"Tales from the Crypt" Smoke Wrings (1996)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Mandie Fletcher

Writer:

Lisa Sandoval (teleplay)

TV Series:

"Tales from the Crypt" (1989)

Original Air Date:

21 June 1996 (Season 7, Episode 9)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Macabre | Cult TV | Murder | Black Comedy | Dark Comedy

Cast

Ute Lemper	...	Jacqueline
Chris Stanton
Tres Hanley	...	Joanna
Daniel Craig	...	Barry
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Ellen
Denis Lawson	...	Frank
John Kassir	...	Crypt Keeper (voice)
Julian Kerridge	...	Policeman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul Freeman	...	Alistair Touchstone

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

The 'one' with James Bond.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Tales from the Crypt: Smoke Wrings starts as ambitious businesswoman Jacqueline (Ute Lemper) the head of Touchstone Edwards advertising agency hires cocky ad man Barry Manners (Daniel Craig). Barry impresses Jacqueline with his confident attitude & handsome good looks, Barry is eventually given the Chalmers Chocolate's account, a very large & important account. Barry's unique advertising approach is a small electronic device which affects people's minds & forces them to crave whatever is suggested in, say, an advertisement. However all is not as it seems & there are dark ulterior motives at work as both the situation & the people involved are manipulated for particularly devious reasons...

This Tales from the Crypt story was episode 9 from season 7, directed by Mandie Fletcher some consider Smoke Wrings to be the all time worst episode of Tales from the Crypt which I have to say I don't agree with. Sure it ain't no masterpiece especially when compared to some of the show's other episodes but it's far from the worst & is actually in my opinion one of the slightly better stories from the seventh season although that isn't saying too much. The script was based on a story from 'The Vault of Horror' comic book but apparently like the vast majority of season seven this telly version bears little resemblance to the original comic strip apart from the title & what saves an otherwise seemingly mundane & straight forward story of revenge is a pretty good twist ending, it's one of those twist endings where everything falls into place quite nicely & you sit there thinking that's pretty clever as it all clicks into place. Sure it's not the best twist ending, it's not the most memorable or ironic or dark but it does work, it does make sense in the context of the episode & it is reasonably satisfying. My only real complaint about Smoke Wrings is that it's not in any way horror themed or orientated, it's more of a thriller with a decent twist than anything else which is kind of disappointing since Tales from the Crypt is supposed to be a horror anthology series & season seven is frankly all over the place in this regard with camp comedy, murder mysteries, period dramas & love stories.

There's absolutely zero horror, scares, blood, gore, sex or nudity in Smoke Wrings which is disappointing although there is some bad language if your interested in that sort of thing. The title Smoke Wrings is a strange one & is probably better suited to the original comic book story than this. The main reason of interest in Smoke Wrings these days is that it features current James Bond actor & Hollywood superstar Daniel Craig in an early role & he does alright here as does the rest of the cast.

Smoke Wrings isn't as bad as I was fearing but it's still very minor Tales from the Crypt that at best is bearable with a good twist while at worst it's pretty poor. The next Tales from the Crypt episode About Face (1996) is just about as good as season seven gets in my opinion.