Tales from the Crypt: SE 2 EP 14: “Lower Berth” – 6
Director – Kevin Yagher
Cast – Lewis Arquette, Stefan Gierasch, Mark Rolston, Jeff Yagher, John Kassir, Alexandra Prager
Release Year – 1990
Reviewed by John of the Dead
“Lower Berth” is a very unique episode because it goes into the inception of our favorite scream king, The Crypt Keeper. Enoch, a two-faced man, is an attraction at a traveling sideshow. When his handler teams him up with a 2,000 year old mummy, Enoch falls in love and their consummation results in none other than the Crypt Keeper himself.
This silly story comes from Fred Dekker, who is the man behind House, Night of the Creeps, The Monster Squad, and the best episode of the series’ first season, “And All Through The House”. He keeps things extremely simple and takes his time developing, which is a big reason behind the episode not achieving a higher rating. The story is a good one, but with less than 30 minutes to do your work we don’t see enough exciting elements until the very end of the piece. I was hoping to see a little Crypt Keeper running around and causing havoc, but that was not the case and I found it a bummer. Longtime effects guru Kevin Yagher directs this piece, and he does a good job of bringing out Dekker’s story. We are shown a compassionate Enoch living in an uncompassionate world, so when he finally finds love he finds purpose and we are left to feel for him. There is little in terms of gore and kills (more the story’s fault), but the effects used are good – as I would expect from a film directed by an FX veteran.
Overall, “Lower Berth” is cool because it shows the inception of The Crypt Keeper, but what could have been a truly epic story never happened.
Rating: 6/10
