I thought this story was quite scary especially the end...Very Dark and Gloomy, I felt bad for the nephew. After I saw this episode I saw Moses Gunn in some other movies and I cant quite shake his acting in this episode he was so mean. I haven't seen all the Tales From the Crypt episodes but the ones that do stand out the I loved, and I am sorry I don't know the name of the stories: The tale when the reporter spends the night in the hunted house and the woman who lived there killed her guest, The black and white episode where Humphrey Bogart was portrayed, the episode when the young guy was going around marrying old women for their money and they come back to get him.
14 Reviews
Revenge is fitting! Remember be professional when working in the funeral business.
blanbrn25 June 2007
This "Tales From The Crypt" episode really isn't one of the best, it mainly is just a mean spirited tale of revenge. You have Moses Gunn as a cruel and cold funeral home director who's greedy and money struck he's always disrespectful when treating clients. Then one day his sisters kid(Jon Clair)shows up when he's been orphaned after her death and you guessed it his uncle now has to raise him. Only their is no uncle type love as he works the young boy to death and treats him bad only to eventually deal with him in a real foot locker manner! Later on revenge will take place as is the theme in so many tales it's that bad people will receive their due. Overall OK not real scary or entertaining just a revenge type tale.
A solid and gruesome episode
Woodyanders22 February 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Mean and stingy cheapskate funeral home director Ezra Thornberry (superbly played to slimy perfection by Moses Gunn) treats his deceased clients with an appalling lack of respect. Following the death of his mother, Ezra's naive teenage nephew Bobby (affable Jon Clair) is forced to live with the nasty old coot. Complications arise when Bobby disapproves of his uncle's unscrupulous business practices. Director Jack Sholder, working from a suitably dark and harsh script by Jonathan David Kahn, Michael Alan Kahn, and Don Mancini, ably milks a wickedly funny sense of spot-on sick and twisted gallows humor for several supreme belly laughs (Ezra extracts gold teeth from corpses, uses water instead of embalming fluid, and cuts the feet off bodies so they can fit in small coffins), delivers a handy helping of ghastly gore (the make-up f/x are hideously convincing), and stages the very satisfying climax with the detestable Ezra getting his just brutal deserts with real skill and flair. Jack Wallner's slick cinematography gives this episode a nice polished look. Stanley Clarke's moody score hits the shuddery spot. A good'n'grisly show.
The Lord Helps Those...Who Help Themselves
mattressman_pdl31 August 2011
After losing his parents in a car accident, a teenage boy is forced to live with his penny-pinching, cruel uncle Ezra. Ezra is a mortician who quickly puts the young man to work in his mortuary. But after an accident resulting in an unneeded coffin, Ezra paralyzes the boy from the waist down. So, waste not, want not, Ezra arranges for young Bobby to meet his untimely demise...but the bothersome dead boy won't fit! Truly EC style, all the way. Moses Gunn is divinely evil as the morally corrupt Uncle Ezra, bringing to the screen one of the most evil characters in Crypt history. My only gripe is that the show's finale is spoiled by the opening comic page in the cryptkeeper segment...just like Carrion Death.
Good episode
BandSAboutMovies2 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Jack Sholder has directed some of my favorite movies like Nightmare on Elm Street 2, The Hidden and Alone in the Dark. Working from a script by Steven Dodd, Jonathan David Kahn, Michael Alan Kahn and Don Mancini, he tells the story of Bobby Thornberry (Jon Clair) being sent to live - but mainly be free labor - for his funeral home owning Uncle Ezra (Moses Gunn), who is already abusing his other worker Clyde (Teddy Wilson).
"There you are sportsfiends. You know dead people like me make excellent point guards. When we can't get off a shot, we simply pass... away that is. Speaking of which, allow me to be your fearleader for tonight's half-time show. It's a putrid playlet about my personal favorite sport... being a mortician. I fittingly call it Fitting Punishment."
Ezra is a horrible person, using water instead of embalming fluid, reusing coffins and stealing gold teeth out of corpses. But the worst thing he does is beat Bobby into a lifetime limp by using a crowbar, as well as selling his Air Jordans to pay for medical bills. Sure, he told people Bobby fell down the steps, but will they believe it when he knocks him down the steps and buries his dead body in a coffin way too small, cutting his legs off to fit his body inside?
Total spoiler warning but I have never seen the reanimated legs of a dead man attack someone while wearing Jordans. What a wild episode.
"Fitting Punishment" is based on the story of the same title from Vault of Horror #16. It was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Graham Ingels. Like many EC stories, it's actually a ripoff of another one, in this case H. P. Lovecraft's "In the Vault." Unlike the comic book, this episode has an entirely black cast.
