Horrors from the Vault – Confession

This transcript was generated automatically from the episode audio. It may contain errors and does not label speakers.

0:05 Boils and ghouls, it’s time to gather round us horrifying Hunter, petrified Preston, and Devilish Dan crack open another volume of Tales from the Crypt. This is Horrors from the Vault. Welcome, kiddies, to Horrors from the Vault. My name is Horrifying Hunter, and I’ll be one of the three shadowy figures leading you into the dark and haunted corridors of this very vault. Tonight, we’re cracking open the 11th tome of the final season of Tales from the Crypt with Confession, an episode all about how you can’t trust the police. But before we venture fully into the vault, let me introduce you to my co-host.

1:37 Appalling Ash. After a few weeks away, we’re back to finish up the series. And we are like right in the middle of spooky season right now. So obviously, the three of us are big physical media collectors. Are there any recent must-buys that people need to go ahead and pick up for their Halloween season viewing this year? Fantastic question. Yes, I am a big physical media collector. What have I got delivered recently? Um what did I get? I’ve got some come in, I’ve got Hell’s Highway coming. Um okay, okay, and I’ve got not a lot of horror or horror adjacent, to be honest. I’ve got Um Masters of the Universe coming. I’m just looking at my pre-orders right now. I mean that can be kind of scary at point. That’s kinda kind of scary. Um I have a skeleton head in it. Man with a skeleton head. Yeah. What else have I got? I’m just flicking through now. I’ve got 12 angry men coming. Criterions. I mean, that’s all about racial prejudice. So that could be pretty scary, depending on how weird you want to get with your horror viewing. Yeah. So no, no real side of kind of maybe horror adjacent, but no real horror releases come in. I have very, very strict rules, just going off on a tangent here, when you can watch certain

2:52 Horror movies, like if you if you do you do your spooky vo viewing now, right, you can’t be watching. Halloween, like 78 version, it’s September 12th. You know what I mean? So I have like strict rules on when. can watch things so that’s about the extent of my spooky viewing so far. I get that. I actually, you know, I popped in. It’s an older release. I’m pretty sure everybody listening to this has it. But just in case you don’t own it, I still think Arrow’s presentation of the 4K of an American Werewolf in London is stellar. Popped that in last night, had a blast with it. Watched Scream Factory’s Night of the Creeps on 4K. My first time watching that particular disc. Had a really good time. I think I’m going to pop in the blob soon from Scream Factory. But I asked within the last year, and I’m going to give you an easy one, Ash. I think us three, including Petrified Preston and Dan, I don’t know if you picked this one up or not. We were very impressed with the 4K of Casper 1995 last year. Yes, I did pick that up. I Very, very impressed with the uh

3:55 The upscaling on that one for sure. Yeah, so Casper is definitely one of my newer favourites. I’ve had it for about a year now. You mentioned American Werewolf in London. The Arrow disc is fantastic. And they are releasing a steelbox zoom too, right? Maybe. Maybe. If I own it, I don’t care about the steelbook. So I let other people have the steelbook fun. But yeah, what about you, Devilish Dan? Anything recent that you’ve picked up for this season’s Halloween viewing? Well, I believe I have your old copy of American Werewolf in London, the Arrow Edition, the Blu-ray. Yes, you have the box set version. Yes. So thank you for that. But so far this season, Hokum came out, which is great Halloween viewing. There is some fantastic set dressings and Crazy little turnip heads, pumpkins in there in a haunted hotel. So check out Hokum, everyone, if you haven’t already. It’s pretty great. I bought a two-pack off of Vinegar Syndrome. It’s on sale. It is still available. It’s Hayride to Hell and Halloween Feast featuring Bill Mosley and Kane Hodder. I haven’t seen either of these movies, they look like absolute shit.

5:10 But they look like they’re going to be a lot of fun, at the very least, some good Halloween viewing. Um, and of course, I would be remiss to mention if anyone out there has not picked up Trick or Treat with Reed Richmond. Uh, it is a spin-off of the WNUF Halloween special and it’s still available on uh bigcartel.com. Uh, wnuf. Bigcartel.com. Uh, you get a free zine with it, so check that out. It’s cool. It is a DVD, but. Okay. Whatever, you don’t really need this on 4K. But it’s a lot of fun. If you like WNUF, check that out. That’s what they I was like, you know what? I am perfectly fine with my copy of Out There, the Halloween special. And then they’re like, nope, we’re going to throw that on Blu-ray too. And I’m like, God damn it. So now I own all the copies of it. But yes, trick or treat with Reed Richmond. It’s a little bit of a smaller production, right? Yeah, smaller. It’s shorter. I think it’s only like maybe an hour, hour 15. But it’s made to look like instead of an old news broadcast, this one’s more of like a Discovery Channel Halloween special.

