Billy DeLuca (Bill Paxton) has just finished two years in jail. He goes right back to crime, getting his brother Virgil (Brad Dourif) to help him get revenge on the ice cream company that caught him stealing from the company funds. If he gets to kill the guy who caught him, Earl Byrd (Michael Lerner), and manager Ms. Grafungar (Lainie Kazan) even better.

“Chop ’em to the left! Chop ’em to the right! Chop ’em every chance you get! Fright, fright, fright! All right, creeps. It’s fourth and ghoul. They’re probably expecting us to run a ghost pattern, so let’s run a scream pass instead. Of course, I could pull out a few other surprises from my playbook, like tonight’s tale. It’s about a couple of brothers who are planning a little high scaring of their own, in a nasty bit of offense I call: “People Who Live in Brass Hearses.””

Billy loves his brother, but he has such a limited intelligence that he can’t stop yelling at him. Imagine how tense things get when — spoilers! — it turns out that Earl also has a brother, a much evil and conniving person than anyone else, and he’s fused to the ice cream man for life and has been stealing even more than Billy.

Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) and written by Crypt vet Scott Nimerfro, this has a great cast and a gruesome bad guy. Well, nearly everyone is the bad guy. You know what I’m trying to write.

It’s based on “People Who Live in Brass Hearses” from Vault of Horror #27. Written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Jack Davis, this tale is about Mr. Byrd, a strange old undertaker who has a twin brother. That’s the only thing the story has in common with the TV show.

Directed by Rodman Flender (The Unborn, Idle Hands) and written by Larry Wilson, who wrote five episodes of this show, “Food for Thought” has that most basic of all EC Comics sins, jealousy. Zambini (Ernie Hudson), a carnival psychic, thinks that his wife and assistant Connie (Joan Chen) is sleeping with the fire eater, Johnny (John Laughlin).

“Hmm, frankly your hacks-rays look terrible. You’ve got to pay closer attention to your oral die-giene or you’ll end up looking like me. I want you to brush after every meal, floss and gargoyle twice a day. Hmm, yes, looks like I’ll have to drill. This won’t hurt me a bit! In the meantime, to take your mind off the pain, I’ve got a little dose of fright-rous oxide for you. It’s about a sideshow mind-reader who’s lost his head over a pretty girl. I call it “Food for Thought.””

After abusing his wife and keeping her with his mental powers before killing Johnny before he can steal her away. Johnny’s best friend, the ape Nabunga, reaches into the mind of the psychic and makes him think that it’s Connie coming back to him. Oh, how wrong he is.

This episode also has Doug Jones as a contortionist, Debbie Lee Carrington as a circus member, Kathryn and Margaret Howell as twins and Phil Fondacaro as Emmet, the ring master.

There are three “Food for Thought” stories in EC Comics. One is in Incredible Science-Fiction #32, written by Jack Oleck and drawn by Al Williamson. The other is in Crime SuspenStories #24 and is written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Jack Orlando. It’s about a mine robbery and collapse. The story that inspired this one was in Tales from the Crypt #40 and was written by Feldstein and Gaines and also drawn by Davis. The end of this story is even more gruesome, as the wife loses her lion tamer lover and when her psychic husband is paralyzed, she has him buried alive and then he’s consumed by a ghoul who robs his grave!

Dalton Scott (Roger Daltrey) has been shooting photos for decades. Now, he’s working with Isaac Forte (Steve Buscemi), a young shutterbug who says that he was inspired by Scott’s wartime photos. The editor of the paper, Forte’s uncle, claims that he’s more talented that Scott, which causes jealousy, which only increases when Scott meets his rival’s wife, Bobbi (Lysette Anthony).

“Yes, I think the fisheye lens will do fine. Greetings, fashion fiends. So glad you could join me. Bet you didn’t know your pal the Crypt Keeper dabbled in photography. I just love winding a few rolls of Kodagroan into my camera, turning on the old fright meter, and snapping off a few head…shots. Tonight’s putrid picture is sure to increase your shudder speed. It’s about a photographer who’s losing his touch and would do almost anything to get it back. Did I say almost? I call this sickening snapshot “Forever Ambergris.””

Dalton sets up Isaac with a contaminated war zone in Valmalera, which causes him to start to rot and his eyes to even come out of his head. He rises like a zombie and has to be shot. He takes Isaac’s photos and uses them for his own and then pays respects to his wife, which means they end up having sex. While they smoke, she reveals that she knew that he killed her husband and that they are smoking balsam from the same area where her husband died. As she rots away, he runs to the bathroom to watch his face fall off.

