I remember this "Tales from the Crypt" episode from July of 1992 it was part of the third season and it was titled "Beauty Rest". This episode was sexy and it would take a wicked twist in the end as it taught how you look isn't everything, instead it's more what's inside of a person that counts! And for those reasons mentioned it's why this episode ranks as one of my favorite crypt tales. It's star power is top notch as you have veteran B list movie star and TV movie regular Mimi Rogers as Helen a woman who's approaching the over the hill age in acting. As Helen tries for part after part from small parts to TV advertisements and still she's overlooked. Then when she finds out that the part was given to her younger and better looking roommate Joyce(supermodel Kathy Ireland who sports a sexy black bra in one scene)she feels betrayed and suspects that Joyce used the casting couch to win the part. Then the episode takes a plot twist and turn when a letter that was given to Joyce to compete in a beauty contest comes into play and Helen sees this as a chance for new success, and she will win this at all cost even if it means murder. This beauty contest will prove to be one unlike any other though as it's strange, creepy and it has a climax that's downright gross! Jennifer Rubin gives a good supporting turn as a contestant wanting to win, and legendary writer and actor Buck Henry is well versed and in top form as the beauty contest host. This proves the lesson that beauty really is on the inside, it just shows it in a different and stranger way that's brutal and gross! That's why this episode ranks as one of my favorites and the sexy performances of both Ireland and Rogers made it highly enjoyable.
10 Reviews
Very funny comic episode
Woodyanders7 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Bitter and aging model Helen (superbly played to bitchy perfection by Mimi Rogers) resorts to some extremely brutal and drastic measures in order to win a beauty pageant. However, the grand prize for said contest proves to be a great deal more than Helen bargained for. Director Stephen Hopkins, working from a wickedly witty script by Donald Longtooth, relates the absorbing story at a constant brisk pace, ably mines a savagely amusing line in supremely sick'n'sarcastic dark humor, and delivers one doozy of a surprise gruesome twist ending. Rogers' tour-de-force portrayal of a desperate and determined burnt-out woman who's at the end of her tether really holds everything together. The rest of the cast is just as excellent: Buck Henry delivers a delightfully sharp performance as hale'n'hearty emcee George, Jennifer Rubin makes for an ideal ice queen as ruthless snippy rival Druscilla, and Kathy Ireland is simply adorable as Helen's sweet ditsy roommate Joyce. Popping up in inspired bits are Robert Trebor as Helen's hard-nosed agent Archie and Anders Howe as excitable TV commercial director Emilio. Rick Bota's crisp cinematography provides a neat glossy look. An immensely enjoyable show.
Great one.
shellytwade13 April 2022
This one reminds me a little bit of a female version of the one with Jon Lovitz. Lots of fun acting and an overall crazy story puts this one ahead of most of the other episodes. Bad people getting their just desserts is one of the things that makes this series so good and this episode doesn't disappoint.
No pain, no modeling game
Coventry7 April 2006
I can always find something positive to say about pretty much every "Tales from the Crypt"-episode and, in the case of "Beauty Rest", it would definitely be the ending! Out of all the Crypt-stuff I've seen, this episode is one of the only tales which's finale somewhat surprised me. Not that it's shocking or particularly inventive, but I thought it was quite a nice gimmick. The story is set in the competitive universe of fashion models and beauty contests. Helen is an ageing model who has a hard time finding assignments, whereas her roommate Joyce is already sure of winning contests before they even start. When Helen snaps and accidentally kills Joyce, she decides to replace her in a contest with the recommendation letter of Joyce's lover. She has to get rid of some more obstacles on the way, but Helen's determined to win and become the promotional face of the organizing company
It quite nice to see Mimi Rogers star in a horror production! This isn't her usual genre (although she'd make another cool appearance in "Ginger Snaps"), but she's very good as the pretentious yet unsuccessful fashion model. Her two colleagues Kathy Ireland ("Loaded Weapon") and Jennifer Rubin ("Bad Dreams") are adequate as well. There's fewer gore than in the majority of "Tales
"-episodes, but the humor is black sharp so it actually works better as a satire. Another fun 25 minutes guaranteed!
She finally got what she wanted: First Place!
kapelusznik1831 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
****SPOILERS*** Feeling that she's a shoo-in in winning the position as the "Miss Ballbuster" Perfume girl Helen, Mimi Rogers, is shocked to find that her room-mate Joyce, Kathy Ireland, got the job instead. Feeling that Joyce put out, by sucking up to the judges, to get the part Helen develops a deep seeded hatred of Joyce that borders on murder. In fact while cooking up a late night drink for Joyce, whom she had since made up with, the sleeping pills she mixed in with it was enough to put Jyoce to sleep permanently.
Now entering another beauty contest Helen plans to cover all the bases to getting her to win first place even if she has to kill, like she did to Joyce, anyone standing in her way. It seems like Helen did in fact get the job with the person sponsoring the beauty contest and master of ceremonies George, Buck Henry, giving her the good news to get ready and be made up to take first place prize. That's after Helen made sure that her #1 rival in the contest Druscilla, Jennifer Rubin, ended up strangled by her in a fit of rage in her threatening to expose her getting a little too friendly with George in order to win.