6:19 Which is super cool. Love it. Love it. As far as upcoming releases that I’m really eyeing, I’m sure you guys have seen this, but the Warner Archive is putting out with Hammer Horror a massive celebration box set of Christopher Lee’s Dracula. And from everything I’ve read, it’s going to be a bit pricey if you want the premium edition. You know, this is like a, I think, a six or an eight disc set, one of the two. There is going to be a smaller two disc set. That’s released as well, which is about the$35 range. But if you want the big guy with a 200-page book, the six discs, all the extra content, I think it’s like an$85 kit. But they have actually recovered some of the most infamous lost Hammer Horror film footage for this release. It’s a full restoration and it looks like it’s going to be beautiful. That is. Your Halloween treat yourself. If you love those old school hammer horror flicks, I think you should probably get your eyes on. 35 bucks not bad for that either for the two disc. I don’t think the other one’s too bad either. I’ve seen what you get with the more expensive one. And I think if it’s around the$80,$85 mark, I think that’s a pretty fair price. Yeah, for sure. It’s a big, thick, chunky boy, second sight-esque kind of thick boy. But yeah, it looks like it’s going to be a.

7:37 Hell of a release. I feel like I need to revisit Dracula before plopping the cash down because it has been a few years, but it is a classic for a reason. And it’s the one when you say Christopher Lee, it’s you think of Dracula and you think of Lord of the Rings. I feel like midsummer, or not midsummer, Wickerman. Come on. That’s what I think of. Of course. Of course. course. But as far as the big two, I feel like those are the representative ones. There’s no Wicker Man action figures like there is Count Dooku. No, but if you are looking for a good 4K disc, the Studio Canal release of The Wicker Man is stellar. It’s yeah. Season seven, episode 11, 7-Eleven aired on July 5th of 1996. So, a day after stuffing yourself full of hot dogs and beer and all sorts of glizzy fun, you got a uh well, let’s not spoil it, let’s talk about confession, but before we can talk about the episode itself. Ash, let’s go visit you at the House of Horror as we talk about this week’s comic book inspiration.

8:49 All right, we are going back to August of 1952 for Shock SuspenStories, issue number four. Now This is my favorite. I don’t know what you guys thought about this, but this was my favorite comic. Or comic original comic story that we’ve had so far ever. I absolutely loved it. I loved. I mean, the title confession is very deliberately ironic here. I love how layered it is with like the overall message. Um it is a different story so i’ll kind of get into it so you know firstly Daley murdered his wife, so that’s like the obvious crime there. But setting up like a full guy and almost manufacturing. Criminal is like the other crime that’s going on as well. And for a mainstream comic in 1952 to cover like And how Powerful people in power can be. It was a massive swing here to attempt this in 1952. Um You know, the character Arthur in it is, you know, he’s not beaten up because they have evidence. He’s beaten up until they have.

9:52 Some evidence. So I thought it was very late. I thought the story, the pace of the story was really, really good. And it goes beyond just the story of like a crooked cop, especially for the time as well. So I love this story overall. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Yeah, I thought the Kafka-esque elements were done very well and completely missing from the episode, uh which on a second viewing I was like, oh man, uh there’s some stuff in the comic that you guys totally could have put in there, but you just completely skipped over it. But I do think, like you were saying, Ash, this is probably one of the most memorable comic book issues that we’ve read in a little while. And when we talk about adaptation, sometimes we look at these things and it’s like, wow, you really kind of inspired by title alone. And sometimes not even that. With this, it was definitely taking the seeds of the story there and then updating it for the modern Tales from the Crypt formula. And for those reasons, I can respect it. I really enjoyed the comic book for that. For more examples of that first time, check out next week’s episode. There is a whole trivia entry about next week’s episode. So yeah, we’ll get into it. But yeah, good little read. Definitely recommend if you’ve been slacking on your reading, go check this one out. Yeah, for sure.

