Tales from the Crypt: The Man Who Was Death starts as local state executioner Niles Talbot (William Sadler) sees himself fired from his job when the state legislator withdraws the death penalty for prisoners, out of a job but still on the look out for work Niles decides to clean the streets up himself...
This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 1 from season 1 & The Man Who Was Death is pretty much where this black comedy/horror show started back on the 10th June during 1989, directed by one of the show's regular executive producers Walter Hill I thought it was an OK way to pass 30 odd minutes but luckily there was much better to come over the next 93 stories. The script by Hill & Robert Reneau isn't much to get excited about, in fact I thought it was a fairly routine & somewhat predictable time-waster that didn't have a particularly strong twist at the end & just wasn't macabre enough. It's not without one or two merits, there's some mildly amusing monologues by Sadler's character & it moves along at a decent pace, but I don't rate this episode very highly overall & the best thing about it was the opening & closing Crypt Keepr (John Kassir) segments which in one he reminisces about some fly's childhood & how they used to be cute little maggot's.
There's no gore in this one although some people are electrocuted, the nudity count is much higher with a shower/jacuzzi scene & a sequence set in a strip club. The acting was OK with Sadler standing out as he puts in a good performance, he would later go on to appear in another Tales from the Crypt episode called The Assassin (1994) & also make further appearances in the two spin-off Tales from the Crypt films Demon Knight (1995) & Bordello of Blood (1996).
The Man Who Was Death is OK, I can't say I liked it that much but at the same time I didn't hate it. Personally I reckon there are better tales from the crypt out there...
This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 1 from season 1 & The Man Who Was Death is pretty much where this black comedy/horror show started back on the 10th June during 1989, directed by one of the show's regular executive producers Walter Hill I thought it was an OK way to pass 30 odd minutes but luckily there was much better to come over the next 93 stories. The script by Hill & Robert Reneau isn't much to get excited about, in fact I thought it was a fairly routine & somewhat predictable time-waster that didn't have a particularly strong twist at the end & just wasn't macabre enough. It's not without one or two merits, there's some mildly amusing monologues by Sadler's character & it moves along at a decent pace, but I don't rate this episode very highly overall & the best thing about it was the opening & closing Crypt Keepr (John Kassir) segments which in one he reminisces about some fly's childhood & how they used to be cute little maggot's.
There's no gore in this one although some people are electrocuted, the nudity count is much higher with a shower/jacuzzi scene & a sequence set in a strip club. The acting was OK with Sadler standing out as he puts in a good performance, he would later go on to appear in another Tales from the Crypt episode called The Assassin (1994) & also make further appearances in the two spin-off Tales from the Crypt films Demon Knight (1995) & Bordello of Blood (1996).
The Man Who Was Death is OK, I can't say I liked it that much but at the same time I didn't hate it. Personally I reckon there are better tales from the crypt out there...