****SPOILERS**** In Helen doing everything to win the first place prize she forgot one thing: That is what the contest is all about and who's sponsoring it. If she knew that Helen wouldn't have been so eager to get first place! And most of all she wouldn't have killed, like she did Joyce & Druscilla, to win it! This "Tales from the Crypt" episode shows that in this case winning isn't everything when by winning will only end up costing you your life!
Now entering another beauty contest Helen plans to cover all the bases to getting her to win first place even if she has to kill, like she did to Joyce, anyone standing in her way. It seems like Helen did in fact get the job with the person sponsoring the beauty contest and master of ceremonies George, Buck Henry, giving her the good news to get ready and be made up to take first place prize. That's after Helen made sure that her #1 rival in the contest Druscilla, Jennifer Rubin, ended up strangled by her in a fit of rage in her threatening to expose her getting a little too friendly with George in order to win.
****SPOILERS**** In Helen doing everything to win the first place prize she forgot one thing: That is what the contest is all about and who's sponsoring it. If she knew that Helen wouldn't have been so eager to get first place! And most of all she wouldn't have killed, like she did Joyce & Druscilla, to win it! This "Tales from the Crypt" episode shows that in this case winning isn't everything when by winning will only end up costing you your life!
"You make me sick!"
Foreverisacastironmess12325 April 2019
While I personally would have never designated Mimi Rogers as a stunner even in her younger days like in this, she's still very good in her role and really gives it her all as an aging model who can't get jobs anymore and who lives with a much younger and prettier roommate who also happens to work as a model. After losing on starring in a laughably bad advert for a brand of perfume with a ridiculous name that no one in their right mind would ever seriously buy except in Tales From the Crypt land, she becomes a little crazy with jealousy and decides to steal the spot in the mysterious beauty pageant herself by giving her unwitting roommate a little something to knock her out for a while, only she gives her a little too much and accidentally murders her! Soon after the increasingly ruthless Helen becomes hellbent on winning the contest no matter what...never suspecting the deadly danger that's at work behind the sinister pageant until it's too late and she is grotesquely displayed as a macabre ghoulish tribute to "inner beauty" and splayed and put on display like a freakish human butterfly! I like how the tone suddenly becomes a lot more threatening near the end when she's in the morgue-like room being aggressively checked over by the creepy ripped makeup artist before being delivered her doom! It's a genuinely scary moment in an otherwise fairly goofy episode and that's the real ending for me, the very final slamming of the metal door. I don't really care for the following sequence all that much though, I find the whole campy presentation and singing of the host comes off a bit overly bizarre and tacky.. For some it makes the whole episode, but it just never really worked that much for me. I find the overall thing to be a little flat and wanting somewhere, it's a noticeable rehash of the superior season three episode "Top Billing", except that the main character is a woman, it's modeling instead of acting, and the killers aren't insane, which score one for this episode is actually that bit more scarier! I love how it features two actors from two awesome horror movie franchises, the lovely Jennifer Rubin who played Taryn in Dream Warriors, and a very quick cameo from Anders Hove who played the craven vampire Radu in the Subspecies series of movies, pretty cool! I like how when you think about the story it's so the classic E.C. Grim dark karma at work in how Helen never actually needed to do anything to her poor innocent young roommate, if she'd have just accepted her defeat gracefully the situation would have resolved itself and she'd have gotten to star in the stupid Ballbuster perfume commercial! Good and entertaining but no series' gem to me, it's mainly fun for its B-movie style murderous woman weirdness! X
Beauty Rest
a_baron14 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Boy, is this a miniature? Mimi Rogers - the former Mrs Tom Cruise - plays a model/actress who has never quite arrived. Even worse, after being promised a big advertising contract by a director who says she is the living essence of the part, she is told by her agent that someone higher up the food chain has offered the part instead to her younger flatmate.
Although clearly this girl has bundles of personality, she is just as clearly not the sharpest knife in the draw, so our ill-fated heroine decides to drug her and steal her latest assignment. Unfortunately, she puts too much of the sleeping draught in her beverage, and ends up killing her. At first she is clearly distraught, but after typing up a suicide note and staging the (now crime) scene, she is soon on her way to the assignment. Unlike the one for which she has just been turned down, this one is for a beauty pageant, and it is one she is willing to kill to win. Alas, the spirit is willing but the flesh is strong; soon she has another innocent woman's blood on her hands. As this time she strangles her victim, there is no staging the crime scene, nor confessing to a lesser crime and copping a plea. But you realise already that the cops won't put in an appearance here, and that retribution will come from an unlikely source in a terrifying form, don't you?