11:08 Dan, let’s talk about the creative team involved as we hit this week’s top billing. Yeah, nothing big for the writer this week, just Scott and Farrow again. But our director Peter Hewitt, he directed Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey and Garfield the 2004 version. But he has 2002’s Thunderpants, which he also wrote in the number one spot on his IMDb page. Which is apparently about a boy, an 11-year-old boy, whose ability to break wind leads him first to fame and then to death row. before it helps him fulfill his ambition of becoming an astronaut. BOICE. Are you a Thunderpants fans among you? I just figured if anybody was going to watch this for this week’s episode, it would be you, Dan. You’ve got that Tubi time. So I checked Tubi. Unfortunately, it does not appear to be streaming for free anywhere currently in the US. Yeah. So I’m going to be on the lookout for a Thunderpants DVD at all my local re uh sellers.

12:10 You are going to have to pirate this. I am pretty sure. Yeah. I’m looking at the cast list. We have Paul Giamatti’s in it, Stephen Fry, Ned Beatty, Rupert Grint’s in it. Like. This is a big deal. We need to make sure more people are aware of Thunderpants. I’m afraid of watching it because it might be a new fear for me. If farting leads you to death row, then I’m definitely getting convicted of that. Oh, Rupert Grint is the starring child actor in this. So there you go. I didn’t even get that far in. It literally says underneath on the poster featuring Rupert Grint from the Harry Potter series. So there you go. Farting up his pants. It looks like maybe he no, he is actually he is not the fart boy. He is the best friend of the fart boy. Yeah, he’s like the best friend scientist kind of guy, isn’t he? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it’s like Harry Potter with gas, right? Right. I’m actually looking into this. Fart boy is Bruce Cook. And he did three movies in a span of about one year, and that’s all he ever did. So there you go. What are the other two movies? Anything good? The other movies that Mr. Bruce Cook did was Wondrous Oblivion and Nicholas Nickleby. Oh, yeah, I know Nicholas Nickleby. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I’m what who is that Heath Ledger?

13:34 No. He’s another pretty boy, but it’s Charlie Hunnam. Yeah, Charlie Hunnam from Motor Motorcycle Show. Sons of Anarchy. Yeah. Go Green Street. Hooligans, football soccer hooligans. You’ve seen that movie with Elijah Wood in it? I’m not British. Yeah, you gotta see it. Actually, you know what? I think I did see that now that I’m thinking about it. Frodo in it. Well, there are six point four um Thousand reviews of Thunderpants on IMDb. And one of the top ones is an eight-star review. It leads with the title Severely Misunderstood. So maybe. I think I do need to see this because I feel that’s easy to understand. I uh this other one says good clean fun. I enjoyed this film and so did my children. I can’t see why anyone would consider this to be a poor film. It’s only meant to be a bit of fun. Unlike his pants, they’re good, clean, fun. It’s like that video. Have you guys ever read the unhinged Amazon DVD reviews for the Adam Sandler movie Click? Oh, not that one. Yeah, you should read the reviews of Click. People get really emotional talking about that movie. That movie made me cry, no lie.

14:49 Click has its moment. It is a modern, what is it? It’s a modern, it’s a wonderful life, you know? Except for he there’s no rewind, like he fast forwards through his whole life. That’s terrifying. It’s so sad. There’s fat people, there’s fat kids, there’s dogs humping ducks. It’s a have we spent too much time on Thunderpants at this point? Because I can read some trivia that says the movie did so poorly in the UK, it went for a straight to DVD release five years later in the United States. So you’re telling me there’s DVD copies out? I’m telling you, if you dig far enough into the$5 bin at your Walmart, you might be able to find it. That’s where all the Thunderpants are. Here we go. Unfortunately, you know who’s not in Thunderpants, guys? Ciarán Hinds as Jack Lynch. He’s provided voices in Frozen and Frozen 2, and he also played Mance Rayder in five episodes of Game of Thrones. And he was Finn McGovern in Road to Perdition, Sam Daily in The Woman in Black, Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth in Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows part.

15:56 So another Harry Potter connection there and Fletcher in There Will Be Blood. Then we got Alun Armstrong as Inspector Herbert. Just a few genre roles for Alan. St. Peter and Danny Boyle’s Millions, which I’ve mentioned a few times before. The Mummy Returns as Mr. Hafez. parole, which we always like to talk about, and a constable in Sleepy Hollow, the Timber. But really, the main person this week is British. He’s gender fluid, a comedian, actor, activist, and a politician. All these are more than apt descriptions of Mr. or Miss, depending on their mood that day. Eddie slash Suzy Izzard as Evans. Mostly known for their unique stage presence and style during their stand-up act, Eddie has also parlayed that into successful acting career in such parts as Roman in the Oceans trilogy, Tony and Mystery Men, three different voices in one episode of The Simpsons. Pretty impressive there. They’ve even had another Harry Potter actor having voiced Voldemort in the Lego Batman.

