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The Best Episodes of Tales from the Crypt

Every episode of Tales from the Crypt ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Tales from the Crypt!

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Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Tales from the Crypt Season 4 Episode 6 - Showdown
    8.2/10(1367 votes)

    #1 - Showdown

    S4:E6

    A gunman being is chased down by another quickdrawing gunslinger in an old abandoned western town. The gunman wins the duel but he soon learns a new meaning to the phrase ""ghost town"" as the spirits of all his victims come back to haunt him.

    Director:Richard Donner
    Writer:Frank Darabont

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  2. Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 16 - The Secret
    7.9/10(1474 votes)

    #2 - The Secret

    S2:E16

    Theodore is a 12 year old orphan who gets adopted by an unusual couple who lock him up in the attic. They are always working and he never gets to go and have some fun. Little does he know that his new parents harbor a dark secret. Little do they know he harbors a secret of his own.

    Director:J. Michael Riva
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Tales from the Crypt Season 5 Episode 1 - Death of Some Salesmen / As Ye Sow / Forever Ambergris
    7.9/10(1218 votes)

    #3 - Death of Some Salesmen / As Ye Sow / Forever Ambergris

    S5:E1

    A sneaky con man has a talent for killing people after he sells them phony tombstones. He soon learns that some for his new victims have a fortune buried in their cellar. He marries their daughter and kills the parents but when he goes down in the basement he gets a big surprise. A husband hires a detective to spy on his wife whom he believes is cheating on him with a priest. When he learns that he's been conned, he decides to kill him himself. That day he learns that they're was nothing going on between them and he is relieved. But he is mistaken for his wife's so called boyfriend and killed by the detective he hired. Dalton is a seasoned combat photographer who finds himself falling for a beautiful women who just happens to be the wife of his friend. One day Ike sends Dalton into a disease warfare area. Dalton returns, but not the way he used to be. He soon writes a letter about how he was set up and his wife and friend also contract the same disease.

    Directors:Gilbert Adler, Gary Fleder, Kyle MacLachlan
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Tales from the Crypt Season 3 Episode 4 - Dead Wait
    7.8/10(1258 votes)

    #4 - Dead Wait

    S3:E4

    Red is a low life crook who is looking for a black pearl. He finds that it's on a island belonging to an ailing millionaire. He plans with the millionaire's mistress to steal the pearl but she turns on him. Fortunately a voodoo priestess comes to the rescue but she has something special for him that he'll never forget.

    Director:Tobe Hooper
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Tales from the Crypt Season 1 Episode 2 - Only Sin Deep
    7.7/10(2532 votes)

    #5 - Only Sin Deep

    S1:E2

    A call girl goes to a pawnshop to rob him of his jewelry. Instead the owner offers her 10,000 dollars for her beauty. She sells her beauty and lands a new job but discovers she is aging very fast.

    Director:Howard Deutch
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Tales from the Crypt Season 4 Episode 7 - King of the Road
    7.7/10(1088 votes)

    #6 - King of the Road

    S4:E7

    A courageous drag racer challenges a cop who used to be a racer. When the cop refuses, the racer decides to make him change his mind and kidnaps his teenage daughter. Iceman proves that he hasn't lost his talent by tricking the racer into changing the course sending him to his doom.

    Director:Tom Holland
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Tales from the Crypt

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  7. Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 10 - Fitting Punishment
    7.6/10(1476 votes)

    #7 - Fitting Punishment

    S2:E10

    Bobby is an orphaned teenager who goes to live with his uncle Ezra. Ezra is a mortuary director who is very grumpy. One day he decides to fill his new casket by killing Bobby. Bobby is too tall to fit in it so he cuts off his feet but he soon regrets it.

    Director:Jack Sholder
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Tales from the Crypt Season 5 Episode 3 - People Who Live in Brass Hearses
    7.6/10(972 votes)

    #8 - People Who Live in Brass Hearses

    S5:E3

    Billy is a smalltime criminal who is bloody red for vengeance. Years ago, his boss at an icecream warehouse double crossed him by sending him to prison. Now he plans to frame his boss with the help of his disabled brother.