"There you are sportsfiends. You know dead people like me make excellent point guards. When we can't get off a shot, we simply pass... away that is. Speaking of which, allow me to be your fearleader for tonight's half-time show. It's a putrid playlet about my personal favorite sport... being a mortician. I fittingly call it Fitting Punishment."
Ezra is a horrible person, using water instead of embalming fluid, reusing coffins and stealing gold teeth out of corpses. But the worst thing he does is beat Bobby into a lifetime limp by using a crowbar, as well as selling his Air Jordans to pay for medical bills. Sure, he told people Bobby fell down the steps, but will they believe it when he knocks him down the steps and buries his dead body in a coffin way too small, cutting his legs off to fit his body inside?
Total spoiler warning but I have never seen the reanimated legs of a dead man attack someone while wearing Jordans. What a wild episode.
"Fitting Punishment" is based on the story of the same title from Vault of Horror #16. It was written by Al Feldstein and William Gaines and drawn by Graham Ingels. Like many EC stories, it's actually a ripoff of another one, in this case H. P. Lovecraft's "In the Vault." Unlike the comic book, this episode has an entirely black cast.
Standard but good.
shellytwade1 April 2022
One of Tales from the Crypt's Best and Brightest
patricio-5389817 July 2018
What makes Tales from the Crypt so fun is not the horror. Let's be honest, you can get better horror in a lot of other places. No, the bread and butter of Tales from the Crypt is its antagonists. People so awful, so ruthless, so irredeemably morally and ethically horrible, that when they finally get their comeuppance, the part of the human soul that yearns for justice rejoices. That's what always draws me back to the show. And Fitting Punishment has, for my money, the absolute most infuriatingly terrible antagonist of any episode. Moses Gunn's portrayal of the mercilessly greedy, stingy, uncaring, and vicious Ezra Thornberry, totally steals the show here, and makes for a climax that is dripping with delicious justice sauce. There are definitely episodes of Tales from Crypt that are scarier. There are ones that are funnier. There are ones that are more interesting. But if, like me, your favorite part of watching shows like this is watching awful people get what's coming to them in brutal, ironic, and often fitting ways, then this is the episode for you.
The scariest and most memorable episode yet
SleepTight6663 July 2009
I think that this is the scariest and most memorable episode yet. The mood it carried was very freaky and had that great payoff at the end. I wish that we would have gotten to see the Uncle suffer a little more, but what we got was still very satisfying.
The episode also had a dark humorous angle, the lines were clever and the Uncle was just one of those characters that you loved to hate.
The episode is about a young boy begging his uncle to be allowed to live with him since the death of his parents. The uncle is an embalmer and a very crappy one at that. He is selfish and only thinks about the money. He sees Bobby as a problem and ends up killing him. But payback is a bitch, as you all know.
The last couple of minutes were very suspenseful. I very much enjoyed the episode.
The episode also had a dark humorous angle, the lines were clever and the Uncle was just one of those characters that you loved to hate.
The episode is about a young boy begging his uncle to be allowed to live with him since the death of his parents. The uncle is an embalmer and a very crappy one at that. He is selfish and only thinks about the money. He sees Bobby as a problem and ends up killing him. But payback is a bitch, as you all know.
The last couple of minutes were very suspenseful. I very much enjoyed the episode.
Scary and haunting but very pleasing as well
bellino-angelo201414 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Having reviewed all of season 1 I had to go through season 2 and despite a few losers, it was still a great season. But apart from THE VENTRILOQUIST'S DUMMY, I think that I hadn't found an episode as great as this one.
Embalmer Ezra Thornberry (Moses Gunn) has his own way of work also when it comes to dispose of corpses. One day his nephew Bobby comes to visit him since his parents died in a car crash and he is forced to live with him. Ezra is quite a nasty jerk that treats him like dirt and doesn't want to be contradicted especially when Bobby argues with him about a casket made of cheap wood and also when they have to embalm a young boy that had a few last shivers. After this, Ezra beats him with a crowbar and Bobby is forced to use crutches. One night he comes upstairs and Ezra surprises him hitting him with his basketball, so that Bobby falls downstairs and dies. When he has to embalm him, he drains all his blood and since he is too tall for the cheap casket, he cuts both his feet with an electric saw. The night after the funeral Ezra has some surprises: he hears knocking on the door outside and finds the light in his room turned on. After he sees a basketball going down the stairs, he catches it but a shoe kicks him and he falls downstairs. Soon we see Bobby returning from the grave with crutches and while there are wind and lightning outside he says to Ezra ''Like it says in the Bible, blood is thicker than water'' and finally kills him.