17:01 And they’ve also run several campaigns for the British Labour Party. Speaking of running, they have completed a lot of marathons for charitable organizations, including 27 marathons in 27 days to honor Nelson Mandela. Folks, I don’t even know how you do that. That sounds like your body would just break. But of course We can’t say that we fully talked about Eddie Izzard without talking about their sexuality and gender fluidity. And for that, I will just quote them by saying: It doesn’t matter what sex or sexuality, how you identify, or who you fancy, it matters not one whit what you do in life. What you create, what you do to add to the human existence That is what matters. Thank you very much. Yeah. That’s good stuff, man. Very good. For some reason, I was very convinced that we had seen Eddie Izzard in another role, and I was completely mistaken on that. I believe no voice either. Yeah, not a voice either as far as I’m aware.

18:01 I realized after thinking that I was confusing him with Adam Ant, who we had seen previously. In the library one, yeah. Yeah, in the library one. I don’t even know. Maybe that if you squint, they got similar enough faces, but besides that, no, not really. I was just confusing my English people, unfortunately. Yeah. Ash, you don’t like to confuse British people. Do you have anything to say about Eddie Izzard? As a as a resident Brit. I think just growing up, Eddie Izzard was always like on TV at some point, you know, British royalty. Just uh She’s a good person. Um, the 27 marathons, I remember that like clear as day, them doing that, and um, yeah, just a Good comedian, good person. Yep. I had to look that up because that was on their Wikipedia and I was like, that can’t be right. And I thought, oh, that was true. Yeah, that’s crazy. Like, that’s what’s that? 23 miles. And well, well, a marathon is 26.2. So maybe they round it up to 27. I don’t, I don’t know the significant. Is Nelson Mandela significant 27? I don’t know. I don’t know the. Than the significance of the 27. Yeah, I don’t know. I’m not familiar with Nelson Mandela, except for some people think he died in prison, and that means they’re in a different universe.

19:12 That’ll do it. Yep. But that’s all we got for this week, ending with Eddie Izzard. All right, well, let’s take a quick stop at the doctor as we hit this week’s opening cryptkeeper segment, which is him doing exactly that. We are getting our optometrist reading from the cryptkeeper, and he basically tells us that we are completely fried from watching too much Tales from the Crypt. So he’s gonna diagno or he’s going to prescribe us, what is it, cohective lenses, which is pretty great. But yeah, stupid Cryptkeeper fun. Really, I mean, it’s not a standout bit, but for this late in the season, eh, it’s decent enough. It’s kind of a weird fourth wall break. Like you don’t talk, you don’t hear him talking about being on a TV show that often. You can tell he knows it, but like he doesn’t reference it too often. Well, it kind of fits with this week’s episode, man. And if you want to see more of that, Dan, make sure to tune in for the finale episode because it’s only going to get weirder from here. So, yeah. Yeah.

20:18 Second. Television Terror, the episode itself. Chopped heads, horror writers, and strippers come together to form tonight’s tale, with a popular horror writer being the prime suspect. The police call in Jack Lynch, the highest-regarded homicide detective in all of England. A complete smarmy asshole, but he’s damn good at his job, and that’s possibly due to his insistence on carrying a bowling ball around at all times. Jack is there to interrogate Mr. Warhol Evans, the aforementioned horror screenwriter who insists that Jack will soon be drinking a shit shake out of a crazy straw. After checking the internet movie database, which to hear that in an episode was like, oh boy, we are in the 90s at this point. They infer that as a writer for Tales from the Crypt, he must be a sick fuck. Not because of tails, but because exactly he is on IMDB. Primary means of tapping into Warhol’s psyche is by questioning his means of research, which is primarily gruesome and brutal entertainment like true crime, books, and pornography.