    Director:Russell Mulcahy
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 3 - Three's a Crowd
    7.5/10(1715 votes)

    #9 - Three's a Crowd

    S2:E3

    For their tenth anniversary, a couple heads down to a cabin owned by their friend. When she and her friend start sneaking around the husband gets jealous and assumes that they are having an affair.

    Director:David Burton Morris
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Tales from the Crypt Season 5 Episode 6 - Well Cooked Hams
    7.5/10(856 votes)

    #10 - Well Cooked Hams

    S5:E6

    A frustrated magician comes across a true genius. He decides to kill him and steal his magic, but he finds himself in big trouble and it's going to be the last magic trick he will ever perform.

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Tales from the Crypt Season 3 Episode 5 - The Reluctant Vampire
    7.4/10(1166 votes)

    #11 - The Reluctant Vampire

    S3:E5

    A vampire is working at a blood bank as a night watchman. However, when the blood seems to be running low the vampire returns to getting blood the old fashion way. When the owner arrives at the vampire's lair he tries to black mail him, but as fate as would have it, the vampire's sexy secretary shows up and knocks him into the vampire's coffin. Some vampire hunters mistake him for the vampire and he gets a wonderful juicy stake.

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Tales from the Crypt Season 3 Episode 11 - Spoiled
    7.4/10(1178 votes)

    #12 - Spoiled

    S3:E11

    Janet is a soap opera loving woman. She likes to watch soaps everyday. She even imitates them. One day she misses the end of her favorite soap opera when the TV goes on the fritz. She decides to get cable soon. Janet finds her self falling for the attractive cable installer. When her Surgeon husband discovers what's going on, he decides to make them part of his experiment.

    Director:Andy Wolk
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Tales from the Crypt Season 4 Episode 11 - Werewolf Concerto
    7.4/10(1073 votes)

    #13 - Werewolf Concerto

    S4:E11

    A man is killed outside the woods of a hotel. His death is suspected to be the work of a werewolf. The manager says that there is a werewolf hunter who will deal with the problem. Among the guests is a smooth talking man and an attractive female guest. It turns out that Lokai is the werewolf but much to his surprise he discovers that Janice is also a creature of darkness.

    Director:Steve Perry
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Tales from the Crypt Season 5 Episode 5 - House of Horror
    7.4/10(968 votes)

    #14 - House of Horror

    S5:E5

    Les Whilton is the president of a college fraternity. He decides to scare three pledges by daring them to spend a night in a haunted house. He and some of his friends have set up the place to look like it's haunted. Along for the ride is a group of sorority sisters. When everyone else turns up missing, everyone turns to Whilton. Whilton goes into the house alone and he gets a big surprise.

    Director:Bob Gale
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Tales from the Crypt Season 5 Episode 9 - Oil's Well That Ends Well
    7.4/10(844 votes)

    #15 - Oil's Well That Ends Well

    S5:E9

    A con artist and his girlfriend plan their next caper by tricking some southern boys into thinking there is oil underneath a cemetery. Their plans work. She makes them think she has gotten jealous and killed her boyfriend, but when she goes to dig him up, she gets a big surprise. He and the boys have been partners all along. The last laugh is on her when it turns out that there really is oil and she blows them all to kingdom come.

    Director:Paul Abascal
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Tales from the Crypt Season 1 Episode 3 - Lover Come Hack to Me
    7.3/10(1958 votes)

    #16 - Lover Come Hack to Me

    S1:E3

    Charles marries Peggy but only for her money, planning to kill her and make it look like an accident. One night, things change when her dead mother pays a visit and Peggy shows Charles her own family tradition.

    Director:Tom Holland
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 1 - Dead Right / The Switch / Cutting Cards
    7.3/10(1757 votes)

    #17 - Dead Right / The Switch / Cutting Cards

    S2:E1

    A gold digging waitress goes to a fortune teller who predicts that by the end of the day her boss will fire her and she will land a new job. When the prediction becomes reality, she goes back for more. The fortune teller predicts that she will marry a man who will inherit a fortune then die. She gets the money first and when she tells her husband to kiss off, he stabs her to death and ends up in the hot seat. An elderly millionaire asks a plastic surgeon to give him the body of a younger man to win the girl of his dreams. Two rival long time gamblers meet up in a small town to have one last duel.

    Directors:Howard Deutch, Walter Hill, Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Tales from the Crypt Season 3 Episode 2 - Abra Cadaver
    7.3/10(1304 votes)

    #18 - Abra Cadaver

    S3:E2

    Carl and Marty are siblings who work at a hospital. Carl shows Marty his new way of proving that the brain lives after the body dies. The whole thing turns out to be a prank but the shock of the joke gives Marty a heart attack. Years later Marty hasn't forgiven Carl and plans a deadly revenge. Marty then reveals that it was an act of revenge on Carl and the whole thing was a joke ... or was it?

    Director:Stephen Hopkins
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Tales from the Crypt Season 4 Episode 12 - Curiosity Killed
    7.3/10(876 votes)

    #19 - Curiosity Killed

    S4:E12

    A man asks his friend to keep a youth potion away from his wife. When she suspects that they are trying to kill her, she kills them first and drinks the potion which she had switched. But she soon regrets it.

    Director:Elliot Silverstein
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Tales from the Crypt Season 6 Episode 8 - In the Groove
    7.3/10(747 votes)

    #20 - In the Groove

    S6:E8

    Gary Grover is a frustrated talk radio DJ. His boss, who is also his sister, hired a sexy looker with a talent for talking dirty. One day Gary goes ballistic and his boss fires him. Val suggests that he take matters into his own hands, but he's been set up.

    Director:Vincent Spano
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Tales from the Crypt Season 1 Episode 1 - The Man Who Was Death / And All Through the House / Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone
    7.2/10(2303 votes)

    #21 - The Man Who Was Death / And All Through the House / Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone

    S1:E1

    Niles Talbot moved from the country to the big city to get a job as an electrian but ended up as an executioner. His trouble begins when he's suddenly uemployed and decides to take the law into his own hands. On Christmas Eve, a woman slaughters her husband and learns that she's on Santa's naughty list when an escaped maniac dressed as Santa Claus shows up at her doorstep with a special present for her. A bum named Ulric is given the chance of a lifetime when a scientist puts the gland of a cat inside his body. Soon Ulric becomes the main attraction at a sideshow.

    Directors:Robert Zemeckis, Walter Hill, Richard Donner
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 5 - The Sacrifice
    7.2/10(1479 votes)

    #22 - The Sacrifice

    S2:E5

    Reed is a hotshot insurance agent who decides to kill his stubborn boss and marry his wife. The plan works until Reed's boss who happens to be Gloria's ex-husband arrives with pictures he has taken of the murder and blackmails Reed.

    Director:Richard Greenberg
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Tales from the Crypt Season 5 Episode 7 - Creep Course
    7.2/10(931 votes)

    #23 - Creep Course

    S5:E7

    Reggie is a college jock who is trying to pass a history test. He asks the class bookworm Stella Bishop to help tutor him. She goes to Finely's house to to get the answer sheet, but when she gets there, Finely and Reggie lock her in a mummy's tomb. Finely double crosses Reggie by poisoning him. Finely goes back to check his work, and gets a big surprise. Stella is not dead. She has been charming the mummy by impersonating his dead girlfriend making the mummy jealous and Reggie and Finely really take the wraps.

    Director:Jeffrey Boam
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Tales from the Crypt Season 6 Episode 2 - Operation Friendship
    7.2/10(852 votes)

    #24 - Operation Friendship

    S6:E2

    Nelson is a computer genius who is letting his boss take credit for his ideas. Meanwhile his childhood imaginary pal Eddie tries to get Nelson to stand up to his bullying coworker. That is, until Nelson falls in love with a beautiful next door neighbor. Eddie thinks that she will ruin their friendship, but Nelson tosses Eddies' good side out the window leaving Eddie to come back cold-hearted.

    Director:Roland Mesa
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 2 - 'Til Death
    7.1/10(1786 votes)

    #25 - 'Til Death

    S2:E2

    An unscrupulous plantation owner looks to raise some cash to develop a worthless plot of inherited land by wooing a beautiful heiress to an island and using voodoo to make her his wife.

    Director:Chris Walas
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Showdown" is the best rated episode of "Tales from the Crypt". It scored 8.2/10 based on 1367 votes. Directed by Richard Donner and written by Frank Darabont, it aired on 8/1/1992. This episode scored 0.3 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Secret".