Истории из крипты: Американские ужасы

American horror anthology television series

Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series created by William Gaines and Steven Dodd that ran for seven seasons on the premium cable channel HBO, from June 10, 1989, to July 19, 1996, with a total of 93 episodes. The show's title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name, published by William Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein. Most of the program's episodes are based on stories that originally appeared in that comic or other EC Comics of the time, The Haunt of Fear, The Vault of Horror, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, and Two Fisted Tales. The series is hosted by the Cryptkeeper, a wisecracking corpse performed by several puppeteers and voiced by John Kassir. Filmmakers Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis formed the show's team of executive producers. Because it was aired on HBO, a premium cable television channel, Tales from the Crypt did not have to be censored by the standards and practices of most networks. As a result, HBO allowed the series to include content that had not appeared in most television series up to that time, such as graphic violence, profanity, sexual activity, and nudity. Reruns of the series were still subsequently edited for basic cable, broadcast syndication, and when the broadcast networks Fox and CBS re aired episodes in the late 1990s. While the series began production in the United States, the final season was primarily filmed in the UK, resulting in episodes revolving around British characters.

Each episode begins with a tracking shot leading to the front door of the decrepit mansion of the Cryptkeeper, the show's host. Once inside, the camera tilts down from the foyer to the hallways and stairways, finally descending into the basement. The Cryptkeeper then comes out from his coffin, cackling wildly; green slime pours down over the screen as the main title appears. The Cryptkeeper is depicted as an animated corpse, as opposed to the original comics in which he was a living human being. The wisecracking Cryptkeeper (performed by a team of puppeteers such as Van Snowden, Mike Elizalde, Frank Charles Lutkus, Patty Maloney, David Arthur Nelson, Anton Rupprecht, Shaun Smith, David Stinnent, Mike Trcic, and Brock Winkless, and voiced by John Kassir) would then introduce the episode with intentionally stereotyped jokes and mostly puns, e. g., his frequent greeting to viewers: "Hello, Boils and Ghouls" or "Hello, Kiddies". Each episode was self contained, and was bookended by an outro sequence, again involving the Cryptkeeper. Comic book cover art was created by Mike Vosburg and Shawn McManus.

The success of the series led Universal Pictures to make a three picture deal with the Crypt Partners to produce three Crypt branded feature films.

The first Crypt branded feature was Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight (1995). Directed by Ernest Dickerson from a screenplay by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Vorhis and Mark Bishop, it became a commercial success. Three weeks before starting prep on Demon Knight intended follow up a psychological thriller called Dead Easy Universal changed its mind, canceled Dead Easy and had the creative team make Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood instead. The film Ritual (2002) was not produced as a Tales from the Crypt film, but is considered to be a third entry in the Tales series.

Reruns aired on Fox from 1994 to 1995 under the name Primetime Tales from the Crypt; episodes also aired in 1994 in a late night time slot. It aired late night on CBS in 1997–1998. It also aired on other channels, such as Syfy, Chiller, and Fearnet. In the United Kingdom, the series aired Fridays on ITV. Sky1 Satellite and cable channel Horror Channel (then Zone Horror) aired the series in both late night and daytime slots. The daytime versions were billed as "cut"; however, they remained uncut. Tales from the Crypt is not available on HBO’s streaming service Max reportedly due to licensing issues. It was also unavailable on HBO Go and HBO Now for the same reason.

In July 2011, it was announced that Gilbert Adler, who produced the original series, was working with Andrew Cosby to develop a new Tales from the Crypt series. It was said to be a continuous story, rather than an anthology, and would also omit The Cryptkeeper. The series was unsuccessfully shopped to several major networks. In January 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that M. Night Shyamalan would helm a series reboot as part of TNT's new two hour horror block. The network ordered a 10 episode season that was slated for fall 2017. The series was to keep the episodic anthology format, but without The Cryptkeeper. In June 2017, it was announced that TNT would not move forward with the series due to legal issues concerning the rights for the characters from Tales from the Crypt Holdings.