21:25 Jack insists that he knows Warhol is the murderer, and he’s going to get it out of him. Devilish Dan, you’ve been chomping at the bit to talk about this one for weeks. What did you think about confession? There’s some good back and forth cat and mouse that we’re gonna get to, but man, do I wish it wasn’t blatantly obvious who the killer was from the beginning. And I blame the fact that they have to have such a weird thing as a bowling ball bag, which just seems to be the perfect receptacle for a head. Um being carried around during the whole episode. It’s uh Yeah, I mean, that really says it. It it I is first viewing right off the bat, I’m like, well, that guy’s the killer and he’s in charge of getting the confession. Um So now we’re going to see if he can get it and he’s probably going to do it because it’s Tales from the Crypt Appalling Ash, what did you think about confession.

22:26 Dan absolutely nailed where I am with this episode. I think it has. such good elements in it and I feel we’re going to get into um What I thought was really, really good about the episode coming up soon. Um, but I thought the sort of you know, the setup was good. Um, the cat and mouse like Dan was talking about that we’re gonna get soon was really, really good. Um, But yeah, so predictable. Like you say, he’s carrying the bowling ball. bag around, which is a spherical bag, you know, and we’re looking for missed heads here. So It’s uh it’s just a little too on the nose, too early. I don’t mind if that comes up a little bit later on, maybe in you know act three, but just basically letting us know what’s going to happen right away was a little bit off putting. To your point, sorry, Hunter. It is a great cold open, though. Like, I really like the setup of three bodies with no heads. And oh, where’s the head going to be? But unfortunately, they answer that question pretty much right. Boys, I am so glad we’re all here tonight because there is an actual discussion to be had this evening. I think this is an excellent episode. I thought this was great. And the reason being is I completely understand what you guys are saying, but I think at the end of the day, this episode is less about the twist and how we know one party might be innocent.

23:45 The other person is clearly guilty and how are we going to navigate that? I am not necessarily bothered by the fact that we see pretty early on that something is wrong with Jack, because for me, the episode completely implies it. It doesn’t try to hide it through music swells and just context clues and everything that’s presented in front of us. The episode understands that we already know that Jack is guilty in some sort of sort. However, Is the character of Warhol also guilty? Is there some sort of collaboration there? Or are they on completely different path lines where ultimately Warhol is innocent, but Jack is the murderer? How does that all coalesce? How does that all come together? And I thought that there were so many great Moments and dialogue exchanges through this, not only from our leads, but from the rest of the police force, that I thought was great. And I love just the way that this story weaves in and out. I think it’s one of the tightest episodes of Tales from the Crypt that we’ve had in a long time. And I thought it was just a complete pleasure to watch this. Yeah, I agree with your sentiments completely.

24:59 Um that that is the only minor sort of Gripe, I had with the episode. I do love the fact as well, and I don’t want to get too far ahead that Jack. Jack almost had that war, you know, the smoking gun in his hand, like so many times, too. So you’re almost like contemplating, well, we kind of know it, Jack, but. You know, it’s I don’t know. He’s very guilty. It’s the way it fucks with you, to your point, Ash. Like, just to try to break it down, I think for both of us, it’s the way it fucks with you where you were like. I know this person should not be guilty, but I cannot shake the feeling that this person obviously is. And the episode is telling me that he is, but. He is so convinced of his righteousness. And you know, you were talking about the tying into abuse of power from the comic book story. Yeah, that is completely put on display here. And I think that’s great. And at the end of the day, when we get to the conclusion where Warhol is like, look, I can tell you what this is, but I know the case is closed. There is nothing I can do to turn this around.

26:04 It fully exemplifies that and I think it nails its messaging. Um I thought this was great, like I said. Interesting. Like, I see your points. Uh I still wish that uh There was that tension there. I guess they They’re presenting you with a different sort of tension. It’s more that old Hitchcock gem of like, you know, there’s a bomb under the table. So it’s the tension of knowing that and when it’s going to go off versus the surprise of being surprised that there’s a. bomb under the table. Um I guess I was good. I was just going to say, I almost feel like the surprise in this episode from my first time seeing it, Dan, was coming to the conclusion that Warhol is innocent. You know, he’s an innocent individual that is basically shackled to this faith, whether he deserves it or not. I thought they were building up to a conclusion where they were nailing him for another murder. And Jack was kind of using him as a cover. So ultimately, the fact that Jack is able to use this completely unrelated person, this innocent party who’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time as a framing device, I thought that was kind of the twist.