I ended up loving this episode because the ending was unexpected but pleased me very much since Bobby had his final revenge against his scumbag uncle. What Bobby needed was affection and a place to sleep since he already lost his parents, and his uncle should have never treated him that way. And the final really kept me excited and with my hair raised for its atmosphere. Not to be missed for any fans of the show and especially if you love dark humour like me.
Embalmer Ezra Thornberry (Moses Gunn) has his own way of work also when it comes to dispose of corpses. One day his nephew Bobby comes to visit him since his parents died in a car crash and he is forced to live with him. Ezra is quite a nasty jerk that treats him like dirt and doesn't want to be contradicted especially when Bobby argues with him about a casket made of cheap wood and also when they have to embalm a young boy that had a few last shivers. After this, Ezra beats him with a crowbar and Bobby is forced to use crutches. One night he comes upstairs and Ezra surprises him hitting him with his basketball, so that Bobby falls downstairs and dies. When he has to embalm him, he drains all his blood and since he is too tall for the cheap casket, he cuts both his feet with an electric saw. The night after the funeral Ezra has some surprises: he hears knocking on the door outside and finds the light in his room turned on. After he sees a basketball going down the stairs, he catches it but a shoe kicks him and he falls downstairs. Soon we see Bobby returning from the grave with crutches and while there are wind and lightning outside he says to Ezra ''Like it says in the Bible, blood is thicker than water'' and finally kills him.
I ended up loving this episode because the ending was unexpected but pleased me very much since Bobby had his final revenge against his scumbag uncle. What Bobby needed was affection and a place to sleep since he already lost his parents, and his uncle should have never treated him that way. And the final really kept me excited and with my hair raised for its atmosphere. Not to be missed for any fans of the show and especially if you love dark humour like me.
Not sure why people like this one so much.
Dodge-Zombie8 August 2022
Definitely the scariest episode of the series
tampaaries13 August 2022
This episode terrified me as a kid but now as an adult and after seeing this episode on YouTube it's still a scary episode im just not as traumatized anymore. With this whole episode being in a funeral home made it even more scarier. The uncle was a cheap, mean dirty a-hole that got exactly what he deserved but the actor that played the uncle (Moses Gunn) was a great actor(may he rest in peace) and he made his character so believable. Another scary episode was Television Terror. These two episodes were the scariest episodes of Tales from the Crypt.
"Like it says in the Bible..."
Foreverisacastironmess12313 January 2012
A funeral home is such a great setting for a horror tale, and I really love how well they used the one in this and how you could subtly tell right away that there was something a little off-kilter about it, it's run by an abusive skinflint with a murderous streak. Well this is definitely one of the darkest ever episodes of the show, but it's not without a little dark humour, the warped Bible quotes of uncle Ezra are quite funny, as is a lot of his dialogue for such an evil-spirited man. The tale begins kind of light-hearted and gets progressively darker as it goes. I thought Moses Gunn was excellent and best thing about the episode as the cruel and money grubbing, then later in the story coldly murderous Ezra Thornberry, probably the foulest villain to ever grace the show. It's genuinely horrible when he injured his own orphaned nephew's back with the crowbar. It seriously makes me wince! Worse follows as Ezra later kills the poor unsuspecting Bobby with his own basketball by knocking him down a flight of stairs and then desecrates his corpse by first draining him of blood on the mortuary slab while humming to himself in a truly chilling way, and then by using an electric saw to remove Bobby's long legs because he won't fit into the cheap knock off coffin that started all the trouble. To me it's all a bit of an unbelievably horrific sequence! Ezra is such an unrepentantly nasty person that eventually everyone turns their backs on him, and then when he's quite alone in the hell that he's created for himself, his vengeful nephew comes-a-callin' from beyond the grave... I also liked Teddy Wilson as Clyde the gentle organ player who leaves in quiet disgust when he knows of Ezra's crime but cannot prove it. Jon Clair was also quite good and sympathetic as the unfortunate Bobby. The character goes from positive and a little naive, to bitter and angry at his abusive uncle. A most heartbreaking and suspenseful little scene is the one of Bobby's death, where the newly crippled boy slowly and painfully drags himself up the mortuary steps to his doom. The finale of the episode is one that always stuck in my mind and is one of my absolute favourites, the way it's put together with the brilliant driving score, the rising atmospheric fear amid the incredible sound mix, the timing, the colour scheme, all of the magic put together...it blew me away, took me right back to exactly where they wanted the show to be, like I was watching a loving live-action homage to the EC Comics of the 50s. It's quite amazing how perfectly and classically creepy that ending really is, it's my favourite one, and this is most definitely one of my favourite ever episodes, I think it's fantastically put together with a sadistic villain you can't wait to see get his very just desserts and a pitch and picture-perfect ghoulish ending, absolute series classic. Rip! X
Fitting Punishment
a_baron28 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Oh boy, who dreamed this one up? When a teenager is orphaned he turns up at his uncle's business with his legal papers in order telling him he is his only living relative. Uncle Ezra just happens to be the local undertaker, and both moneywise and temperamentally he is the meanest man the poor waif has ever met.
