Age of The Nerd
I woke up this morning hoping to be nine hundred million dollars richer. ( I bet a lot of people were.) I didn’t win the Powerball, but I got a great gift. I read online that Tales from the Crypt was making a comeback. The series is slated to start airing on TNT later this fall and was revealed at the recent Television Critics Association press tour. It was also revealed that the great writer/director M. Night Shyamalan who has gotten great acclaim for his TV show Wayward Pines has signed on to executive produce the new series.
The show will use the original William Gaines created Tales from the Crypt EC comics from the 50’s for some of the episodes. Other episodes will be original stories. I would love to see the list of writers who will be writing the original stories. There are some great horror writers that have come out in the horror genre since Tales from the Crypt stopped airing in 1996.
Would love to see Joe Hill write an episode. And I know it’s a little farfetched but I would love to see Sylvester Stallone write an episode. (Hey, we are bringing back the 80’s anyway!) He is a great writer who has brought two iconic characters to American culture and into the world. Many people do not even realize that he is a writer at all, and a good one at that! I remember watching the movie Homefront and thinking how good of a movie it was, and when I found out it was written by Stallone I was really surprised. And that same night I looked at how many movies he has written and realized he never has done anything in the horror genre. So, why not now?
The new Tales from the Crypt will air on TNT as part of a new two hour block of horror. There were no other details released about what other material will be used to fill the rest of the block. The suits over at TNT must be realizing that there is a fan base out there that loves horror. With the popularity of shows such as The Walking Dead, TNT might be trying to get some of that horror fan base tuned into them.
But that’s not taking anything away from the magic that was Tales from the Crypt which started airing on HBO in 1989 and ran until 1996. The series had many big time Hollywood names involved such as executive producers Richard Donner, Joel Hill, and Robert Zemeckis. The series also featured many big name actors and directors.
Shyamalan will direct at least one of the episodes for the upcoming series. When asked at the press tour what part, if any the Crypt Keeper, would have, no information was given. I really do hope they keep the Crypt Keeper in the series. I lost count on how many times I covered my face when the Crypt Keeper would pop out of his coffin at the end of the opening credits.
I would watch the gate open and the creepy music start playing as the viewer traveled through the house and down the stairs, and through the door to a room lit with candles. And then I would cover my eyes as I would hear the laugh. That scene has stuck with me and many others through the years. I’m hoping this new take of the series gives me the same feeling I got when I watched it long ago. And I hope that the show brings a whole new generation of fans to the Crypt.