27:13 That’s interesting. So you thought they were going to he was going to be guilty of a murder, not necessarily this murder. So he’s still getting justice, but not. Also, someone’s getting away. That’s interesting. Not what we got, but yeah. Because at the end of the episode, he has that moment of breakdown. He’s like, look, this is why I was telling my lover to hide this bag. It was, it’s clearly something that I fuck with some weird shit, but it is all for research. He’s doing the Pete Townsend thing, right? It’s all for research. You know, I love my classic rock references. It’s all for research. And I don’t expect you to believe me, but. It’s just the odds are stacked against him and he knows he’s fucked. And I think just kind of that crushing realization that there’s nothing he can do to get out of it because the people in power have manhandled him to the point where he has nothing to do. I think that’s fascinating. I think it’s an episode that actually has something to say, and I respect the hell out of that. I dig that, yeah. Another officer asks Jack about how he’s so sure that Warhol is the murderer, but gets naturally curious with Jack’s bowling ball kink. This is great, Dan, because like you said, why does he carry around this bowling ball? And they even allude to it on another viewing. One of the officers in the very beginning of the episode, there’s this great kind of like noir police procedural.

28:37 French connection type thing where he shows up and he snatches the cup of coffee. Like they play into those tropes. He’s like, What’s with the bowling ball? And Jack goes off about this whole tangent about how sometimes it’s just really nice to have something underneath people in positions of powers like noses. And like that really seals the deal, which leads me to believe, again, the episode’s not trying to trick you, it tells you exactly what’s going on. Um But yeah, we here again, we see the music rise as we see the two men engaging in some ball play. There’s just some truly legendary ball touching in this scene. I’m getting all the comedy I can out of this. So Warhol is still attempting to evade arrest using his own psychoanalysis against Jack, claiming that, hey, it’s not even hard. But Jack isn’t having it, however, stacking the evidence against him. There’s a book of satanic murders that was recently purchased. There’s a flyer for the club where the body was found. But again, Warhol claims that these are all just for his writing. He needs to embed.

29:41 The killer to write the killer. Warhol begins to break down the murder, noting that specifically a policeman could have committed it, causing suspicion from everyone watching, with all eyes suddenly turning onto Jack. Warhol continues to say that a strong man possibly would have done this, noting the marks on the victim. Maybe a bowler by any chance? This ultimately culminates with him saying that he is convinced that Jack was the killer. In a rage, Warhol is escorted out for his final phone call, where he tells his lover to leave town and take his special bag with them. Unfortunately for Warhol, the phone is tapped. And that Begins the final process. So a lot happens there. But again, I think these scenes are so well acted. You have two performers that really bounce off of each other very well. And there’s something about, The matter of factness that I think Izzard in particular brings to the role, where you buy him. As this character, this very meticulous, well-researched person. And it’s a bit of that Sherlock Holmes bit of like, aha, like fun to the mystery that I love.

30:51 Yeah, this is the cat and mouse that I appreciate about the episode. Like, it’s the meat of the episode, which I’m glad that, you know, what I thought was kind of a failing didn’t ruin the big middle section here where they’re really going at each other, pushing back and forth. And you get to watch through the, you know, other policeman’s eyes kind of like. As they’re changing their mind, like, oh man, that that guy’s right. What if it was a policeman? Oh, they’re just throwing s suspicion back and forth. And I really like that. This part also made me realize that if Beth or I are ever accused of a crime, we’ll probably be convicted just from all the weird shit that we have in our house. This, yeah, to your point, Dan, I love this. This was my favorite scene in the whole episode where, and especially when Warhol puts it back onto Jack by basically saying, look how easy it is to pin this on somebody, and then goes through everything, what would pin it on Jack. I love this scene. It’s it’s good stuff, man. So back in the interrogation room, Jack lays the books against Warhol. Over 2,000 porno titles rented. He’s clearly a killer, or at least some sort of sick pervert. But the evidence stacks against him quickly. There’s been research on weapons, pipe bombs, silencers, sacrifices, all sorts of brutality.

32:12 And Jack breaks him down and reveals the final clue. He already has that special bag, which contains a head in a jar. Warhol comes clean, claiming that he bought the head at a freak show carnival. He realizes he’s backed against a wall. You know what? They have no weapon. They have no motive for this particular murder, but this is enough to send the man to prison, presumably for life. We don’t make it that far. But yeah, I love that scene too, where the two officers are talking to each other and they’re like, Jack is the best in the business. Like, he would never be wrong about any of this. He knows what he’s doing. And they just trust him at full face value instead of actually looking for the evidence. Again, no comment. If weird internet searches and pornography are going to convict me, we are in trouble out of there as well. Oh, gosh. I do like the idea that this might be another Tales from the Crypt Connected Universe where they bought the severed head from the same sideshow that the Crypt Keeper was born in.