This episode was directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls) and written by Scott Rosenberg (Con Air).

It’s based on “Forever Ambergris” from Tales from the Crypt #44. It was written by Carl Wessler and drawn by Jack Davis. If the title doesn’t make any sense, that’s because it was based on the movie Forever Amber and in the original comic book, a sea captain sends a rival to a plague island where he dies and then is consumed and thrown up by a whale. This creates ambergris, a waxy substance that originates as a secretion from the intestines of whales that is used in perfumes. The captain takes that vomit and makes perfume for the man’s wife, who uses it and loses all of her skin.

Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which is working to save the lives of cats and dogs all across America, giving pets second chances and happy homes.

Today’s theme: Series episode

For six Sunday evenings in 1978, Radiotelevisione Italiana (Rai) TV in Italy aired a series which was a marked break from a channel that until now had only shown conservative Christian Democrat programming. By establishing a secular channel, Rai 2, the network was hoping to encourage experimentation and “a marked exploration of new languages ​​of communication.” These were the national channels of Italy and somehow, Stryx made it on the air, if only for a very short — and thematically perfectly numbered — length of time.

Named for a combination of the legendary vampire owl of legend and the Italian term for witch, strega, this was created by Enzo Trapani, Alberto Testa and Carla Vistarini. In interviews, Trapani said that he was inspired by a meal of salami and figs, saying “Begone milquetoast rhythms and family-friendly songstresses with round cheeks and heart-shaped mouths,” as he sought to change TV.

Or, as he also claimed, he got a phone call from the devil.

With the words, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Devil,” an entire salon of demons, goblins, singers, dancers, human sacrifice victims and people willing to get naked and weird emerged into the psychedelic and smoke-filled cave in which this show is set. By the end of the first episode, the switchboards had lit up. Even if Italians are used to nudity and some level of violence, they weren’t ready for the dependable Rai to send outright Satanic imagery into their homes.

I can’t even begin to imagine what people thought — Italy is a country that has Vatican City, the heart of the Roman Catholic empire, directly inside it and a population that is 75% Catholic — when “Lucifer, Emperor” and “Beelzebub, Prince” were introduced and walked out on screen, presiding over the inquisition, women dressed as cats, live animals including a lion, cats, hawks, dogs and a chimpanzee as well as more women, some half-naked, many fully nude and quite a few being tortured and even mock burned alive.

That said, Stryx still has the trappings of the variety show. There are continuing characters, such as a witch named Ludmilla (Ombretta Colli, a singer, future senator and actress in the Fulci film Getting Away with It the Italian Way and Antonio Margheriti’s War Between The Planets), who keeps trying to transform a toad named Franz into a prince and always having him become into boring accountants played by Walter Valdi; a mime played by Hal Yamanouchi (Endgame, Warriors of the Year 2072) and Gianni Cajafa, playing a magician named Furcas who teaches the audience how to read their fortunes and banish the malocchio or evil eye.

Do you love strobing? How do you feel about dry ice and fog? How about liberal use of chromakey? This has all of that and so much more. Money was spent — lots of lira — to make it feel like this show exists inside its own world. I mean, let’s be honest, this is the Hell of the dreams of metal kids who smoke skunk weed in the high school parking lot and say, “Man, it’s going to be a party.”

Well, it was a party.

The first episode aired on October 15, 1978. Just take a look at the music guests:

Gal Costa “Sea Rain:” Gal Costa was a Brazilian pop superstar who had a fifty-year career in which she released more than five hundred songs. She’s the only singer from Brazil to be in the Carnegie Hall Hall of Fame.

Angelo Branduardi “Dance in F sharp minor:” Known as The Minstrel, Branduardi created a new musical genre that combines medieval and Renaissance music with Celtic, Germanic, British and French folk music. He plays the devil’s instrument — the violin — as Death itself dances with villagers.

Amanda Lear “Enigma (Give a Bit of Mmm To Me!):” Amanda Lear is a source of fascination to me. At once the muse of Bowie and Dali, now a disco queen who famously played with the question of whether she was even a she. This song features the lyrics “Are you devil or angel? Are you question or answer?” Lear also appears in the movie Crazy Nights for Joe D’Amato and is on the cover of Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure. In the 2024 reality where people are still regularly losing their minds over sexual gender, Lear was breaking ground nearly fifty years ago and looking incredible every step of the way. This short article can’t contain her majesty.

