bloodier edition of Murder, She Wrote.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: During a stand-down between her and her abusive ex husband, Sharon takes a pair of pruning shears to the chest.
- Ironic Echo: "In matters of murder, you never know the ending, until you get there."
- Love Triangle: One between a mystery novel writer, her former husband and her nosy neighbor's son. Or so it would seem...
- Mexican Standoff: Sharon and Larry briefly have one, but it's resolved when Larry hears a door open and looks away from her.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Mrs. Trask is not nearly "the bloody idiot" that Sharon writes her off as.
- Properly Paranoid: Sharon, for her snobby and cold attitude, is also quite paranoid, reacting with fear to small noises. Her paranoia is proven to be justified when Larry arrives, planning to kill her.
- Wham Line: Mrs. Trask reading her notecard's to-do list.
- "You!" Exclamation: Sharon's stunned reaction to Mrs. Trask being revealed as the mastermind.