33:16 Mm fun, fun. Jack arrives home that evening with his bowling bag and inside the ball cutout lays the actual victim’s head. Freshly cut and still dripping. He places it next to the other beheaded victims and enjoys a cold brew for all of his hard work. And after all, it’s all in a day’s work for England’s finest. Do you think he bowls with the head in the ball? Yeah. I don’t think so, but I think it’s literally just a topper. You don’t think he bowls at all or do you think he’s he does bowl? That’s just I think he does bowl, but it is uh I think it’s shown that it’s literally just the top of a a ball that screws off, right? Yeah. Because that’s why he was so nervous of the other officer lifting it up out of the bag because there’s not an actual ball. God see, I thought it was like a ball that contained a head that, you know. carry it around, I guess. But yeah, you’re saying it’s just the top. Just the top. Just the tip of the bowling ball. Just the tip of the bowling.

34:18 Yeah. Any other thoughts, reconsiderations, anything else that you want to say about confession before we get into the closing cryptkeeper moment? Yeah, I mean, it’s a pretty straightforward episode. I think we covered all the high points. There are some good comedic elements. Hunter, you covered the one where he just suck a shit shake out of a crazy straw, and he says, I look for it. Forward to it. And they also make like a little cheeky pawn at the beginning where it’s a headless girl in the topless club. I kind of dug that. So there’s some humor to the episode too. It’s not as dour as everyone kind of would think by listening to us talk about it. Right. And specifically, you know, it was kind of something we flew by, but Lynch does mention that Warhol, or excuse me, Jack mentions that Warhol, I don’t know why I was going to swap over to last names, but Jack mentions that Warhol was writing for something called Tales from the Crypt and they call it ancient history. It’s been canceled now, which is.

35:20 Pretty great because, you know, obviously we are at the end of the series. So pretty fun stuff there. Yep. That good fourth wall break, just like in the intro. Closing Cryptkeeper moment. I mean, the most memorable part of this is the severed eyeballs. I don’t know about you guys. I feel like we’ve talked about it before. Usually pretty good with trauma. Eyeball stuff grosses me out. Teeth. I don’t like the teeth. Oh. You haven’t seen the new Insidious, right? There’s some good teeth trauma in that. That’s what Andy was saying. He said it’s just like: if you got a, if you got a dentist thing, Insidious might be tough for you. Agreed. Great. Alright, let’s go ahead pay it. Let’s go ahead and pay our last respects and give our severed thumb ranking. Ooh, I don’t know. I feel like I’ve done a lot of talking. Should I start or should I conclude? Uh I don’t want to go first. I don’t care if you start a bunch of things. I can go first if you want. Alright, going ahead, Ash.

36:21 All right. Um, thoroughly enjoyed this episode. I did have my little nitpicks, uh, around it being a little bit, you know, too obvious, a little bit too early was my only real gripe with it. But I thought the performances in there were really, really good. I love the cat and mouse element. I thought the setup was good. Um I was at a four? But just because I felt if it if it was a little bit later where we would have got you know certain twists so we you know found out Sort of ending a little bit later, maybe third act, it would have maintained a format. I’m going with a 3.5. Alright. I mean, I’ll go next’cause I’m pretty much gonna copy Ash with a slight reversal. Uh I I was also I mean, pretty much copy everything he said. You know, good good cat and mouse, great performances, wish it wasn’t ruined so early or obvious so obvious so early about Who was the actual murder? Which there was a little bit of a question mark there. But I was at a three, and then after discussing it here, I discovered maybe I am a little harsh on it. So I’m also going to go 3.5.

37:28 It’s always tough because you go back and you’re like, what are some of the great seasons of Tales from the Crypt that we also gave those episodes three to? You know, so it’s uh You know, I always put that in mind. But as you guys might have told, I really enjoyed this episode. I’m actually going to give this four separate thumbs. I really don’t think I have to explain it anymore. I’ve laid out my reasoning. I just think this is the most. Enjoyment that I’ve got out of Tales from the Crypt in a minute. And I do kind of wish that this was the finale episode. I think it would have really kind of tied things full circle with the it’s canceled now and this is the last episode. I think it’s also just got a nice little The comic book, you know, gruesome nature to it that I really like. I think it ties back into the EC Comics roots. And yeah, I feel like I might even give this a 4.5 if it closed things out. But I really enjoyed this. And you know what? Another thing, we often talk about other episodes, there’s like plot holes or we feel like certain things were missing. I thought this was a perfectly paced and well linked episode.

