HO-HO-HORROR FOR THE HOLIDAYS: "And All Through The House" : Tales From the Crypt Season 1, Ep 2 (1989)

Running Time: 22 minutes

Release Date: June 10, 1989

Review by: Stacey

In keeping with the season of killer Santas, I'm bringing you a favorite of many with an episode from season one of Tales From The Crypt.  Yes, I'm talking about "And All Through The House".  Every person I have talked to has made it a point to tell me how much they love this episode, and surprisingly enough, I hadn't seen it yet!  Now I understand what everyone was talking about!



Directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Fred Dekker, "And All Through The House" is total holiday insanity.  The almost 2 min. long intro is basically the only downtime you'll get before you're immediately thrown into this fucked up story of macabre poetic justice.  In a shitty attempt to collect life insurance, a wife (Mary Ellen Trainor) decides to do away with her husband (Marshall Bell) via fireplace poker right to the head.

Fast forward through what could have been a whole horror film as the wife finds herself running all over her house trying to not get murdered by an axe-wielding, escaped lunatic dressed as Santa Claus (Larry Drake) while trying to bury the body of her husband.  Oh, and she has a super annoying daughter that pretty much fucks everything up.

Naturally, Larry Drake (Dr. Giggles) gave a creepy ass performance alongside Trainor's constant ear-splitting shrieking.  He's almost comical but still frightening in many of the pivotal scenes, especially the final one when he speaks his only line in the episode.  This isn't the scariest episode from Tales from the Crypt, nor is it the best, but it's fun and humorous and brings the right amount of creepiness to your holidays.

The moral of the story is a familiar one:  don't be an murderous, greedy doucebag or a psycho killer will murder you back.


2/5 horrible Christmas puns

 

I'm not posting a trailer because they don't have one, and because you can basically find the entire episode online.