"Tales from the Crypt" Revenge Is the Nuts (1994)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jonas McCord

Writer:

Shel Willens (teleplay)

TV Series:

"Tales from the Crypt" (1989)

Original Air Date:

16 November 1994 (Season 6, Episode 5)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Residents at a shelter for the blind turn the tables on their cruel overseer. |

Plot Keywords:

Escape Attempt | Brother | Torture | Blindness | Flirting

Cast

Bibi Besch	...	Armelia
Isaac Hayes	...	Samuel
John Kassir	...	Crypt Keeper (voice)
Teri Polo	...	Sheila
Tim Sampson	...	Osgood
John Savage	...	Benny
Anthony Zerbe	...	Arnie Grunwald

Quotes:

Sheila: This place smells horrible.
Samuel: It grows on you. Literally.

A fun if light weight episode.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Tales from the Crypt: Revenge Is the Nuts is set in a state funded institution for the blind & starts as blind teenager Sheila (Teri Polo) first arrives after having been placed there by social services. Sheila meets up with Mr. Grunwald (Anthony Zerbe) the sadistic owner who runs the place, amongst other things he deliberately leaves marbles on the floor so the blind folks will fall over, he bricks the toilet door up (!) & keeps the heating turned right down to save money. Appalled at what she learns is going on Sheila rallies the other blind folks together to teach Mr. Grunwald a lesson that he will never forget...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 5 from season 6, directed by Jonas McCord this is a good fun episode although a little straight forward. The script by Shel Willens was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book which was also adapted as one of the five stories for the British made anthology film Tales from the Crypt (1972) in which it was called Blind Alleys (a much better title than Revenge Is the Nuts, don't you think?) & the two are actually very similar with the sadistic & cruel owner & operator of a home for the blind having the tables turned in a gruesome & horrific way involving a vicious dog & a slim corridor full of razor blades. While there's nothing really surprising or even that clever about Revenge Is the Nuts, it's just a simple 'just desserts' story after all, it does entertain & provide a bit of ghoulish fun if your in the right mood or like this sort of thing which I generally do.

This one is well shot with nice cinematography, there's a nice blue tone running through the episode. The annoying thing about a lot of these Tales from the Crypt episodes that are shown on telly is that you never know if they have been cut or not, here in Revenge Is the Nuts the screen fades to black very quickly at the end just as the dog is about attack Grunwald in the corridor of razors & since the show has been very gory in the past I just wonder if the version I saw was cut because otherwise there's no blood or gore here. There's a nice horror film atmosphere during this episode although they might have used the corridor of razors to better effect, musician Isaac Hayes appears as a foul mouthed resident & veteran actor Anthony Zerbe makes for a suitably slimy villain while the Cryptkeeper dresses as a French mime artist at the start for his opening scene.

Revenge Is the Nuts is a good solid Tales from the Crypt episode that I enjoyed, it's maybe not quite as good as the equivalent British 1970's Tales from the Crypt film adaptation of the same story but it's still well worth a watch.