38:32 I agree on the pacing, yeah. It is a very well-paced episode. It doesn’t ever, you know, stutter or stop where it shouldn’t. It just keeps barrel barreling forward. I thought you were going to go a little higher. I thought you were going to go to a 4.5. Same here. I again, it just comes down to I’ve rated some absolute classics that I adore a 4.5 and I don’t think it’s quite up there, but I feel very comfortable considering this one of my great episodes of Tales from the Crypt, especially as we’ve gotten into this later, you know, couple seasons here. That’s good. Yeah, fair. Good episode. Good stuff. What a surprise. All right, well, we want to thank you all for tuning in to Horrors from the Vault. If you’ve made it this far, A lot of you have been joining us because of Shudder and Tubi’s resurrection of the series. Guys, I didn’t send the numbers, but our listenership, again, they’re probably listening to the really early seasons because that’s what’s available. Our listenership went up something like 90% in the last month. So people are finding the series.

39:34 And it’s awesome that this is going to stand as an archive because, not to be old men, but when we started this, it was illegal daily motion uploads and DVD box sets. So, like the fact that it’s accessible and people are coming across it, if you’ve made it this far or if you’ve been listening this whole time, we are so grateful to have you. It’s been such a fun project. And as we wind down, we still got a couple more things to do, but thank you for being here with us. The fact that all of your favorite episodes have probably been talked about at some point, that’s awesome. Hopefully, you’re enjoying those. Devilish Dan, obviously, the Instagram is about to go into the cemetery forever, most likely. But if people do want to reach out to us and talk to us about episodes that we recorded three years ago where I’ve completely forgot where I’ve said it, where can people do that? Yeah, man. I mean, Horrors from the Vault is available on all your favorite socials, mostly just Twitter and Instagram, but also Blue Sky, and that’s at HorrorVaultPod. You may as well follow us because

40:38 Listen, if you know me, I don’t, I run that shit and I don’t overly spam people. I don’t put a bunch of memes and bullshit up. If I’m gonna post, there’s an important reason I’m posting. So even if you made it this far and the show is far from or far past its life cycle, um You know what? You never know when there’s a new Tales from the Crypt news popping up. So just give us a follow and make sure to stay in touch. The fact that our viewership is up has me excited because if it’s available on Shudder and Tubi, it looks like it’s also going to be airing on AMC this fall. They did a Advertisement for their fright fest and the crypt keeper was featured in that. So odds are it’ll be airing and people will be getting some eyes on it that that way, which is very exciting. Uh and then as far as I am concerned, uh you can follow me at Red Right Dan. I had a absolute shit Time of a fall last year. So I’m going to be a humpty-dumpty motherfucker, and I’m going to have a great fall. And you can follow that along at Red Right Dan.

41:46 Awesome. Awesome. Glad to hear it. We’re all in periods of recovery. So we’re doing the best we can. Appalling Ash, obviously, you are going nuts over at HHN right now, but if people are People might want to go check you out over on a newer show that you guys have got started. Why don’t you tell us all about it? Yeah, so we are at Stay and Scream Podcast. You can find us on pretty much everything, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all that good stuff. Yeah, we had a we had a long time pod for a while that kind of Disbanded. Won’t get too much into it, but we are on a new Sort of a new show now, and it’s doing pretty well. So, yeah. And if you want to follow me personally, it’s AshMB13 on all the socials. Awesome, awesome. And I’m a lot quieter right now. I have been in a period of transition, all for good reasons. Well, not all for good reasons, but we’re making the most of it. So thanks for bearing with us as we got the show back on track. This episode is going right up alongside the other episode that we recorded last month. And then we have.

42:54 Two other episodes to round out the series that will go up shortly thereafter. So thank you for bearing with us. If you want to keep up with me in the meantime, you can find me on Letterboxd at Discount Vincent Price. I wanna thank you all again for tuning in. We’ll catch you next time. And until then, Cryptkeeper, put down that bowling ball and pick up that base. [Music]