"Tales from the Crypt" House of Horror (TV Episode 1993) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
8 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
7/10
Geeks and Ghouls win in the end.
blanbrn11 November 2006
"House of Horror" a nice funny crypt episode with a good twist ending makes it one of the better season 5 episodes. The story centers around a college pledge fraternity that's ruled by mean spirited leaders who try to groom geeks into the fold. I must say Kevin Dillion does a very good job as a mean pledge master who issues a challenge to all wanna be's you must face an initiation in a spooky house! I guess many people can relate to this because if your viewed as different by the majority, then you suffer until you accept the rules till you become one of them by showing that your cool. Only as you know by now with the E.C. comic tradition, those who are cruel to people have it haunt them back in the end! As it occurs in this haunted house, the mighty Greek leader takes a turn for the worse welcome for an initiation for ghouls! Again good, comical funny episode with a good twist.
8 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Funny lightweight episode
Woodyanders13 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Three college fraternity pledges have to endure an initiation hazing in a spooky old house where several murders reportedly took place many years ago. Writer/director Bob Gale relates the entertaining story at a brisk pace, offers a few nice bits of gore and an amusing sense of sharp humor, and delivers a real doozy of a genuinely neat and surprising twist at the very end. The excellent acting from the bang-up cast helps a whole lot: Kevin Dillon dominates the proceedings with his terrifically nasty portrayal of sadistic pledge master Les Wilton, Will Wheaton is quite likable as the sweet and soft-spoken Arling, the gorgeous Meredith Salenger contributes a memorably sexy performance as foxy and flirtatious sorority babe Mona, plus there's sturdy work from Michael DeLuise as bumbling electronics whiz Sparks, Brian Krause as smooth fraternity president Tex Crandell, Jason London as the nerdy Henderson, Courtney Gains as an amiable frat boy, and Keith Coogan as the gutsy Waters. The rundown abode makes for a cool'n'creepy setting. Rick Bota's glossy cinematography gives this episode a pleasing slick look. Alan Silvestri's shivery score hits the shivery spot. An enjoyable show.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Female Ghouls
staciarose209 March 2022
One of the more memorable episodes from my childhood. I skip over the start to where they're at the big "haunted" house. Ghouls are featured in a few episodes of crypt. Fun watch around Halloween!
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
"Yes, it does appear to be canine fecal matter." Decent tale from the crypt.
poolandrews21 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Tales from the Crypt: House of Horror starts as three college pledges, Arling (Wil Wheaton), Waters (Keith Coogan) & Henderson (Jason London) prepare to take a fraternity initiation test, they have to complete a task inside a supposedly haunted house. The frat leader & serious idiot Wilton (Kevin Dillon) has rigged the house up but there is more inside than either he or the unlucky pledges had bargained for...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 7 from season 5, written & directed by Bob Gale I thought House of Horror was alright but not the show's best. The script was based on a story from 'The Haunt of Fear' comic book & is as clichéd a tale from the crypt as I've seen so far, the whole idea of a fraternity initiation gone wrong is old hat straight away, the supposed incidences that everyone thinks are jokes at first but turn out to be more sinister have been done to death already & while the twist is pretty cool it doesn't really save this tale from the crypt being decidedly average at best. There's no sense of black humour in this one either as it's played pretty straight although the Crypt Keeper (John Kassir) opening & closing segments entertain as usual, this time he's a judge & we are charged with 'watching too much Tales from the Crypt' & at the end of the show when the verdict comes in there's a 'hung jury'...

This one looks sort of average, the rundown house setting is OK but again a spooky boarded up old house had been done hundreds of times before & will probably be done hundreds of times in the future. The gore this time consists of a severed arm, a bin full of bloody bone & skull's & a decapitated head along with the expected blood splatter. The acting is alright but there's too many annoying teenagers here.

House of Horror is a decent watch in it's own right but too much of it felt too clichéd with the all teenage cast, the basic set up & the way this episode looks & feels.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Funny and spooky episode
bellino-angelo20142 July 2021
The episode begins with three members of a fraternity that are in their underwear waiting for their leader Les Wilton (Kevin Dillon) that has to introduce two possible new members. After some arguing, Les has a genial idea for the initiation rite: he'll go with the three members who were in underwear and some other house to an haunted house where several people have been murdered during the course of many years in the past. The members go in the house and they go out safely, but when Les decides to investigate himself, he goes up to the upper floor and discover a dark secret buried within the house itself...

It was a better episode than the previous one as it had lots of suspense, a better story, more relatable characters and some nice performances especially by Kevin Dillon. And the soundtrack of this one reminded me a bit of that for ABRA CADAVER (my top favourite episode in the entire series). Another one among the many good ones.
2 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
Animal House
egoruka18 December 2022
The episode is a typical American college comedy with fraternity girls and freshmen.

Of course, watching young guys in shorts wash the floor and lick the shoes of other guys will excite any normal person in every sense of the word. There is almost no horror in this episode, which is not surprising since Bob Gale is the screenwriter of the famous Back to the Future trilogy, which is a good comedy. It is noticeable that the horror element was added only because it is like a horror series, although in fact it is not.

Like any episode of Tales from the Crypt, it ends at the most interesting, it would be interesting to see what the situation would have evolved into in the end.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
horror in fraternity
ruizalv802 January 2009
This episode is really funny. Kevin Dillon is so good in his role and the rest of the cast too. Meredith Salenger, the actress who plays Mona is so hot, I would like to see her in more films. Brian Krause and Will Wheaton also worked together in a movie that very year (the Liar's Club). If you liked this episode I recommend you to see this film as well. lol This episode is really funny. Kevin Dillon is so good in his role and the rest of the cast too. Meredith Salenger, the actress who plays Mona is so hot, I would like to see her in more films. Brian Krause and Will Wheaton also worked together in a movie that very year (the Liar's Club). If you liked this episode I recommend you to see this film as well.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
House Of Horror
a_baron13 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Oh boy, how startlingly original. Not. University students visit haunted house as part of an initiation ritual, a house that has a reputation for death, nine of their number having been murdered there in the not-so-distant past, a legend that has of course been made up out of the whole cloth, but is now about to come true.

No, there is nothing remotely original about this unsophisticated yet nasty miniature, except the demise of the villain, who is to put it mildly as nasty a piece of work as any American college student, with the possible exception of Ted Bundy. Of course, he is obviously going to meet a sticky end, it is the nature of this end and the identity of the perpetrators that is surprising. Well, sort of, on a scale of naught to ten, this may register seven.

The really annoying thing about this particular episode is the ludicrous introduction and sign off, but that is the way every episode ends.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed