History YMMV / TalesFromTheCrypt

** [[CreepyMortician Sebastian Esbrook]], from season 3's "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS3E9UndertakingPalor Undertaking Palor]]", is the crooked mortician of a small town who conspires with the local pharmacist, Mr. Grundy, to murder town residents by poisoning them while they split the proceeds from the funerals. Esbrook murders a woman who previously rejected him, assisting in multiple poisonings before [[NoHonorAmongThieves turning on and killing Grundy]] via acid poured down his throat before attempting to murder the teenage boys caught filming him.
** [[TheBluebeard Howard Prince]], from season 4's "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS4E1NoneButTheLonelyHeart None but the Lonely Heart]]", is a [[FauxAffablyEvil charismatic]] young man who [[GoldDigger courts older, richer women]] and gains their affection. However, once they've tied the knot, Prince poisons them and cruelly leaves them to die as he reaps their riches, all while playing the part of the grieving husband before he starts the process over again. Prince is [[MurderIsTheBestSolution willing to kill anyone else who might pose a threat to his operations]], as even his own partners in the scheme aren't safe when Prince becomes paranoid over someone discovering the truth of his actions.
** [[EvilChef Gaston]], from season 4's "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS4E6WhatsCookin What's Cookin']]", is in truth a SerialKiller who has murdered people in other states before arriving at Fred and Erma's eatery. Murdering Fred's landlord to make him into steaks, Gaston murders numerous other people to [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies put them on the menu]]. When he realizes the heat is upon him, Gaston attempts to murder Fred and Erma before making his escape.

* TheWoobie: Arthur Grimsdyke, a kindly old garbageman and widower who loves to entertain children with toys he made himself out of trash and and takes care of a bunch of stray dogs, who has his life systematically ruined by two rich [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkasses]] because they thought he looked scruffy, tot he point of driving him to suicide.

* HilariousInHindsight: In "Confession," Creator/EddieIzzard's character talks about his new story idea about Satan being reincarnated as a serial killer. The twist? [[Series/{{Dexter}} He's a serial killer that only kills other serial killers.]]

** [[TheBluebeard Howard Prince]], from season 4's "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS4E1NoneButTheLonelyHeart None But the Lonely Heart]]", is a [[FauxAffablyEvil charismatic]] young man who [[GoldDigger courts older, richer women]] and gains their affection. However, once they've tied the knot, Prince poisons them and cruelly leaves them to die as he reaps their riches, all while playing the part of the grieving husband before he starts the process over again. Prince is [[MurderIsTheBestSolution willing to kill anyone else who might pose a threat to his operations]], as even his own partners in the scheme aren't safe when Prince becomes paranoid over someone discovering the truth of his actions.

* CompleteMonster: While ''Tales from the Crypt'' tended to play a lot of its [[SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror horror]] for {{camp}} or BlackComedy, [[TheBluebeard Howard Prince]], from season 4's "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS4E1NoneButTheLonelyHeart None But The Lonely Heart]]", is an exception. Prince is a charismatic young man who courts older, richer women and gains their affection. However, once they've tied the knot, Prince poisons them and cruelly leaves them to die as he reaps their riches, all while playing the part of the grieving husband before he starts the process over again. His FauxAffablyEvil persona makes it all the more cruel. And he's willing to kill anyone else who might pose a threat to his operations, as even his own partners in the scheme aren't safe when Prince becomes paranoid over someone discovering the truth of his actions.

* MagnificentBastard: With its heavy twist-based format, some characters in this EC comics-based series show themselves as truly ingenious masterminds.

* 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.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Inverted in "The Switch", where a rich old man spends all his money on a new, youthful body, only to have the woman he was pursuing leave him for the now-wealthy donor who underwent the body exchange operations with him. It's presented as a DownerEnding for him, even though A: his intended lover was an obvious GoldDigger he's much better off without, B: he's essentially purchased a do-over on ''life itself'', something many, many people would happily trade a fortune to have, and C: since he has regained his youth but retained his years of accumulated experience and knowledge, he could arguably still rebuild his fortune.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most modern audiences are ''more'' familiar with the TV series than the original 1950's comics, especially the portrayal of the Crypt Keeper as a wisecracking revenant rather than an old man. It doesn't help that reprinted collections of the original comics are ungodly expensive.

