Harefooted Halloween: Tales from the Crypt (1972)

What I Liked: Four of the five stories are great twisty tales about assholes getting their comeuppance.  The wife who murders her loving husband but then has to deal with an escaped lunatic dressed as Santa Claus might be my favorite segment.  The take they do on the Monkey’s Paw is pretty neat too where the undead husband gets his guts hacked up by his wife.  The only yarn I don’t like as much is the one where a young upper crusty brat drives his old disheveled neighbor across the street to suicide simply because he thinks the guy and his rundown house are bad for the neighborhood.  The kid doesn’t even know the man or have a strong motivation for fucking with him so it comes off too mean spirited.  The ending to that segment is appropriately gruesome though because the kid is a total piece of shit.

The brevity of each story works well.  These fables are relatively simple affairs so spending about fifteen mins on each one is perfect.  Everything is streamlined to cram as much suspense into the plots as possible.

What I Didn’t Like: The segment concerning the douche who abuses his power in running a home for the blind tips its hand too early with how they’re going to conclude.  I wish they had shown a little more restraint there because it would’ve been kind of a nuts reveal had we not known what the residents of the home were up to.

Overall Impressions: This film is a favorite of Robert Zemeckis (Flight, Romancing the Stone) who produced the much more well known HBO version of Tales from the Crypt and directed some episodes.  If you’re curious to check out this ancestor from almost twenty years prior you won’t be disappointed.  They share some of the same stories and it’s interesting to see the different approaches each took.  

This is definitely one of the strongest anthology horror movies out there.  All the sections are solid, the performances are excellent and there’s a nice broody look and atmosphere to the entire piece.  They walk the fine line of presenting you something that’s truly creepy and not too silly, gory or light.  Everyone likes a good old fashioned ghost story and this is as traditional and classy as it gets.