Although clearly this girl has bundles of personality, she is just as clearly not the sharpest knife in the draw, so our ill-fated heroine decides to drug her and steal her latest assignment. Unfortunately, she puts too much of the sleeping draught in her beverage, and ends up killing her. At first she is clearly distraught, but after typing up a suicide note and staging the (now crime) scene, she is soon on her way to the assignment. Unlike the one for which she has just been turned down, this one is for a beauty pageant, and it is one she is willing to kill to win. Alas, the spirit is willing but the flesh is strong; soon she has another innocent woman's blood on her hands. As this time she strangles her victim, there is no staging the crime scene, nor confessing to a lesser crime and copping a plea. But you realise already that the cops won't put in an appearance here, and that retribution will come from an unlikely source in a terrifying form, don't you?
"I'd rather eat draino & drink puss." Decent tale from the crypt saved by the twist.
poolandrews19 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Tales from the Crypt: Beauty Rest starts as failed actress & model Helen (Mimi Rogers) has yet again lost a job to her flatmate Joyce (Kathy Ireland) who uses underhand methods to get jobs, to make matters even worse she tells Helen that she slept with some guy named Tom who then promised to make sure she won a beauty contest his company is holding. Enraged Helen accidentally kills Joyce & decides to take her place, win the contest herself & become the company representative. Well that's the theory but there are sinister motives behind the contest she hadn't bargained for...
This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 5 from season 4, the second of three Tales from the Crypt episodes directed by Stephen Hopkins this wasn't really doing much for me until the highly satisfying, ironic & macabre twist ending. The script by Donald Longtooth was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book & for most of it's duration is a standard morality tale about jealously & the fact that doing the right thing gets you nowhere & was average at best until the rather darkly comic twist ending turned the episode around which literally promotes the patronising moral that what's on the inside counts for more than anything else, however the ending is a bit silly when you think about it as this is definitely one contest I don't think anyone would want to win. Overall I liked this one for the ending rather than the build up which felt a bit laboured & convoluted, a good story all the same though.
This episode is well made as usual although I much prefer Hopkin's earlier tale from the crypt Abra Cadaver (1991) which was part of season 3, there's a gory bit at the end but I won't describe it as it may give the twist away, all I'll say is it's what's on the inside that counts... The acting is pretty good as usual.
Beauty Rest is a decent tale from the crypt that isn't the show's best 30 odd minutes but isn't it's worst either, definitely still worth a watch though.
This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 5 from season 4, the second of three Tales from the Crypt episodes directed by Stephen Hopkins this wasn't really doing much for me until the highly satisfying, ironic & macabre twist ending. The script by Donald Longtooth was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book & for most of it's duration is a standard morality tale about jealously & the fact that doing the right thing gets you nowhere & was average at best until the rather darkly comic twist ending turned the episode around which literally promotes the patronising moral that what's on the inside counts for more than anything else, however the ending is a bit silly when you think about it as this is definitely one contest I don't think anyone would want to win. Overall I liked this one for the ending rather than the build up which felt a bit laboured & convoluted, a good story all the same though.
This episode is well made as usual although I much prefer Hopkin's earlier tale from the crypt Abra Cadaver (1991) which was part of season 3, there's a gory bit at the end but I won't describe it as it may give the twist away, all I'll say is it's what's on the inside that counts... The acting is pretty good as usual.
Beauty Rest is a decent tale from the crypt that isn't the show's best 30 odd minutes but isn't it's worst either, definitely still worth a watch though.
Another funny episode
bellino-angelo201427 June 2021
Cocky and mature model Helen is seen losing a deal for appearing in a commercial to her roommate Joyce. When Helen hears of a rigged beauty contest she decides to go to extreme lenghts; so she puts barbitures in Joyce's drink and she dies of overdose. When Helen goes to the pageant she is stubborn enough to make it to the qualify but not before the MCe drags her in a room and injects some substance that makes her fall asleep. When the show finally begins we see that the show has a much darker theme...
While the ending was a bit gory, I loved the story as it was funny and reminded me of some real situations. I also found it ironic that Helen wanted to participate in the contest not knowing what was going into. Still, another funny entry in the show.
While the ending was a bit gory, I loved the story as it was funny and reminded me of some real situations. I also found it ironic that Helen wanted to participate in the contest not knowing what was going into. Still, another funny entry in the show.
It's what's inside that counts
SleepTight66620 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Rather forgettable episode in my opinion.
The episode is about an aspiring actress/model who murders her roommate out of jealousy. Her roommate gets all the parts by sleeping with producers.
So she decides to kill for a beauty pageant part. The winner gets to sell themselves.
What Helen did not know is that the winner could become Miss Autopsy.
The twist was predictable, so it made the build up work poorly. The characters weren't very likable either.
However, it was enjoyable to an extend but not an episode to remember.
The episode is about an aspiring actress/model who murders her roommate out of jealousy. Her roommate gets all the parts by sleeping with producers.
So she decides to kill for a beauty pageant part. The winner gets to sell themselves.
What Helen did not know is that the winner could become Miss Autopsy.
The twist was predictable, so it made the build up work poorly. The characters weren't very likable either.
However, it was enjoyable to an extend but not an episode to remember.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