!![[Film/TakesFromTheCrypt The film:]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The episode "Three's a Crowd" has a man [[spoiler:kill his old friend and his own wife due to be driven mad by what he thought was an affair. It turns out that the old friend and the man's wife were setting up a surprise anniversary party where she would reveal that she was pregnant with his son]]. The problem is that for all of the episode, the wife and the old friend do nothing but act suspicious when they both know the man is violently paranoid and yet constantly do nothing to dissuade him from his mania. They're less innocents tragically killed than two people TooDumbToLive. It also didn't help that the two were very flirtatious with each other leading up to it. Which just encourages the husband's paranoia.

* ConspicuousCG: Even though the CGI to bring Creator/HumphreyBogart (and Creator/AlfredHitchcock in a cameo) back to life in the episode "You Murderer" was still pretty well done, there are moments when the CGI can be off at times.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://youtu.be/yu_eXegPAWc The intro]]. Even [[WesternAnimation/TalesFromTheCryptkeeper the animated series]] knew this!

* DesignatedVillain: The husband from "Collection Completed", while not a genuinely good person, it's quite understandable as to why he'd snap the way that he did. See JerkassHasAPoint for further details.

* JerkassWoobie: Creator/JonLovitz's character in "Top Billing".

* RecycledScript: The host segments in ''Bordello of Blood'' are almost the same as the ones from "The Assassin" - even reusing guest star William Sadler!

* SpecialEffectFailure: The Crypt Keeper puppet itself still looks good today, but the slight audio delay required to operate it meant that John Kassir can sometimes be heard cackling off-stage before the puppet starts talking.

* UglyCute: Baby Crypt Keeper
** For others, the Crypt Keeper himself. Must be something about those baby-blue eyes...
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The episode "Three's a Crowd" has a man [[spoiler:kill his old friend and his own wife due to be driven mad by what he thought was an affair. It turns out that the old friend and the man's wife were setting up a surprise anniversary party where she would reveal that she was pregnant with his son]]. The problem is that for all of the episode, the wife and the old friend do nothing but act suspicious when they both know the man is violently paranoid and yet constantly do nothing to dissuade him from his mania. They're less innocents tragically killed than two people TooDumbToLive.
** It also didn't help that the two were very flirtatious with each other leading up to it. Which just encourages the husband's paranoia.

* AwesomeMusic: [[https://youtu.be/yu_eXegPAWc The intro]]. Even [[WesternAnimationTalesFromTheCryptkeeper the animated series]] knew this!

* AwesomeMusic: [[https://youtu.be/yu_eXegPAWc The intro]]. Even [[WesternAnimationTalesFrom%heCryptkeeper the animated series]] knew this!

* TearJerker: The endings to "As Ye Sow" and "Three's a Crowd" are quite possibly the saddest moments in all of Tales From The Crypt.
** The [[SuddenDownerEnding ending]] to the mostly humorous "Judy, You're Not Yourself Today," is also a pretty big one.
** The ending to "'Til Death Do We Part" is another. Viewers will likely see [[IndulgentFantasySegue the twist]] coming well ahead of time, which can make the seeming SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome leading up to it become a GutPunch in itself.
** The CruelTwistEnding of “The Bribe” is almost right up there with that of “Three’s A Crowd”.
** The ending to "Yellow," particularly for Kirk Douglas' character. And that's ''without'' the real-life HarsherInHindsight aspect.
** After the Crypt Keeper shows us [[spoiler: how he was conceived]], you expect him to crack a joke at the end. He does...while sobbing his eyes out. He's legitimately upset he never got to see his [[spoiler: parents]] and he admits the tale makes him utterly depressed. He even kept the doll that [[spoiler:his father received from a little girl at the circus, and apparently passed on to him.]] The final shot is him letting out a cackle that dissolves into a tragic laugh.
*** Even before that, the sad fate of [[spoiler:baby Crypt Keeper. By all indications, his parents loved him, and the last we see of him is him sitting a few yards away from their decaying corpses, alone save for the doll. Among his babblings is the word "mama."]]
** The scene in “Undertaking Palor” where Josh’s friends find him crying on his front steps because his dad died the night before from an asthma attack caused by poisoned medication.

