After braining her husband Joseph Christmas Eve with a fireplace poker, Elizabeth (MARY ELLEN TRAINOR) shoos her Santa-obsessed daughter Carrie Ann off to bed, and sets out to dispose of his body in a snow-covered well. While struggling with the hubby's corpse, Elizabeth encounters an axe-wielding, insane asylum escapee (LARRY DRAKE of DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW fame) dressed in full Santa Claus regalia. With a swift kick to his holiday package, Elizabeth successfully fends off the lunatic, and a suspenseful cat-and-mouse game of naughty-versus-not-so-nice proportions ensues. Directed by ROBERT ZEMECKIS (the then-husband of Ms. TRAINOR), this half-hour episode of the late ‘80s HBO horror staple is a remake of the JOAN COLLINS vignette featured in the 1972 flick TALES FROM THE CRYPT. Although COLLINS leaves some pretty big pumps to fill, TRAINOR earns a well-deserved spot on Santa's shitlist.
INDELIBLE SCENE(S):
- Elizabeth gives her husband the poker
- Insane Santa climbing the ladder to Carrie Ann's window
- The Crypt Keeper dressed as Saint Nick (in a word, adorable!)
Larry Drake was so much scarier than the one in the Amicus British "Tales from the Crypt"
This episode made me fall in love with the series. Later it kinda digressed to weekly comeuppance tales that you could see coming from a mile away, but I guess thats in line with the original comics and the actual appeal, morality tales where people get exactly what's coming to them. I just saw season 7 has a young DANIEL CRAIG in it and I had no idea that he's been around that long.