Patty Pravo “Handsome:” This sentence alone should explain to you why she was on this program: “Her peculiar low and sensual timbre, her provocations and excesses have made her an icon of transgression.” Along with Mina, Ornella Vanoni , Iva Zanicchi and Milva, Pravo is considered one of the five major protagonists of Italian song. She’s also the first mainstream artists in the country to embrace funk and new wave with her 1976 album Biafra. At this stage of her career, she embraced the androgynous look of Bowie. Future performances would see her carried by goblins as a human sacrifice and another where she was given shock treatment while performing.

Grace Jones “Hunger:” Do I even have to write of how incredible Grace Jones is? How vital? Or how perfect Jones was for this show, a feral force of nature stalking the stage and somehow being the most supernatural thing in a world teaming with demons and devils?

Rockets “On the Road Again:” A French Space Rock band, Rockets used to land on stages filled with smoke and lasers, emerging with metallic faces and spacesuits, looking like Destro meets KISS. They were super dangerous, too, as they used to shoot a “fireworks bazooka” into the audience, more than once hitting audience members and setting their clothing ablaze.

The other episodes — not many of which survive — also feature Mia Martini, Asha Puthli, Area and Anna Oxa.

As the calls continued from angry viewers, the show only averaged nine million viewers, not enough to continue airing. Trapani followed up with another controversial show, C’era Due Volte (Twice Upon a Time), during which adult film star and future senator Ilona “Cicciolina” Staller retold fairy tales in ribald ways. It was delayed by a year and remained too controversial to live.

Sadly, in 1989, frustrated by the idea of aging and unable to get his visions on TV, Trapani would shoot himself in the mouth, languishing in the hospital for over a week.

There’s is supposedly a seventh episode, which never aired. I dream of seeing it.

Resources

Wikipedia Italy: Stryx.

Atlas Obscura: Stryx.

Leo Burns (Hector Elizondo) thinks that his wife Bridget (Patsy Kensit) is having an affair. So he hires G. G. Devoe (Sam Waterston) to learn the truth.

“No need to worry. For one thing, vegetarians are probably much better for him. I like to stalk one myself from time to time. My advice is to let him fiend himself. The little nipper will never learn to maggot on his own if you’re too busy protecting him. Our next caller Leo thinks his wife is cheating on him. Let‘s hope for her sake he doesn’t catch her in the hacked. I call this sickening psycho drama “As Ye Sow.””

Devoe believes that Bridget is having an affair with Father John Sejac (John Shea). Plus, you get Miguel Ferrer as a hitman and Adam West as another private dick. As you can figure, this being an episode of Tales from the Crypt, there’s a big twist that ends up costing the protagonist everything.

This episode was directed by Kyle MacLachlan — yes, Agent Cooper — and written by Ron Finley, who wrote five episodes of this series.

This story is based on “As Ye Sow” from Shock SuspenStories #14. It was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by George Evans.

Season 5 is here.

“Death of Some Salesmen” was directed by Gilbert Adler, who co-wrote the story with AL Katz. They’re the team that also made Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice and Bordello of Blood, as well as several episodes of this show.

“Well, kiddies, I’m afraid our designer hanger offer has expired. Would somebody please get Mr. De La Renta out of here? Next up on the home chopping network, it’s time for the Crypt Keeper’s fashion boo-tique. Today, we’re featuring my full line of Apres Vie death care products. We’ve got everything from face scream to mas-scare-a. Try some. It’s the best thing you can do for…dem-ise. Or maybe I could interest you in tonight’s special. It’s a tasteless tidbit about a traveling cemetery plot salesmen who’s about to make a grave mistake. I call it “Death of Some Salesmen.””

Judd Campbell (Ed Begley Jr.) is a con artist selling cemetery plots that end up being scams. He starts with Mrs. Jones (Yvonne De Carlo) before moving on to the Pa Brackett (Tim Curry). Well, the whole Brackett family is played by Tim Curry and Campbell soon learns that they love to kill off traveling salesmen, starting with the head that he finds in the microwave. They want him to marry their daughter, but can Campbell outsell these maniacs?

The main reason to watch this? Tim Curry. He’s great, as always.

This story is based on “Death of Some Salesmen!” from Haunt of Fear #15. It was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Jack Davis. The daughter is not in this story but instead, it’s about an older couple who test out products on the bodies of the men selling them.