** The scene in “Undertaking Parlor” where Josh’s friends find him crying on his front steps because his dad died the night before from an asthma attack caused by poisoned medication.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Inverted in "The Switch", where a rich old man spends all his money on a new, youthful body, only to have the woman he was pursuing leave him for the now-wealthy doctor who performed the operations. It's presented as a DownerEnding for him, even though A: his intended lover was an obvious GoldDigger he's much better off without, B: he's essentially purchased a do-over on ''life itself'', something many, many people would happily trade a fortune to have, and C: since he has regained his youth, the best case scenario would be for him to use his business experience to rebuild his fortune.

** Charlie from "Dead Right" also comes to mind, taken the fact that his wife was a no good gold digger with little to no sympathetic traits, yet is our viewpoint character for the episode. While Charlie was in the wrong to murder her, his only sins up to that point were being a bit slovenly and a BigEater.

* EsotericHappyEnding: Inverted in "The Switch", where a rich old man spends all his money on a new, youthful body, only to have the woman he was pursuing leave him for the now-wealthy doctor who performed the operations. It's presented as a DownerEnding for him, even though A: his intended lover was an obvious GoldDigger he's much better off without, and B: he's essentially purchased a do-over on ''life itself'', something many, many people would happily trade a fortune to have.
** And C: Since he has regained his youth, the best case scenario would be for him to use his business experience to rebuild his fortune.

** At the end of "Dead Right," Creator/JeffreyTambor goes to jail for a crime against a female character is more cringing due to recently Tambor suffering from sexual harassment allegations in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and [=#MeToo=] movement.

** It takes a lot to make viewers sympathize with someone pulling a verbatim "IfICantHaveYou" moment, but by the time Charlie in "Dead Right" snaps and stabs his cruel, openly spiteful gold-digger of a wife to death, you still can't help but feel sorry for him.

** Patricia Arquette's character in "Four-Sided Triangle." The way she tells old man Yates in a near-cry that she'd rather ''die'' than stay on his farm says the most about the way he and his wife abuse her.

*** Even before that, the sad fate of [[spoiler:baby Crypt Keeper. By all indications, his parents loved him, and the last we see of him is him sitting a few yards away from their decaying corpses, alone save for the doll, as the snow falls outside. Among his babblings is the word "mama."]]

** At the end of "Dead Right," Creator/JeffreyTambor goes to jail for crime against a female character is more cringing due to recently Tambor suffering from sexual harassment allegations in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and [=#MeToo=] movement.

* HarsherInHindsight: "Yellow" features Creator/KirkDouglas and his son Eric as a general and his cowardly son, the latter [[spoiler:being executed for abandoning his fellow men in the field.]] Sadly, as Eric [[spoiler:died in 2004 of an accidental drug overdose, Kirk ended up outliving his son in real life as well.]]

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The episode "Three's a Crowd" has a man [[spoiler:kill his old friend and his own wife due to be driven mad by what he thought was an affair. It turns out that [[spoiler:the old friend and the man's wife were setting up a surprise anniversary party where she would reveal that she was pregnant with his son]]. The problem is that for all of the episode, the wife and the old friend do nothing but act suspicious when they both know the man is violently paranoid and yet constantly do nothing to dissuade him from his mania. They're less innocents tragically killed than two people TooDumbToLive.