He is set to work in draining and embalming bodies, but when there is an expensive mix up and the wrong coffin is ordered, Ezra Thornberry loses his rag and beats his charge with an iron bar. Unfortunately, he hits him too hard in the wrong place, and leaves him crippled for life.
A man who is too mean to look after his own kin properly will surely have no use for a cripple, so Ezra murders him. If you don't hate Ezra Thornberry already, you've turned the other cheek once too often, but more than likely you'll agree he deserves everything that is coming to him.
He is set to work in draining and embalming bodies, but when there is an expensive mix up and the wrong coffin is ordered, Ezra Thornberry loses his rag and beats his charge with an iron bar. Unfortunately, he hits him too hard in the wrong place, and leaves him crippled for life.
A man who is too mean to look after his own kin properly will surely have no use for a cripple, so Ezra murders him. If you don't hate Ezra Thornberry already, you've turned the other cheek once too often, but more than likely you'll agree he deserves everything that is coming to him.
"The human body is one big cesspool, food flows in & sh*t flows out." Not the best tale from the crypt.
poolandrews17 March 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Tales from the Crypt: Fitting Punishment starts as teenager Bobby Thornberry (Jon Clair) turns up at his Uncle Ezra's (Moses Gunn) funeral home after both his parents were killed in a car accident, his Uncle reluctantly agrees to give him a bed as long as he works for it. Ezra is a mean spirited penny pinching thief who treats Bobby like dirt, when Bobby orders the wrong coffin Ezra beats him with a crowbar & cripples him for life which means he can't work & pay his way. Ezra decides that the coffin Bobby ordered shouldn't go to waste...
This Tale from the Crypt story was episode 12 from season 2, directed by Jack Sholder I thought Fitting Punishment was average at best. The script by Jonathan David Kahn, Michael Alan Kahn & Don Mancini was based on a comic book story taken from 'The Vault of Horror' & I didn't think that much of it, the basic premise of a horrible character getting his comeuppance isn't exactly new or groundbreaking but some fun can be had with this particular morality tale if done properly, unfortunately Fitting Punishment is rather dour. It plods along in a somewhat predictable fashion, there's not much happening for the first 20 odd minutes except the setting up of the mean Ezra & his good natured nephew & even the twist at the end seems routine & predictable without any reason given for it. It's an OK episode but not one that could be considered a classic.
The production values are very good & it's well made but there's very little horror until the last 5 minutes, it's not scary & the stories big climax comes across as being rather silly as two zombie severed feet walk down a flight of stairs on their own. There's not much gore here, there's an embalming scene, some blood splatter & some severed feet along with their previous owner who now has a couple of bloody stumps. It's all rather lacklustre & a bit dull. The acting was alright.
Fitting Punishment is average Tales from the Crypt, I know everyone will have their own opinions on what makes this sort of thing effective & in my opinion this isn't it. There are better tales from the crypt out there.
This Tale from the Crypt story was episode 12 from season 2, directed by Jack Sholder I thought Fitting Punishment was average at best. The script by Jonathan David Kahn, Michael Alan Kahn & Don Mancini was based on a comic book story taken from 'The Vault of Horror' & I didn't think that much of it, the basic premise of a horrible character getting his comeuppance isn't exactly new or groundbreaking but some fun can be had with this particular morality tale if done properly, unfortunately Fitting Punishment is rather dour. It plods along in a somewhat predictable fashion, there's not much happening for the first 20 odd minutes except the setting up of the mean Ezra & his good natured nephew & even the twist at the end seems routine & predictable without any reason given for it. It's an OK episode but not one that could be considered a classic.
The production values are very good & it's well made but there's very little horror until the last 5 minutes, it's not scary & the stories big climax comes across as being rather silly as two zombie severed feet walk down a flight of stairs on their own. There's not much gore here, there's an embalming scene, some blood splatter & some severed feet along with their previous owner who now has a couple of bloody stumps. It's all rather lacklustre & a bit dull. The acting was alright.
Fitting Punishment is average Tales from the Crypt, I know everyone will have their own opinions on what makes this sort of thing effective & in my opinion this isn't it. There are better tales from the crypt out there.
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