"Tales from the Crypt" Let the Punishment Fit the Crime (1994)

Director:

Russell Mulcahy

Writer:

Ron Finley (teleplay)

TV Series:

"Tales from the Crypt" (1989)

Original Air Date:

31 October 1994 (Season 6, Episode 1)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Crypt | Crypt Keeper | Pun | Based On Comic Book | Terror

Cast

Kevin Cooney
John Kassir	...	Crypt Keeper (voice)
Peter MacNicol	...	Austin Haggard
Joseph Maher
Wesley Mann
Catherine O'Hara	...	Geraldine Ferrett
Peter Van Norden

Trivia:

The title comes from a song from the comic opera The Mikado with music by Arthur Sullivan and lyrics by William S. Gilbert. The song details the unique punishments for crimes doled out by The Lord High Executioner of the play.

Nicely dark Tales form the Crypt episode.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Tales from the Crypt: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime is set in the upstate New York town of Stueksville where greedy obnoxious lawyer Geraldine Ferrett (Catherine O'Hara) has been arrested for driving a car with a five digit license plate which is illegal as the minimum is six digits. At first Geraldine isn't bothered as she thinks she can just pay the paltry fine & forget about it but what she doesn't realise at first is that the town of Stueksville are very strict when it come to upholding the law, however she soon finds out that the punishment fits the crime in the harshest possible way...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 1 from season 6, the third of four Tales from the Crypt episodes to be directed by Russell Mulcahy I really liked this clever & amusing swipe at the American legal system. The script by Ron Finley was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book & was a great way to kick off season 6 of the series. It plays on the traditional clichés of greed & corruption of the legal system & turns in an entertaining little horror short. There's not much of a twist at the end but there's still plenty to enjoy here. It includes various allusions & parallels to the culture in America towards suing people purely to make quick money which are amusing to watch in their own right, Let the Punishment Fit the Crime is also one of the shorter Tales from the Crypt episodes clocking in at just over 20 minutes excluding the opening & closing titles.

As usual the production values on this episode are really good with a nice 50's period feel, it's well made with good production values. Gore wise there's a shot of a guy with his nose cut off & some gory zombies including one with a hole in it's chest. The acting is good & there's nice over-the-top performances from O'Hara & Peter MacNicol as the nervy defence lawyer Austin Haggard.

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime is just a really good, fun, gory & clever Tales from the Crypt episode. I guess your enjoyment of this story will depend on whether you 'get it' & what it's trying to say as it were, if you do you should enjoy it.